Darling-Huber 2026 – Ancestor #61
Darling-Huber-Trümpi Oertli Line

By Don Taylor

Anna Maria Oertli was born in the shadow of the Glärnisch, in a Swiss village where nearly everyone could recite which of a handful of old families they belonged to. She married into one of them, the Trümpis, buried an infant daughter during the hunger winter of 1847, and spent her last years more than 4,000 miles away, in the coal-and-river country southeast of Pittsburgh. She lies today in a small-town Pennsylvania cemetery under a name — “Anna M. O. Trumpi” — that quietly carries her maiden initial across the ocean with her.

List of Grandparents

• Grandmother:  Florence Wilma Huber Darling (1908-1934)
• Great-grandmother:  Bertha Barbara Trümpi Huber (1884-1968)
• 2nd Great-grandfather: Bernhead Trumpi (1844-1913)
• 3rd Great-grandmother: Anna Maria Oertli (1823–1896)
• 4th Great-grandfather: Fridolin Oertli (1779–1827)*
• 5^th Great-grandfather: Othmar Oertli (1745-1819)
• 6^th Great-grandfather:Josua Oertli (1713-1794)
• 7^th Great-grandfather: Hans Heinrich Oertli (1679-1745)
• 8^th Great-grandfather: Josua Oertli (1644-1702)

* I have not researched Fridolin Oertli (1799-1827) not any of his ancestors. His ancestor names are tentative/speculative.

Anna Maria (Oertli) Trumpi (1823–1896)

Birth

Anna Maria Öertli was born on 4 December 1823 in Ennenda, Canton Glarus, Switzerland, the daughter of Fridolin Öertli and Sara Heer.^3,4,5 Ennenda sits just across the Linth River from the town of Glarus, the cantonal capital. In Anna Maria’s lifetime, it was one of the centers of the Glarus textile-printing trade.

Childhood

Anna Maria’s childhood was marked early by loss. Her father, Fridolin, died in 1827, when she was about three years old. My records list six siblings — Abraham, Fridolin, Felix, and Josua, who were older, and her younger siblings, Sara and Johannes (who died as an infant). Like most Glarus girls of her generation, she probably grew up in a household that depended on the mills and print works along the Linth, supplemented by small-scale farming and alpine pasture.

Marriage

On 30 January 1844, at age 20, Anna Maria married Bernhard Trümpi in Ennenda.^2,3,4 He was the son of Bernhard Trümpi and Anna Maria Dürst.^2,3,9 Their first child, Bernhard, arrived on 16 May 1844, about three and a half months after the wedding — not an unusual circumstance for the time and place.^4,11

The Hungry Years

The young family began life together at a hard moment. Hand printing and weaving were losing ground to mechanization, and in 1845–1847 the potato blight and failed harvests brought real hunger to the Swiss mountain cantons. Glarus responded partly by organizing emigration; in 1845, a party of Glarner settlers founded New Glarus, Wisconsin, and several Trümpi families eventually followed.

Anna Maria and Bernhard stayed. Their daughter Maria Magdalena was born on 12 August 1846 in the hamlet of Ennetbühls, part of Ennenda. She lived just five months, dying on 28 January 1847 in the depth of that hungry winter.¹⁸ Five years later, on 3 March 1852, also in Ennetbühls, Anna Maria gave birth to a son, Fridolin — the boy who would become John Frederick “Fred” Trumpi in America.^4,7,15

Children of Bernhard and Anna Maria (Oertli) Trümpi

The gaps between 1846 and 1852, and after 1852, suggest there may have been other children who have not yet been identified.

Emigration

When Anna Maria left Switzerland is unknown. Anna’s husband died on 20 March 1870 in Ennetbühls. Her younger son, Fred, came to Pennsylvania and married Catherine Eubley about 1875.^16,17 Anna Maria followed — or perhaps came with him — sometime before 1880.

