The Coat of Arms of the Entlebuch Erny family (Switzerland)

The ERNY families, found today in the Guebwiller arrondissement, have their origins in Switzerland.

Found today principally in Buhl, Soultz and Lautenbach-Zell, they were very spread out before the French Revolution.

Contrary to what is said in the Etymological Dictionary of French Family Names, it is wrong to search for the origin of this name in the locality of the Pas-de-Calais department village of Erny, at least for the Alsace branch.

The former root-word "Ern" means "the harvest", which is why the ERNY families of Entlebuch in Switzerland adopted ears of wheat in their coat of arms.

Actually, all Swiss books on the subject are in agreement that ERNY is an ancient form of the first-name Arnold.

Several Swiss Cantons were populated by families bearing the name ERNY, ERNI and AERNI. The "Repertory of Swiss Family Names" shows dozens of branches in many different places.

The "Historical and Biographical Dictionary of Switzerland" mentions the branches in the Basel, Grisons, Lucerne, Thurgovia and Zürich Cantons.

As far as the Canton of Zürich is concerned, the Dictionary describes the coat of arms of the Erni families dating from 1420 as being "on silver, a rose branch, a green leaf, with three golden button-roses issuing from three green sections".

We should note that the branch of the family from Trins, in the Grisons Canton, was the subject of a publication which appeared in Coire in 1950.

A remarkable work on the family names in the Canton of Lucerne, and more particularly in the area named Entlebuch, has just been published.

Entlebuch was at the heart of a strong migratory trend to Upper Alsace. Apart from the name of Entlebuch, other localities are mentioned whose names ring out in the ears of the genealogist, such as Escholzmatt, Romoos, Schüpfheim, Marbach, Doppleschwand ...

In this book we can find an "Ärnihof", from Werthenstein and mentioned regularly from 1697. THere is also an "Ärnihüsli" at Schüpfheim and a "Ärniwald" at Entlebuch.

From the end of the Swedish War or Thirty Years War (ended in 1648) a massive arrival of Swiss people was noticed in the Parish Registers of the Haut-Rhin Department. Among these families were numerous ERNYs, coming from both Catholic and Protestant Swiss Cantons.

At Buhl, the Vicar mentioned in 1700 the baptism of Jean Adam ERNI, originally from Bienne in Switzerland who had converted to Catholicism at Murbach.

At Eguisheim, Jean ERNY, coming from the Canton of Berne, who married in 1672 a SPENGLER. Ours ERNI, whose firstname was typical of Solothurn, was buried at Ruelisheim in 1680.

The hospital at Colmar sheltered Jean ERNI, a servant from Aargau, who died at the age of 32 in 1742.

At Blodelsheim, the village historian, Emile Decker, mentions the marriage of Adam ERNI, a Swiss, with a SIFFERT in 1691. The couple settled there and had several children.

In Sundgau, the ERNIs were in Hecken, Balschwiller having left Galfingue, Soppe-le-Haut, Carsbach, Bartenheim. They were to be found also in Leyman, where, originally from Aargau, Fridolin ERNI settled in 1693.

Many came from Lucerne, as did Etienne ERNY, who set up as a miller in Hindlingen and is mentioned in the cesus of 1698. He had married a BOCHLER from Ligsdorf in 1679.

In this same document of 1698, we find a Michel ERNY, living at Aspach-le-Bas, and owner of a horse and two oxen. But it is clear that some were there from before the Thirty Years War: Benoit ERNI, who became betrothed in 1630 at Herrlisheim, and Jean HERNY, a peasant from Luemschwiller, who died of the plague in Basel in 1610.

Born in August 1789 at Heimsbrunn, Conrad ERNY was ordained into the priesthood at the Strasbourg Seminary in 1814. As Canon of Thann he made a large legacy to the town's hospital. A practiced orator, he was also a poet. However, it would appear that his manuscripts did not survive him (reference the New Dictionary of Alsatian Biography and Annual of the Sundgau Historical Society 1956).

Son of Conrad ERNY the shepherd of Heimsbrunn and of Marie Anne MEYER, Conrad ERNY had a brother, Vincent, who married Odile HERZOG in 1812. The grandfather of the poet, Jean ERNY, was born at Reguisheim in 1723 and he married a WAGNER at Heimsbrunn in 1754.

