In New Glarus, it does not take long to stumble into one of the community’s quieter little mysteries. Meet a Duerst, drive down Durst Valley Road, hear someone mention Durst Valley, and then open a historical document only to find Dürst. Same family name. Same tiny Swiss-American community. Three spellings. No wonder people pause and ask, wait a second, which one is right?

The funny answer is that all of them are right, depending on when and where you are looking. Local family history sources in New Glarus say plainly that Dürst was the original Swiss form, and that in America the name came to be spelled both Durst and Duerst. One local note explains that umlauts were often adapted in the United States by dropping the mark entirely or replacing it with an added “e,” which is why Dürst became either Durst or Duerst.