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| Julius Billeter, Genealogists |
In January 1921, mother took bronchial pneumonia. One day, she said to me, "Emma, do you know the greatest regret I have?' I said, "No, mother." She said, "It is because I haven't done the temple work for my dead." I said, "Mother, I don't know anything about temple work, and I am married out of the church and have a foot in the grave. But, If you will help me, I will see what I can do."
The last week in January we took her in an ambulance to a small sanitarium on west 7th Street (Los Angeles) and hired a special nurse for her. Her death was a great loss to me and I felt very lonely. I continued to feel more lonely as time went on.
Mother told me to give all her things and money she had in the bank to Audrey. But I used all the money she had left later to secure the names of 4,000 of her dead ancestors, which Julius Billeter got for $225 in 1922. Then I sent the record and $422.77 to Emuel to hire the work done in the temple. Emuel was an ordinance worker in Salt lake Temple from 1921 until about June 1932. He knew Julius Billiter.
Maggie had been recording dates in mother's temple record, which I got in 1922 from Switzerland. She told me to take it home and keep it from then on. I put it in the trunk, but was thankful no jelly got on it.
1932 I visited my brother William Stone and his wife Ida, whom I met for the first time. She is a lovely soul. I found my brother had become active in the Church and had been to the Temple. They gave me a large donation since then have donated more than all the rest of the family combined. I have it all recorded in the record I then secured. I got the $179 and went to Salt Lake Temple one evening with it. I told the recorder Orson Riga Card I had it for Julius Billeter. He knew him and he phoned for him to come to the Temple. I met him and gave him the money and soon after that I received the record.
Emuel (Emma's half brother) died 12 September 1932. A week before Conference I got a letter from Julius Billiter saying he had my brother's mother's record four lines, Sutter, Mueller, Siegrist and Stoeckli and my father's mother's record, also Aerny line. He told me to pay his son Julius in Salt Lake for the record. It was $179.
1935 I received the Hug record from Switzerland and was busy working on it. Karolina Kleiner had paid for it, but she wished it to be sent to me. Brother Julius Billeter had secured it. It cost 40 cents postage to send it. It was my mother's record.
I asked Joseph to come and bring me to Ogden so I could get the family to donate money for the record. I visited my brother William Stone and his wife Ida, whom I met for the first time. She is a lovely soul. I found my brother had become active in the Church and had been to the Temple. They gave me a large donation since then have donated more than all the rest of the family combined. I have it all recorded in the record I then secured. I got the $179 and went to Salt Lake Temple one evening with it. I told the recorder Orson Riga Card I had it for Julius Billeter. He knew him and he phoned for him to come to the Temple. I met him and gave him the money and soon after that I received the record.
I met Jakob's sister, Mary Frei Reuber, of Santa Clara, and she did my grandmother, Elizabeth Aerni's work in St. George temple when she was only 15 years old. They were glad I had the Aerny record.
I did not keep a record of work I did in Temples prior to 1938, St George 1936-37 etc.
In 1939 I received the Hochuli record of 1800 names from Julius Billeter in Switzerland. It cost $115.50.
Awards: March 28th, 1940, I received Service Awards from the Genealogical Society signed by President Joseph Fielding Smith for record keeping, Genealogical Research, Temple Activity and Home Teaching. I received my first Award 30 April 1934 for completing lesson course "Our Lineage," signed by Anthony W. Ivins, president Genealogical Society.
In November 1947 Julius Billeter sent the Burger record of 1200 names from Switzerland to Farmington. I sent his son Julius in Salt Lake $100 December 6, 1947 to pay for the record.
1951 In August I brought up all the temple records and wrote 300 sheets for temple work. They were names that had no death dates and could not be done until 100 years form birth date.
Kent: Emma and many relatives paid for Julius Billeter to extract thousands of names for temple work. The results are 6 bound books of names and temple ordinances which Emma kept in great detail.