Apart from this Jean, we know of four other children born at Reguisheim of the marriage of Conrad EHRNY and Elisabeth GERINGER. At today's date we know nothing of the origins of this branch. We note however that a Louis ERNI, son of a Conrad, married a BASCHUNG at Oderen in 1749.

Joseph ERNY married Anne Marie BERGER at the church of Saint Maurice in Soultz in April 1752. Their children were baptised in the same church.

The Vicar noted, at that time, that Joseph was the son of Nicolas ERNY, "olim civis in Minster in dem Gregorithal modo habitans zu Heilig Creütz," which can be translated as "formerly citizen of Munster in the valley of St Gregory and now living at Sainte Croix (Holy Cross)".

We have found in the records of the little Catholic community living beside the abbey at Munster, the certificate of baptism in 1725 of Joseph ERNY. But for the name of the father was written Nicolas ERNST. Could he have been the same person?

The baptism certificate of Joseph's brother, Jean, in 1722 at Munster bears the name spelled ERND, proof if needed of the Vicar's lack of concentration.

Gaspard ERNY died in 1769 and was buried in the cemetery at Rimbach-Zell. He lived at the old glassworks (Alten Glasshütte) whose kilns had ceased operation n the first half of the 18th century.

His marriage to Anne Marie GLOTZ, at Soultz in 1740, provided several children, including a son who died as a young man at Guebwiller. A daughter, Anne Marie ERNY, married Joseph EMMENECKER who lived in the vale of Dieffenbach.

Gaspar ERNY had a brother, Isaac, who also lived at Dieffenbach. These are surely the sons of Isaac ERNY, originally from the Canton of Lucerne, who died at Soultz in 1740.

The big ERNY family of Lautenbach had its origins in Schötz, a village near Lucerne where the ERNI family is present today.

The ancestor of this line was Oswald, who came to Lautenbach at the end of January 1666 and married a woman of the BENTZ family. This family is now well known thanks to the research done in the work of the former notary (ref. the BERGHA bulletin of the CDHF).

Soon this knowledge will be refined, thanks to the computerisation of the old records by Antoine Jenny, as part of the Department's programme.

Among the numerous descendants of Oswald, we should mention Mathieu ERNY, husband of Anne Marie KLEIN, who in 1744 was a soldier in the regiment of Swiss Guards under the orders of Captain DE TRAVERS and participated in the Flanders campaign.

We should also mention Christian ERNY who lived in the hamlet of Hoeffen at the same time, where he owned a house with a stable and vegetable garden near the Lauch. His livestock consisted of a cow, a heiffer, four goats and two pigs.

In the same hamlet lived Barthélemy ERNY ( d. ca. 1733), his wife Gertrude FLORY and their children.

From Lautenbach-Zell, one branch settled in Belchental. This was Joseph ERNY, a weaver born in 1791, who married Christine MARTIN, who came from an old-established family in Murbach.

Another Christian ERNY became famous in 1763 when he was a marker at Belchental. Assisted by his son and his lumberjacks he captured the fugitive Louis Koenig.

He had escaped in the night of March 9th to 10th 1762 from the prison at Bollwiller Castle by breaking down the door. Once recaptured, he was hanged.

On the old road from Schweighouse to Lautenbach, in the canton called Viehstrich, is to be found embedded in a wall, a sandstone cross dating from 1838 and bearing the inscription "Franz Joseph ERNI Lautenbach-Zell 1838". This without doubt commemorates the death of François Joseph, nailmaker and then lumberjack, at the age of 61.

His wife, Marie Ann MARCK who came from Linthal, had died scarcely twenty days beforehand. Born in 1776 at Sengern, François Joseph (Franz Joseph) was the son of Nicolas ERNY, citizen, and Marie Anne LATSCHA (ref. research by Alain Eckes).

The cross at Lautenbach-Zell dated 1838

Like most families of the department, the ERNYs could count in their ranks candidates for emigration.

Thus, Xavier ERNY, weaver, left Florival in 1891 for America. Born in Guebwiller in 1864, he was the son of Xavier ERNY, a blademaker from Buhl and his wife Marie Anne DORNSTETTER.

His cousin, Bernard ERNY was born in Guebwiller this same year of 1864, son of Bernard ERNY, carpenter, and his wife Marie Anne FIMBEL.

Our emigrant's grandfather was Michel ERNY. A weaver by profession, he lived at Linthal where he had married Thérèse KLIPSTIHL. Did Xavier found a family at the other side of the Atlantic?