This narrative history based on the ancestry of Nora Musser (1881-1929), who was born in Lancaster Co., Pa., follows the intertwined histories of about a dozen families from the Albis region in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, and another dozen similar families from the Emmental and Bernese Oberland in the Canton of Bern, during the 15th and 16th centuries. The author traces the fate of these ancestors through the periods of persecution of Anabaptists in Zurich and Bern, and their forced exile and subsequent emigration to Lancaster Co., Pa., in the 17th century. It chronicles their relationship to the American society that grew up around them over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, including intermarriages with several Reformed and Lutheran families. Among the principal descent lines considered are: Musser, Good, Weber/Weaver, Musselman, Gehman, Bowman, Oberholtzer, Huber, Kendig, Rutt, Tschantz, Ranck, Messner, Schnader, Lied, and Frey. The author also takes a critical look at published claims that three particular lines of Nora Musser’s ancestors might be traced as far back as the High Middle Ages. (678pp. color illus. Author, 2016.)