The problem is that spelling can change, especially when people arrived in the US and stated their names to the immigration agents. And Swiss German is particularly difficult, as words in the dialect can be spelled various ways.

I learned this when we followed up on my husband's Swiss roots on one of our trips there. He is related ( documented) to the famous Swiss "mountain doctor" Michel Schuppach, who treated Goethe and other famous people. His first name is also spelled Michaelmand Michele, and he practiced medicine in Langnau ( also spelled Lengnau in old record) in the canton of Bern. We had lunch at his former home, a hotel restaurant in 2007 ( Hotel Bären) and enjoyed the menu full of Michel Schuppach references. It has since closed and was sold. Too bad, it was a lovely Emmental style building and we enjoyed lunch of the deck, the flowers by my elbow frequented by a hummingbird hawk-moth.

After lunch we went to a nearby village (Steffisburg) and visited the family home, now a community center, Villa Schüpbach. The spelling had already changed.

When my husband's great- grandfather arrived in the US in 1861 ( I think that was the date, but I can pull out the old family Bible to confirm) the spelling changed again, dropping the "p" entirely and the umlaut as well.

My point is-- do not make too much of the exact spelling. Follow the threads you can find. If you have an old family Bible like we do, so much the better!

Also, as far as I know, the Swiss do not use places as their surnames like, for example, the Norwegians. So someone with the surname Wengue does not necessarily have a connection with the palace, whether it is Wengue, Wengi, Wengen, or whatever.

Have you looked at theswisscenter.org? The website is helpful with Swiss geneology.

Enzian is right and in fact until quite recently there was no standardization for spelling of names or anything else. Read old letters, for instance, and we find that spelling was a fluid thing. So it's quite true that one cannot depend on any particular spelling of a name to prove anything. My maiden name, McCord, is the same name spelled McCourt, McCordy and any other way someone at some time chose to spell it. Genealogy would be much simpler otherwise.

Alenstein: In 1941, Switzerland counted a lot of Jewish refugees. They left Switzerland in 1945, at the end of WW2.

wrenwood: you my have a look at a good map.
Just a few examples:
Wengi bei Bueren BE
Wengi bei Frutigen BE
Wenge above Fieschertal VS
Weng am Tochuhorn VS
Wenghorn above Simplon Dorf VS
Obri Weng above Gstein VS
Sattelweng above Saas Almagell VS
Wengwald above Z'Maggenen Zer Tanne VCO
Weng above Im Land im Sesertal VC
Wengalp im Turtmanntal VS
Rothoruweng im Jungtal VS
Waengi TG
etc. etc.

It was in the "Canton of Berne" so that narrows it down............ a little

This old map has Wengi about in the middle, north of Bern, and Wengen (different the BO Wengen) NE of Wengi

Easiest to see if you open image in a new window and then zoom in to enlarge

http://www.englefamily.net/places/sw...vetia_1628.jpg