GatheringGardiners: Hans Caspar Sidler 1772

Caspar Sidler's parents were Hans Rudolf Sidler and Elisabetha Sidler. He was the fourth child of 15 children. Caspar married Elisabetha Hegetschweiler in 1799. That made his mother's name and his wife's name the same. Elisabetha gave birth to a still born child on 24 September 1800. Two days later his wife Elisabetha Hegetschweiler died at age 23.

Caspar and his second wife, Margaretha Berli, had four children: Elisabetha in 1803, Johannes 1807 and Kaspar 1809. Caspar's daughter Elisabetha died at age 9. Caspar's son Johannes lived to be 80 years old and his last son, Kaspar, lived 8 days. Caspar himself lived 39 years, 5 months 9 days according to his death record.

We often see that from the age 20 years on, when marriage was allowed by the church, the parents had at least one child every year, often stillborn. The rule for naming was that the godparents gave their first name to the child. For example if a child named Jakob died, they continued the name until one survived the first years. From this Julius Billeter, Swiss genealogists, concluded that a child died young and noted a "dy" by their name. On average these big farmer families had about two boys and two girls that made it to adulthood and most of them got married. (Peter Bertschinger, FamilySearch)

Caspar died 18 July 1811. Fourteen months later, when Caspar's brother Johannes was 35 years old Johannes had a child out of wedlock with Caspar's widow, Margaretha Berli. He fathered Hans Jakob Sidler on 14 September 1812. (Temple Record Sidler and Hegetschweiler, by Julius Billeter, page 74 and Zurich Archives Family Record E III 88.19, S. 434 and E III 88.19 S. 550.)

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