GENEAL-FORUM

Hello,

I'm William Wiss from Lelystad, The Netherlands. I'm a descendant of Ursus Josephus Wiss from Olten SO, baptisted on 06-12-1769 at St. Martin's, Olten SO, son of Joanis Wiss (died Olten SO 16-09-1789) and Elisabeth Studer (died Olten SO 04-11-1798).

From the available record it appears his profession was maker of stockings ("kousenmaker" in dutch).

He was first married to Elisabeth Burcarp, who died on 02 (or22)-01-1813, secondly to Regina Hohler, who died on 10-12-1815.

Either in 1813 or 1814 Ursus Josephus Wiss ended up in The Netherlands (a small village called Austerlitz, now part of Zeist) and married a third time on 04-12-1824 with Gertrude Marie Louise Gravelle des Vallees (born in 1790, died Zeist 14-12-1850).

Ursus Josephus Wiss died in Zeist on 16-01-1850.

I have no knowledge of children from the first and second marriage, but from the last five children were born:

1. Carel Peter Joseph (born 16-05-1820, died 27-12-1879)
2. Maria Louise (born 07-09-1822, died 19-12-1879)
3. Ursus Josephus (born 23-12-1824, died 08-11-1874), my ancestor
4. Ursus Victor (born 14-08-1827, died 02-03-1919)
5. Ursus Petrus (born 14-10-1829, died 08-01-1909)

In all documentation the the family name is given as "Wiss", not "Wyss".

I'm interested in tracking the family pedigree further back in time and am wondering what the best way would be in doing so?

Best regards,

William

Hi William,

first we have to assume that the spelling (Wiss or Wyss) before the 1870ies was not fixed - so you may have to look for both spellings (as official spellings today) now.

There is only a single line WISS today - citizens of Wangen bei Olten (since before 1800): so this may be the first place to start.

If your ancestor was from Olten, the spelling today would be WYSS - which is quite common in Solothurn - with citizenships before 1800 in
- Balm bei Günsberg
- Balm bei Messen
- Bettlach
- Boningen
- Büren
- Dulliken
- Fulenbach
- Günsberg
- Hägendorf
- Härkingen
- Hessigkofen
- Hubersdorf
- Kappel
- Kestenholz
- Luterbach
- Messen
- Nennigkofen
- Nuglar-St.Pantaleon
- Oberdorf
- Riedholz
- Seewen
- Wangen bei Olten
- Wolfwil
The citizenship of WYSS from Olten was gained as late as 1886, however!

Thank you, Wolf!

On every document I've seen (oldest was from 1813), the name is invariably spelled as Wiss, but errors were of course made in that time even more often than today

As one of my ancestor's previous marriages was with a lady from Wangen it would seem logical if he originated from there as well I suppose. What would be the best next step from here?

Best regards,

William Wiss

Original von Nederwiss
..., but errors were of course made in that time even more often than today

I would not actually call spelling differences errors: spelling was just not fixed then, as it is today!

Original von Nederwiss
As one of my ancestor's previous marriages was with a lady from Wangen it would seem logical if he originated from there as well I suppose.

That is a clue (again to Wangen) - and as long as there are no clues to other places, this is where I would start. Solothurn is not my area of expertise, however, so I can only give the rather general advice to check the church records: microfilms are available from the Mormon Family History Centres.

I found the record of his christening in the "Kirchbuch" of Olten.

That's brilliant!! Thank you!

I take it that the names in the right hand column are the names of the Godparents?

Best wishes,

William Wiss

Yes, you are right.
I dried to find also the record of the mariage of his parents, but couldn't find it in Olten.