Johann Josef, most often referred to as Josef, was the youngest of six children born to Johann Heri and Anna Maria Strausak. He was not yet one year old when his mother died.
Josef became a citizen of Biberist. As such, he had more rights than did non-citizens. Among the benefits were the rights to take wood from public (the citizens’) forest and to graze cattle on common lands. Obtaining citizenship required one to apply and pay some amount of money. Those making application for citizenship would then be discussed by the citizens. On April 4, 1783 Josef paid 16 pfund 5 shillings to become a citizen of Niedergerlafingen.
There is a notation that Josef was the “Wachtmeister.” Following the reorganization of Switzerland by Napoleonic troops in 1798, he became the “Unteragent.”
Anna Maria Steiner of Oberbiberist in the Kanton of Solothurn was born on December 1, 1740 in Horriwil to Benedict Steiner and Barbara Güntner. Anna and Josef, her husband, had seven children, four of whom died before the age of ten. The Catholic church records list “Anna Heri from Niedergerlafingen, born Steiner, from Horriwil, the widow of Johann Josef Heri” as dying on April 30, 1820.[1] However, the city death registry gives Anna’s death date as May 13, 1820.
Footnotes
[1] This information comes from the “Defunctorum” (The Book of the Dead) of the Catholic church at Kriegstetten. I am no longer sure how it came into my possession. It may have been shown to me at the Steatsarchiv des Kantons Solothurn. It is also possible that I received a copy of it from the parish priest at Kriegstetten who I met in the summer of 1982 when I spent several days in Biberist. My final day in Biberist, I walked to Gerlafingen, Horriwil, and Kriegstetten as each town played a role in the family’s history. I stopped to see the Catholic Church in Kriegstetten where I was warmly welcomed by the pastor and received several of his personal photos of the church building.