Our family would have been part of a group of Anabaptists (called Swiss Brethren) who fled Switzerland in the mid 1600’s to escape religious persecution. Although Martin Luther was credited with beginning the radical reformation, there were many others whose study of theology at the time caused them to question several teachings of the state church.
Anabaptists believed that only after a person was old enough to make a personal confession of faith should they be baptized. Since everyone at the time was baptized at birth, this act of re-baptizing or believer’s baptism was considered heresy and punishable by death. If discovered, they would be drowned, burned at the stake, beheaded or tortured in other ways.
By the 17th century, Anabaptists were scattering across Europe. Some remained in the Swiss cantons, the Netherlands and the Danzig area. But the Swiss Brethren (later Mennonites and Amish) were immigrating to Alsace, to Prussia, to Polish area, and even to Pennsylvania by the end of the century.
Swiss Anabaptism in the 17th Century
By 1648, Swiss Anabaptists, or Brethren, as they called themselves, were living only in rural areas in the cantons of Zürich and Bern. Severe persecution continued into the 17th century. Some Anabaptists were sent to the sea as galley slaves – and few came back alive. Others were imprisoned or branded on the forehead. Because Anabaptists were married in their own congregations and not by state-church pastors, their marriages were considered invalid and children were prohibited from inheriting from their parents. In some areas, the Swiss Brethren were required to live above certain elevations.
Swiss Brethren began emigrating – to the German Palatinate, to Alsace, to Prussia and to Pennsylvania, beginning in 1683 when the first Mennonites came to Germantown, settling near Quakers. Dutch Mennonites gave significant financial help to Swiss Mennonites immigrating down the Rhine and across the Atlantic to North America. By the end of the 17th century, Mennonites remained only in the canton Bern, concentrated in the Emmental, or Emme valley.
Because they were hated by both Protestants and Catholics, more Anabaptists were martyred for their faith than any other Christian group in history, including the early Christians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabaptism#Beliefs_and_practices