Originally Emma owned the books and kept them up, somehow they fell into the hands of Jay Bachman. I met Jay in Bountiful in the early 1980s and briefly saw the books. Jay thought the work wasn’t done and did all the work over again, which is shown by check marks in the books. Jay then gave them to Danel Bachman who has them today, 2019. Julius Billeter researched 1200 families and extracted 2 million names in about 60 years. He lived humbly and is one amazing man.
Who did the Temple Work? According to Emma some of it was "hired" by Emuel Bachman who was Emma's half brother. After looking at the Temple Index Bureau files it appears beginning in 1922 Joseph Bachman, Emma's oldest brother, did almost all of the Sidler names which are many.
Description of each of the six books:
BACHMAN FAMILY RECORD, Title page: The Bachmann Family of Bottenwil, Aargau, Switzerland, hard bound typed book includes 1,737 names on 229 pages including family relationships, birth, marriages and deaths. It spans from 1550 to 1880 mainly in Bottenwil AG. . Kept and annotated by Emma Bachman Scholl. It is unknown who paid for this book and when the family received it. There are no dates of temple work. Compiled by Julius Billeter January 1917.
TEMPLE RECORD SIDLER AND HEGETSCHWEILER, Title page: The Sidler, Hegetschweiler of Ottenbach & surroundings, Zurich, Switzerland hardbound typed book contains 3,333 names on 228 pages. It includes family relationships, births, marriages, deaths and some professions typed with colored lines and headings. It spans from 1545 to 1846 mainly in Ottenbach AG. Compiled by Julius Billeter 1922. Kept and annotated by Emma Bachman Scholl with temple work dates. Julius Billeter, Genealogists. June 1922
HUG FAMILY RECORD, Title page: HUG of Affoltern/A Mettmenstetten and Ottenbach, Canzon Zürich, Switzerland. Hardbound typed book contains 58 pages with 850 people. It includes family relationships, births, marriages, deaths and some professions typed with colored lines and headings. It spans 1560 to 1921. Most likely completed by Julius Billeter 1927 because that is when Emma begins recording the temple work in 1927.
SUTER, STOECKLI, MULLER, SIEGRIST FAMILIES of Bozberg, AG, Aerny Family of Attelwil parish of Reitnau, AG, Switzerland, Title Page: same as cover. Hardbound typed book has 195 pages which includes 2,705 names. It includes family relationships, births, marriages, deaths and some professions typed with colored lines and headings. It spans 1681 to 1912. The book includes a list of "Contributions from October 1932 to September 1935." Julius Billeter, Genealoge, St. Gallen, completed October 1932.
HOCHULI BOLLIGER FAMILY RECORD Title page: HOCHULI FAMILY of Reitnau KT. Aargau Switzerland, BOLLINGER FAMILY of Reitnau KT. Aargau Switzerland. Hardbound typed book contains 1553 names on 118 pages. It spans 1550 to 1942. It includes family relationships, births, marriages, deaths and some professions typed with colored lines and headings. Julius Billeter, Genealoge, completed July 1939
BURGER FAMILY RECORD, Title page: BURGER FAMILY of Burg parish Reinach Kt. Aargau, Switzerland. Hardbound typed book contains 1069 names on 82 pages. It spans 1550 to 1942. It includes family relationships, births, marriages, deaths and some professions typed with colored lines and headings. Julius Billeter. Genealoge Completed Dec. 1947
Who paid Julius Billeter for his work?
Joseph Bachman Oct 1932 $13
Emma's oldest brother
John Bachman Oct 1932 $30
Emma's brother just older than her
Ida G Stone and
Anna H daughter / first marriage
W.H. Stone Oct 1932 - Oct 1934 $400 and 1952 - $201.50
Anna H son / first marriage
Comfort Bock $25
Joseph Bachman's daughter, Emma's niece
Orodine Bachman Oct 1932 - 1934 $216
Emma's sister in law married to Emuel
Bertha Stallings Oct 1932 $12.00
Emma's half sister
Hazel Boyle Oct 1932 $30
Emma's sister Verena's daughter, Hazel Hill Boyle
Henry Hill $5
Husband of Verena Bachman, Emma's half sister
Elizabeth Fagg $5
Emma's sister, Elizabeth Bachman Fagg
Blaine $21 and $83 and $53 and $36 and $147 and $1 and $11
Joseph Bachman's son
Luella Frorer $20
Emma's sister Bertha granddaughter?
