Urban TANNER, Part 13:
In my Urban Tanner #12, I expressed my belief that Urban Tanner (aka Robert Tanner in Virginia) came from Switzerland. Certainly Switzerland, in particular Canton Schaffhausen, has several Urban Tanners, though they are not quite correct with respect to the age of our Urban Tanner. I gave some information here on those Urban Tanners. I wrote to Switzerland and my letter was answered by Dr. Roland E. Hofer, Staatsarchivar of the Canton of Schaffhausen.
He reports that the family name “Tanner” is fairly common in the German speaking part of Switzerland. The best way of tracking individuals is through the church records if they exist. In the Canton of Schaffhausen, there are four villages where the family name “Tanner” can be found prior to 1800: Bargen, Beringen, Oberhallau, and Siblingen. The church records of Bargen date back only to 1727. The church records of Beringen, Oberhallau, and Siblingen do not mention a child of the name of Urban Tanner born between 1673 and 1680. This time period is important because Urban Tanner, when he arrived in England in 1709, said he was 33 years old, so he was born about 1676. The village of the Urban Tanners that I aware of was Oberhallau. Dr. Hofer suggests that I might want to ask at other State (Canton) Archives.
Of course, this is all a disappointment to me. There are two main avenues of research that are open right now. First, I might search in other Cantons, as Schaffhausen was not the only Canton to send emigrants to Germany.
a Second, I might return to the earlier thought that Ergersheim in Bavaria might be the parish that I ought to be searching. I abandoned that line when the response from Bavaria was minimal. Also, I was influenced by the suggestion that Argersheim was the old name for Oggersheim though that did not seem to be born out by my research in Oggersheim. Ergersheim suggests that Urban Tanner’s family might have been emigrants from Austria since so many people from Austria emigrated to Bavaria, especially to Mittelfranken. Certainly the name Urban Tanner is known in Austria in the Seventeenth Century. The name is found in the LDS family history search center.
This is where I stand now (October 2007) with a perplexed look on my face.
(16 Oct 2007)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.