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The Switzers in Virginia
The following data is extracted from Genealogy of the Switzers.
“The Switzer family is of German and Swiss origin and was founded in America by three brothers, John, Valentine and Nicholas, sons of John Switzer, who never came to America. About 1770 the three brothers settled in Hardy, then Hampshire ‘County.”
FROM “THE HISTORY OF BARBOUR COUNTY”
Cornelia Switzer-Burkholder, a daughter of Daniel Morgan Switzer, a son of Valentine’ Switzer, a son of Nicholas Switzer, immigrant, who obtained in her life time much information concerning the genealogy of the Switzer family, and at her death left with Frank C. Switzer, of Harrisonburg, Va., certain records and correspondence, made the following statement:
“That Rev. William Franklin Switzer, D. D., of Gary, Indiana, in 1929, wrote me as follows:
“The Switzer family is of German and Swiss origin, and was founded in America by three brothers, John, Valentine and Nicholas, sons of John Switzer, who never came to America. About 1770, three brothers settled in Hardy County, West Virginia, which was then a part of Hampshire County, Virginia.’
“This information was given him by Mrs. Olga Switzer Riley of Gary, Indiana, a daughter of Charles Kenna Switzer, a son of David U. Switzer and a great-grandson of immigrant John. In 1929, she visited at her childhood home in Phillip, West Virginia, and found this information in an old history that had belonged to her father.
“Dr. Switzer also wrote ‘There is a Switzer Coat-of-Arms.’ The record of the same in the Newberry Genealogical Library in Chicago, gives the’ origin of a certain Nobleman in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, who, by bravery and noble service was advanced to high honor
“I have somewhere read that this ‘Coat-of-Arms’ is in the National colors of Switzerland, scarlet and white. The copy that I had was a lithograph, ~ho2e-fore is black and white, of course.’ (C. S. B.).
“The National Flag of Switzerland is scarlet with a white cross in the center. The Red Cross organization originated in Switzerland, and for its banner, reversed these National Colors, making their banner white with a red cross in the center.
“‘The German name for Switzer is’ Schweitz, or simply Schweiz, the z in the German language having the sound of tz or ts. The termination “er” means an “Inhabitant or native of”; therefore, the origin of the name Schweitzer in German; Switzer in English.”
The records of the Pennsylvania Historical Society has this:
“JOHN SWITZER, same as JOHANNES SCHWEITZER.”
My grandfather’s papers are without exception, signed “VALENTINE SWITZER.” (C. S. B.)
Source: Genealogy of the Switzers
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