Plans are being finalized for your Association to launch a symposium series featuring your stories and research of our families’ past. We currently expect to “broadcast” the first symposium on Schurch family migration to California via the online Zoom service (www.zoom.com) in June. We expect the first symposium to expand on a feature article in the November 2020 edition of the SFANA Newsletter, which will be hosted by native Californian Cary Adams.

Advance registration for the June symposium is requested and can be made by emailing .

Details on exact date, time and the link to access the June 12th event, which will last approximately one hour, will be emailed approximately three weeks prior to the broadcast and posted on the SFANA Facebook page.

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To facilitate additional SFANA symposiums, a Symposium Committee has been formed and is openly soliciting topics from SFANA members. Several ideas are under consideration including the first Schurch houses in Pennsylvania and Ontario, the first Schurch settlers in Ontario and the seventeen-year Schurch stopover in The Netherlands before coming to North America. We would love to hear from you if you have any interest in any of these topics. Jane Sherk is coordinating potential topics for us, so please contact her if you have any thoughts at

We look forward to hearing your ideas for symposiums and sharing the family’s history through this exciting new series!

New Brubacher House Video

This new video shows the history of the Brubacher House as it relates to the Brubaker Family but the House also has deep Sherk roots. The House was built by John and Magdalena Brubacher. John’s father was Deacon John E Brubacher, Code C346 who was the first male Brubacher immigrant to Waterloo County. John E was the grandson of Maria Sherk Erb, Code C3, and her husband, Christian Erb, immigrants to Waterloo County about 1806.

John Brubacher’s mother was Catherine Sherk, Code H464, daughter of Joseph Sherk, Code H46, who was the first immigrant to Waterloo County in 1800.

Thus John Brubacher, descendant of John E Brubacher and Catherine Sherk and builder of the Brubacher House can claim two Schurch codes, C3464 and H4644.

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At the Schürch Reunion in 2016 in Waterloo Region, this house was one of the stops on a bus tour.

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Enjoy the video!

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A Letter from the President of the Association

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February 6, 2021

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The Schürch Family Association of North America held a brief meeting today to discuss the problems created by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to the Reunion scheduled for August 5 to 8, 2021 in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada. We decided to postpone the Reunion until August 2022 in Canada. There are currently too many unknowns about border openings and vaccine schedules. Details of the reunion in 2022 will be forthcoming by email and newsletter. In the meantime the Executive Committee Officers will continue in their roles until August 2022.

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We also agreed that we will proceed with the Schürch Symposia Series. This will be online Schürch related information about our history and genealogy that will be presented using Zoom technology. Look for the announcement in the April Newsletter.

Tom Shirk

President

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2 Riverhills Lane, Toledo, Ohio 43623

419-346-1811

Reunion 2021 POSTPONED

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NEW DATES:

August 4- 7, 2022

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Location: Clarion Hotel and Conference Centre

Fort Erie, Ontario

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Details of the next reunion will be posted here and on the Reunions pages in the menu as they become available. The newsletter and our Facebook page will also have details.

How Many Ways can one Spell Schürch?

How many? Sixty or more at last count.  Add family surnames with ties to the Schürch family like Bergey, Brubacher, Clemmer, Detweiler, Erb, Good, Hunsberger, Martin, Shantz, and many more and the number of Schürchs skyrockets. In the 37 years since our association was established, Schürch historians have discovered numerous ties connecting the descendants of the first Swiss arrivals in 1727. Come and explore and celebrate your ties to Schürchs in Switzerland and across North America.

 

Who are the Schürchs?

Well, if your family name or that of any ancestor is Scherich, Scherch, Schirch, Schuerch, Sharick, Sherck, Sherick, Sherk, Sherrick, Shirck, Shirk or any of the more than 70 variants, you are a member of the Family. The Schürch Family originated in Switzerland and through emigration spread to North America in the late 1600s.

Our Swiss-German ancestors spelled their name Schürch and this is still the accepted spelling in Switzerland today. The Swiss also spell it ‘Schuerch’ exchanging the umlaut for the letter ‘e’. Our immigrant forefathers did not speak English and the clerks on the ships at the port of arrival did not usually speak German. Thus in Colonial America and later in the 1800s, various phonetic spellings were adopted. The name of the Family Association uses the Swiss spelling since it is the original surname and is representative of all the various branches of the family in North America today.

The Schürch Family Association of North America (SFANA) was created in 1982 by a group of individuals who were interested in preserving their family heritage. At that time, it was known that at least twenty-five individuals with likely ties to a Schürch family arrived in North America between the years 1727 and 1808. Many of those families (but not all) had ties to Sumiswald, Switzerland. Consequently, a sister organization, Schweizische Gesellschaft für Namenstrager Schürch (SGNS), developed around the same time, with similar goals. This sister organization has compiled extensive documentation on family branches in Switzerland.

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The Swiss Schürch Association meets regularly. To learn more of the Schürch Family Association of Switzerland, abbreviated SGNS, visit the Swiss Schürch Family.

SFANA has provided this site to disseminate information about our family and the activities of the Association. Check in on a regular basis to see the latest information on the biennial reunion, research and family happenings.

To learn more of the Schürchs who first landed on North American shores go to Schürch History.