Women, née Bonadurer.
History is mostly written down by men—and so the daughters, mothers, and wives of the family rarely appear in documents. Yet they carry the family forward.
A woman who is named in the records: Stina Banadurera of Versam. In 1691, she marries the “Gerichtswürth zu Donath”—and thus brings the name Bonadurer to the Domleschg.
In 1945, it is a woman who leads to a change of name: the mother of Martin Josef Derungs from Vignogn had married a Bonadurer. The son then officially applied to change his name—from Derungs to Bonadurer.
The invisible halves
In every generation of the family there were women who cared for their parents, raised the children, and managed the farms when the men went off to foreign military service or seasonal work. Their names often appear only as a marginal note in the parish registers.
Anyone who knows more about Bonadurer women—whether as foremothers, daughters, wives, or sisters—is warmly invited to get in touch. Every story matters.
“The daughters of a lineage often carry the name on longer than the sons—only under a different flag.”— Folk wisdom
The name lives on through two daughters
Roland Bonadurer has two daughters: Nicole (born 1977) and Nadja (born 1980). Both live in Bern today. Through them, the name Bonadurer continues into the next generation in the 21st century.
Named women
Call for information
If anyone knows more about the women of the Bonadurer family—old letters, marriage or death certificates—please get in touch.
Contact →Women who carried the family forward
The story of the Bonadurer family does not end where a daughter took another surname through marriage. On the contrary: many women of the Bonadurer lineage carried their origins, their family ties—and with them part of the family’s history—into other households and lineages.
Church registers and old family records still give us occasional glimpses into these lives today. They show how closely the Bonadurer were connected over generations with families such as Gartmann, Joos, Henny, Buchli, or Jehli.
Barbla Bonadurer of Versam, born 1672
The records of the schoolmaster Niclaus Caseli from Arezen offer a particularly personal glimpse. In them, he notes the birth of his future wife Barbla Bonadurer from Versam. Niclaus Caseli was born in 1671, Barbla a year later, on January 2, 1672.
On July 4, 1698, the two were married according to Christian custom. Their daughter was born the very next year. Caseli describes her birth as a gift and a joy for the family.
All the more striking is the later entry: in August 1715, the daughter died while still very young. With this news, the surviving family records break off; no further children are mentioned in them.
Trina Bonadurer, 1626–1708
Trina Bonadurer married into the Gartmann family at the Boden near Arezen. In the death register of the old Versam church book, there is a remarkable entry by the parish priest Luzius Caviezel on her death in 1708. He refers to the 82-year-old Trina Gartmann, née Bonadurer, as his wife’s grandmother.
The brief note shows how closely connected the old Versam families were with one another, and how the Bonadurer lines continued through their daughters in other lineages.
Stina Bonadurer, 1660–1712
Stina Bonadurer, too, married into the Gartmann family. Her husband, Christa Gartmann at the Boda, was a son of Trina Gartmann-Bonadurer.
When Stina died in 1712, parish priest Luzius Caviezel described her in the church book as his beloved mother-in-law. One of her daughters was therefore married to the Versam parish priest, who served the parish from 1703 to 1713 and later looked after his home parish of Duvin for many years.
Another daughter married Jos Joos at the Wintergadä. Through these connections, the family lines branched further into various long-established Versam lineages.
Among the descendants were, for example, Christian, who married Anna Catherina Hunger in 1735 and moved to the Foppa farm, as well as Barbla, who in 1738 married Paulus Henny at Hiischera in Versam.
Elsa Bonadurer, 1687–1734, Fan
Elsa Bonadurer from Fan married Marti Joos and thus became the foremother of an extensive Joos line in Versam. The marriage produced eight children, whose descendants can be traced across many generations.
Especially interesting is the connection back to the Bonadurer family: Elsa’s daughter Magdalena, born in 1718, married Master Hans Bonadurer from Arezen. From this line later developed the family branches known as “Bonadurer in the Mülli” and “Bonadurer at the Boda”.
Stina Bonadurer and Rageth Buchli
Another Stina Bonadurer is mentioned in the old Versam church book as the wife of Rageth Buchli. The two were the parents of Marti Buchli, born in 1727.
From him descends a Versam Buchli line that can be traced over generations. A later descendant was Jöri Buchli, who was married to Elsbeth Walther of Valendas—whose mother, in turn, came from the Bonadurer family of Versam.
In this way, the same families were repeatedly connected with one another over several generations.
Zilgia Stina Bonadurer, 1728–1786
Zilgia Stina Bonadurer from Fan married Lazarus Jehli of Calörtsch in 1753.
Her daughter Barbla, born in 1765, married the clerk of the court and sworn juror Jöri Buchli of Versam in 1787. Here, too, a Bonadurer daughter carried the family connections forward into another important Versam lineage.
Elsbeth Bonadurer from Fan
Elsbeth Bonadurer married Bartholome Buchli at the Oberguot in Versam. Her descendants carried the family history far beyond the region.
This line included the schoolmaster and lieutenant Bartholome Buchli, born in 1838. He emigrated to America on April 10, 1870, where he worked as a teacher and land surveyor.
His uncle Jeremias Buchli, born in 1796, was a schoolmaster and farmer and lived with his large family in the Bandur.
Traces beyond the name
These examples make visible what is easily lost in a family tree: with every marriage, new family connections emerged. The daughters of the Bonadurer carried their origins into other households and lineages. That is why part of Bonadurer history today is found not only under the family’s own surname, but also in the ancestral lines of the Gartmann, Joos, Henny, Buchli, Jehli, and other families of the region.