Rosella Larkin $56
Emma's half sister Rosilla's daughter
Emma Scholl 1922 $647 and 1938 - 1939 21.64.
herself
J.R. Bachman $11
Emma's brother, Joseph Bachman's son
Fred hill $5
Emma's half sister Verena's son
Arthur Stallings 1940 1949 $6.00
Emma's sister Bertha's son
Charlotte Nichols 1959 $5
Emma's sister Bertha's daughter
Money ledger from the Suter book:
Page 53 of the Bachman Book:
page 74 in the Sidler Hegetschweiler Book: (cropped to edit out temple references)
page 190 Sidler Hegetschweiler Book (cropped to edit out temple references)
Hans Jakob Hegetschweiler is the physician for Ottenbach and probably d
delivered Johannes Sidler's children from the photo above. Notice Julius Billeter noted M.D. by his name.
Notes on Julius Billeter's work:
The people in SLC typed the Billeter manuscribts (made by hand) into the forms below, before they were sealed and then transferred and put into FamilySearch, available also through Myheritage.
As far as I see they are not completly digitized by SLC, Biletter etc. hand made more than 600 Swiss trees. The successors Reichen & Cie collection (see also list on the same homepage, left hand side) is typed however, each family has one page. As far as I know many are not on FamilySearch. The originals belong to two Swiss/German genealogists (von Moos /Aicher near Zurich).
We made a comparison Billeter vs. own research from entering all churchbooks in Bülach (where I have been living for 30 years), in my modest opinon more than 95% agrees.
Dr. Pfister added that Billeter probably did not have the Bevölkerungsverzeichnisse (since 1634 to about 1750), therefore we have today more sources, i.e, better information.
The few "mistakes" in Billeter handmade trees are mostly the wrong allocation of parents to son / daughter etc. The reason is that most of the males have similar first names Hans Heinrich Jakob or a combination thereof and females Maria Barbara etc.
This is escpecially the case in the years from 1600 to about 1650 / 1680 where the churchbooks are not very extensive. Peter Bertshinger, Switzerland
Julius Billeter
Julius Billeter was born on October 14, 1869 in Igis GR. His
father was a citizen of Männedorf and married to Barbara Schaden von Linthal.
They had ten children. Five died early. The rest moved to the United States
with their parents in 1884. 22-year-old Julius Billeter married Maria Emilie
Wilker from Wädenswil ZH on June 24, 1891. The wedding took place in Logan,
Utah, just four days after her 18th birthday.
Maria Emilie, whose family had been naturalized in
Flumenthal in 1844, gave birth to five children. While the first two were born
in Salt Lake City, the remaining three were born in Veltheim near Winterthur.
They had a son baptized Wilhelm Tell. Julius Billeter and his wife and children
spent many years in Switzerland, where he devoted his life primarily to family
research. He died in St. Gallen at the age of 88 on July 9, 1957. (According
to J. Billeter's own statements and those of the registry office at Männedorf
and the State Archives of the Canton of Zurich)
During several long stays in Switzerland, Julius Billeter
researched around 3000 families in his own style. For this he used almost
exclusively the parish baptism, marriage and death registers and the civil
status registers of the parishes. His records of the individual families often
span several centuries, including the 20th. For this he used sheets in B5
format, which were used with his very small handwriting to the edge of the
sheet. In this way, he has written about 72,500 sheets, often with a pencil,
and noted data from about 20 to 40 people on each sheet. With 25 people per
sheet, this results in around 2 million personal data, which corresponds to
around a quarter of the current population of Switzerland. An immense life's
work!
More: Julius Billeter Collection, Switzerland, paid site