♂Michael Schenk

Michael Schenk (christened 22 June 1590) was a man of Eggiwil, in the canton of Bern, Switzerland, who married Anna Stauffer at Signau on 15 October 1619 and in 1671, at the age of eighty-one, is said to have gone into exile with the Anabaptists^W expelled from the Emmental. He was the eighth great-grandfather of Ora Emogene Walrath (1925–2014) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Michael Schenk (born 1639).

Eggiwil

He was christened at Signau on 22 June 1590, the son of Ulrich Schenk and Anni Rytz. His parents probably lived at Eggiwil, which then belonged to the parish of Signau. He married Anna Stauffer at Signau on 15 October 1619, when he was twenty-nine and she was seventeen; the register writes them Michel Schenck and Anna Stouffer. The couple made their home at Hinten, in Eggiwil, where their children are said to have been born. They probably had fourteen children; seven are known by name, from Ulrich, born about 1622, to Johannes, born about 1642.

Exile

At least three of the youngest, Michael, Barbara and Johannes, became Anabaptists. According to a family history, in October 1671, at the age of eighty-one, he was among the Anabaptists expelled from Eggiwil and the neighbouring villages of the Emmental, while his wife stayed behind in Switzerland. By 1 January 1672 he was living at Ibersheim, in the Palatinate^W, with only one of his sons, Michael, who had come with his wife and four children and who is called “his obedient son” in the account of that stay. His daughter Barbara and her husband had gone into exile with him, but returned to Eggiwil within a year, and Johannes appears never to have left Switzerland.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Michael Schenk (born 1639) and Michael’s son Christian Shank (died before April 1737), who was probably the Christen christened at Eggiwil in 1662. They continue through Christian’s eldest son, Michael Shank (died 1759), and his son Michael Shank (died before 10 February 1777), whose daughter Magdalena Shank (1752–1837) married Peter Gingerich (1749–1829). Their daughter Cattarina Gingerich (1793–1861) was the wife of John Kunz (1786–1865), and the lines divide between Cattarina’s sons Samuel Kunz (1825–1904) and Jacob John Kunz (1814–1866). They meet again when Samuel’s son Thomas Koons (1855–1938) married Jacob’s daughter Magdalena M. Koons (1852–1923) on 24 December 1876 in Henry County, Indiana. Their daughter Mary Magdalene Koons (1885–1977) was the mother of Ora Emogene Walrath.

Notes

What rests on the register

Two events of his life rest on the Signau register itself: his christening on 22 June 1590, where his parents are written Ulj Schenck and Anni Rÿtz, and his marriage to Anna Stauffer on 15 October 1619. His parents’ home at Eggiwil, his own at Hinten, the children, the exile and the stay at Ibersheim come from Richard W. Davis, “Four Generations of the Descendants of Michael Schenk and Anna Stauffer”, Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage (January 1994). Davis takes the exile from refugee lists in the Mennonite archives at Amsterdam. The list of 1 January 1672 gives his age as eighty-one, which agrees with the christening of 1590, and credits him with fourteen children; Davis identifies seven of them. Davis gives his mother’s name as Annali Rytz.

His son Michael

That the Michael Schenk born in 1639 was his son rests on Davis and on the refugee list of 1672, which places the younger Michael with him at Ibersheim. No christening is on record for the younger Michael: the Signau christening register breaks off between 1618 and 1650, and Eggiwil’s own register begins in 1648.

Two Anna Stauffers

His son Michael also married a woman named Anna Stauffer, at Eggiwil on 21 September 1660; that couple have their own pages.

Death

When and where he died is not known.