Swanstrom Genealogy

The earliest connected pedigree of the Hauri family begins with the Hauris at Beromünster. There is little doubt that they were connected with the Hauris of Steffisburg and Jegenstorf, perhaps coming from the Aare Valley to Beromünster with one of the von Steffisburg or von Jegenstorf Canons. Hugo von Jegenstorf was a Canon at Beromünster, 1250-1279.

Ulrich Hauri appears as Hörinus in charters at Beromünster in 1313 and 1324. He might have been a descendant of the Conrad Hauri, who was living at Steffisburg in 1282, a generation earlier. Ulrich’s descendants, wealthy farmers, millers and bailiffs (Vögte), spread into the surrounding villages of Reinach, Staffelbach and Sursee.

Stift Beromünster was a collegiate church, that is, it was a monastic-style religious house with priests called Canons Regular. Congregations of Canons Regular had constitutions inspired by the Carta Caritatis. Their superiors were generally called Abbot in France, Prior in Italy, and Provost (Probst) in Germany and Switzerland, but these titles are interchangeable for them. Several of the early Hauris were Canons at Stift Beromünster. Through the 13th century, most of the clergymen at Switzerland’s religious foundations came from noble families but the restrictions were relaxed in the 14th century.

Beromünster was founded about 980 in honor of the Archangel Michael by Count Bero, whose son is said to have been killed by a bear on that spot. The church served as a burial place for Bero’s successors, who ultimately included the Counts of Lenzburg. The Lenzburgs became extinct , and the Kastvogtei of the church was inherited in 1173 by the Counts of Kyburg, and in 1264 by the Counts of Habsburg. [Fritz Bossardt, Ein Heimatbuch: Sursee, Sempach, Beromünster (Zürich 1946), p. 112.]

The castle, Schloss Beromünster, was built about 1200. It probably first served as a residence for the klösterlichen manager. In the 14th century the Truchsessen of Wolhusen, ministeriales of the Habsburgs, lived at the castle. Truchsess Johannes von Wolhusen, and his wife Margaritha von Beinwil, the daughter of the Knight Peter von Hallwil, lived there. Johannes, their son (died 1359), was a Canon of Beromünster. The Knight and Truchsess Peter von Wolhusen and his wife Agnes von Heidegg also lived there. The castle was devastated in 1352 and 1386 by attacks from the Swiss confederates, and in 1415 was conquered by them. Thereafter, the church and its lands were part of Canton Lucerne. In the 1500s the castle came into the possession of Canon Helyas Helye, of Laufen. [Bossardt, 134]

Beromünster, ancestral home of the Hauris"Pagus et ecclesia collegiata Munster in Argaea"