| Notes |
- “In the Bernese State Archives, two brothers--Christian and Bendicht Schrag, sons of Ulrich Schrag--are mentioned in a 1765 list of Anabaptists. They had moved from Wynigen-Launberg to the Munster Valley. However, at that time, other Schrags were already residents in the Zweibrücken area.”
“In 1738 Ulrich Schrag, age fifty, was living in Eschert in the Jura, thus born in 1689. He had a wife Marguerite, age forty-five, and children Houle (Uli in French), Christian, age nine, Bendit, age seven, Barbelet, age five, and Annelet, age two.”
“He went to Eschert in 1713. Eschert is on the south side of the French-speaking valley Val Moutier/Grand Val/Münsterthal in the Jura Mountains of Canton Bern, approximately 16 miles northwest of Wynigen. At the time it would only have been reached from Wynigen by traveling a roundabout road for 44 miles. From Lüsslingen it would have been only seven miles to the northwest if a direct route were possible over the mountains, but was actually 35 miles by roundabout road. On its south side Eschert touches Canton Solothurn. Bernese authorities were prohibited from chasing Anabaptists across that boundary (and so, based solely on his relocation, we strongly suspect that ?llrich had chosen adult baptism). A fire destroyed most of the village of Eschert in 1733. ?llrich married Margreth Röthlisberger. In 1738 a census at Eschert identified Ulrich Schrag, 50; Marguerite, 45; Houle [?li], 13; Christian, 9; Bendit [Bendicht], 7; Barbelet [Barbli], 5; and Annelet [Anneli], 2.“
“This was probably the Ulrich Schrag who was a native of Laumberg near Wynigen, Bern, Switzerland when he moved to the commune of Eschert in the Munstertal, Alsace, France in 1713. He was an Anabaptist. He was married to Margreth.”
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(The material from this summary is taken from the family tree of Peter Schrag unless noted.)
Ulrich b. 1687 (son of Bendicht b. 1667) married Margrit Rothlisberger-- some family traditions say in 1709. His cousin Caspar b. 1685 could well have been married about the same time in an un-recognized Anabaptist marriage before being officially married in France in 1711. Perhaps the two couples fled the Wynigen area together thru the Jura , but where Caspar ended up with the Amish in Zweibrucken, Germany; Ulrich b. 1887 stayed in the predominantly Mennonite Jura area. We know Ulrich lived at Eschert in 1713, but know little else of him until his first child Ulrich is born at Eschert in 1725. Some of his children settled here for several generations.
Just where Ulrich had been in the intervening years, one can only guess, but the path of many fleeing Anabaptists led to caves in the Jura Mountains, near Souboz and they were also known for meeting under the bridge over the gorge at Courtelary. This might especially be true for the Schrags who lived a mere 25 miles to the southwest. After things settled down a bit, the Jura district appeared to be much more accepting of Anabaptists than the Bern area was.
J. Virgil Miller in the book “Both Sides of the Ocean”
hints of a sort of dual citizenship where the Schrags, although having moved to the Jura, had kept Wynigen as their Heimat. } [1, 5, 6, 7, 8]
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1687 - 
[1, 2] 
