BIOGRAPHY: "THE RUDISILL GENEALOGY" by: Edward L. RUDISILL p7-8 states: "According to the parish records at the SAX EVANGELICAL Reformed Church, Hans RUDISULI was the son of Thomman RUDISULI and Anna TORKLER(IN). His sponsors were Hans RUDISULI (probably an uncle) and Ursula WOLWERDIN. "He md. 1) Anna LIEBOLD 30 Jan 1665-1666 in Michelfeld, Germany (b: abt. 1647 in Michelfeld, Germany, d: Abt. 1687 Michelfeld, Germany. Christened Abt. 1647 in Michelfeld, Germany. Anna LIEBELD was the daughter of Wendel LIEBELD and Apollinia; md. 2) Anna Katharine KLEES 06 Mar 1688 in Michelfeld, Germany (b: Abt. 1650 in Michelfeld, Germany d: 02 Nov 1710 in Michelfeld, Germany--no issue." "It is unlikely that tombstones exist for Hans and his family, as it is the custom in Switzerland and Germany to clear out the older graves to make room for the current generations. Hans left Frumsen and emigrated with two brothers and two sisters to Germany in 1651. The most reasonable assumption for their departure from Switzerland is the general lack of food supply in the area at the time. Many people did leave about that time because of religious persecution. This does not seem likely here, as this family was affiliated with the EVANGELICAL REFORMED CHURCH in Sax, which was the acceptable religion for this area. What is known is that a number of this family did leave the Frumsen area and emigrated to Germany, Italy and elsewhere in Switzerland, as some of the early census records listed those who had departed and their destination. The choice of Germany as their destination may have been motivated by the knowledge of a severe manpower shortage which existed after the exhausting THIRTY YEARS WAR. "In the case of our Hans RUDISULI, Pastor FREYTAG of the EVANGELICAL Church listed, in 1657: "Tomman RUDISUHLI children serving in Swabia, going to the Brunnsbach Church, moved there 24 Nov 1651: Andreas 24 Matheus 22 Thrina 19 Ursel 18 Hanss 14" "The ages of the childre n above agrees with the baptismal records of the children of Thomman and Anna TORKLERIN RUDISULI. Later Swiss census records indicated that this group initially settled in Wurttenberg, Germany. "The first record of Hans RUDISULI in Germany was that of a church communion record at Hillsbach, Germany, which recorded his age of 16 years. Hans later settled in Michelfeld, Germany, which is a small town near Heidelberg. It is doubted if any of the siblings from Wurttenberg came with him, as the Michelfeld church records show only those of Hans. Work done by Pastor Frederick WEISER of New Oxford, PA suggest that Hans may have settled first in Angeloch (now Waldangeloch), a few km to the south of Michelfeld. Hans was listed in Michelfeld as a citizen and judge. "The spelling of the surname of his children varies from RUDISILE to RIEDISIELE to RUDISUHLE in the church records at Michelfeld in an apparent attempt to "Germanize" the Swiss name, just as we have done in America. The most common spelling of the surname in Switzerland today is "RUDISUHLE". For purposes of consistency and reference to the early Michelfeld church records, this genealogy will spell the surname of our ancestors who were born in Germany as "RUDISILE". "THE RUDISILL GENEALOGY by Edward L. RUDISILL: "We are fairly sure that the name originated from "Rudi's Ulrich", where Ulrich may have been a resident of the village of Ruthi, located about 6 kilometers from Frumsen, or he may have been related to a Rudi (Rudy or Rudolph) as a member of his family or employed in some other capacity. We have no knowledge of when the name originated, as the existing records as we now know them start in the early seventeenth century. However, since there were quite a good number of people having derivatives of this name when our records began, it is possible that the name had been in use for several centuries. The spelling of the name is almost always "Rudis-Uli" in the early 17th century and later simplified to "RUDISULI". "The first families so named apparently came from the village of Frumsen, located along the Rhine River as it flows north and within eyeshot of the principality of Lichtenstein and its capital, Vaduz. Today, all the principal groups of this family can be shown to have their roots in this town. Frumsen is part of the church parish of Sax, a nearby town, and within the Kanton St. Gallen. Sax and Frumsen were in Kanton Zurich in the 1600's because the rullers of Zurich took over the little principality of Sax-Forstegg from 1615 until 1798. "In order to clarify the ancestry of Hans, the records of Frumsen were examined. The oldest surviving Sax EVANGELICAL REFORMED CHURCH register there was begun by a new pastor, Hans Jacob Freytag, who began his ministry on 5 Dec 1638. He calls it clearly as a "new" register, so that there was an earlier, and presumably lost record. "In addition, there are census lists of the population which survive from 1635, 1637, 1640, 1643, 1646, 1650, 1671, 1678 and later. There is also a set of lists of persons who left the parish, written in 1657, which is of direct pertinence to our inquiry. "From these documents, it becomes clear that Hans RUDISULI, who later migrated to Germany and finally settled in the town of Michelfeld, whence his grandsons and great-grandsons came to Pennsylvania, was baptized as an infant at Frumsen on 20 Apr 1643, the son of Thomman and Anna Torgklerin RUDISULI. In the census records for several years we may gain insight in the growing size of this family, and if we wished, into the other families living in this village which had 329 souts in 1678." NOTE: See Thomman RUDISULI for Census Records. !SOURCES: THE RUDISILL GENEALOGY by: Edward L. RUDISILL EVANGELICAL REFORMED CHURCH in Sax, Switzerland LDS Ancestral File #AFN:K42W-70 & AFN:K42W-85; AFN:MRHZ-N7; AFN:MRJO-OV