Life in Pennsylvania

On 1 June 1880, the census taker found Anna Maria living in Lincoln Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, boarding in the household of John Webley along with her son Fred and his family.¹⁰ Lincoln Township lay in the rural southeastern corner of the county, near the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers and the borough of Elizabeth. Anna Maria was then about fifty-six.

The household head’s name is worth a second look. Fred’s wife, Catherine, is recorded as a servant in John Webley’s household. However, if the census taker misheard the name, it could have been “Eubley.” If so, John Webley could have been Catherine’s relation. Fred and Anna Maria are listed as boarders.

Death and Burial

Anna Maria (Oertli) Trumpi died on 24 March 1896 in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventy-two.^3,4,5 She was buried in Elizabeth Cemetery in Elizabeth, Allegheny County, where her memorial reads “Anna M O Trumpi.”⁵ Her son Fred was laid to rest in the same cemetery when he died in 1917.¹⁴

Research Notes

1. Birth year. FamilySearch and Patrick Wild give 4 December 1823; the Find a Grave memorial gives 1828.^4,3,5 I have accepted 1823 as the better-supported date, but the age in the 1880 census is not legible.
2. Source quality. Most of the evidence so far is derivative — online trees, Find a Grave, and Patrick Wild’s compiled pedigree. Under the Genealogical Proof Standard, the Swiss conclusions in particular should be checked against original parish registers.

Further Actions / Follow-up

• Search the Ennenda Reformed parish registers and the Kubly-Müller Genealogiewerk des Kantons Glarus for Anna Maria’s baptism, her marriage, her parents, and all of her children.
• Search 1865–1880 passenger lists and the 1870 census for Anna Maria, Bernhard, and Fred.
• Look for Anna Maria in the Allegheny County death register (1893–1905) and in Pittsburgh-area newspapers for an obituary.

Sources

1. Pennsylvania Death Certificate #109868, Frederick Trumpe (1917). Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906–1965, Ancestry.com.
2. Patrick A. Wild, Descent of Mary-Alice Darling Howell from Charlemagne (Zurich, 2021), p. 13.
3. Patrick A. Wild, Pedigree Chart for Shirley Elizabeth Darling: Following the Trümpy line in Glarus (2021), p. 002.
4. FamilySearch Family Tree, Family Group Record – Bernhard Truempy (LTQV-JFS), accessed 15 Dec 2018.
5. Find a Grave, Anna M O Trumpi, memorial no. 116047103, Elizabeth Cemetery, Elizabeth, Allegheny Co., PA, accessed 15 Dec 2018.
6. FamilySearch Family Tree, Anna Maria Oertli (LTQV-J9C).
7. Heather’s Ancestor Hunt, “Descendants of Benhart TRUMPE [LKWX-DPP],” https://heathersancestorhunt.weebly.com/trumpie.html.
8. FamilySearch Family Tree, Anna Maria Dürst (LBW7-XY6) — no sources attached.
9. Geneanet, Patrick WILD’s Family Tree, Anna Maria Dürst, accessed 22 Apr 2026.
10. 1880 U.S. Census, Lincoln, Allegheny Co., PA; Roll 1089, p. 383A, ED 066. Ancestry.com.
11. FamilySearch Family Tree, Family Group Record – Bernhard Truempy (LB7D-66R), accessed 15 Dec 2018.
12. Find a Grave, John Frederick “Fred” Trumpi, memorial no. 116042448, Elizabeth Cemetery, accessed 16 Dec 2018.
13. 1900 U.S. Census, Lincoln Twp., Allegheny Co., PA, Fred Trumfee (Trumpi), head. FamilySearch.
14. 1910 U.S. Census, Lincoln Twp., Allegheny Co., PA, ED 114, sheet 3A, family 37, Fred Trumpe. FamilySearch.

Disclaimer: Written by Don Taylor with research and drafting assistance from Claude.ai and editing support from Grammarly.