GatheringGardiners: Margaretha Berli 1777

When Margaretha Berli was born on 28 September 1777, in Ottenbach, Zürich, Switzerland, her father, Johannes Berli, was 38 and her mother, Barbara Berli, was 29. She became the second wife of Caspar Sidler on 28 March 1803, in Ottenbach, Zürich, Switzerland. They were the parents of 1 sons and 2 daughters. Margaretha Berli died on 5 May 1851, at the age of 73.

1. Anonymous child 1800 September 24 (Billeter wrote about this child as "a son" the child of Elisabetha Hegetschweiler which is no doubt the case.) (Pastor Hans Jakob Locher's record says "Anonymous" which would mean out of wedlock, born two days before Caspar's first wife died, (source: Zürich Archives, Ottenbach Haushaltungsrodel record, as seen below) (No record of this child has been found in the FamilySearch Ottenbach records.)

2. Elisabetha b 1803 May 7, Caspar's daughter Elisabetha died at age 9. (birth after being married 1 month 10 days )

3. Johannes 1807 August 22, married Anna Sidler b 1807-1851. Had three girls and one boy. Johannes lived to be 80 years old

4. Kaspar 1809 13 March. Kaspar, lived 8 days. (source Familienregister, from Zürich Archive)

Caspar died 18 July 1811. Fourteen months later, when Caspar's brother Johannes was 35 years old Johnnes 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.)

Jewish (Ashkenazic) and German: habitational name from the city of Berlin, capital of Germany. This city takes its name from a West Slavic word meaning ‘river rake’, a scaffold of beams built over a river to prevent logs from jamming; the river in question is the Spree. Folk etymology, however, has put a bear into the arms of the city, as if the name were derived from Bärlin, a diminutive of Bär ‘bear’. The German name is also found in the Hamburg area, where it may be derived from the village of the same name, but of uncertain origin, in Holstein. In some cases the Jewish name may be a patronymic from a pet form of the Yiddish personal name Ber (see Berenson ), formed with the Slavic possessive suffix -in. (FS)

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