Did this place ever exist? Castle Zellerstein, Zurich

>**EDIT 5:** So, I’ve come to the conclusion the Zeller family was known in the Canton of Zurich. Many theologians, and businessmen it seems. In the early 1700s, a member of the family is the head of the Reformed Church in Swizterland, the Antiste, Peter Zeller. I’ve not found anything on Castle Zellerstein, seems a pure fabrication. But I have at least found records of the father of the man purported to be the progenitor of the Zeller family which settled in Pennsylvania. That man is Jacques James Zeller, his father Hans Rudolf Zeller, and his father Hans Ulrich (II) Zeller. I’ve found wedding and death records for the two latter. I’ve yet to find documentation on Jacques James Zeller, though.

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>The main sources are the Zurich state archives: [https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/suchinfo.aspx](https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/suchinfo.aspx)
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>And the ETH ePeriodica: [https://ethz.ch/de.html](https://ethz.ch/de.html)
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>I’m hoping to find something for Germany, for Zweibrucken, where it would seem Jacques James Zeller was born while his father, Hans Rudolf, was preaching there or nearby.

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I’ve looked in the state archives of Canton of Zurich, best I can, nothing.

I’ve googled about Castle Zellerstein, but it’s just the same references to a potentially dubious claim about a scholar marrying a teenage countess from Navarre, fleeing when the Edict of Nantes was revoked, and eventually the line settling in Pennsylvania with some German Huguenots.

If you know of any other way to research this, or have heard of Castle Zellerstein…would be appreciated.

The gentleman in question is a one Jacques Sellaire or Zeller or Jacques de Sellaire or Von Zeller. It’s unclear exactly. And the countess in question is supposedly a one Lady Clothilde de Valois.

Any help or thoughts is apprecaited.

Edit: in the ETH eperiodica, I was able to fine several references to Jacob Zeller, described a church scribe, copy writer, and quartier-hauptmann. Names Schwallbrunen

And I found: [https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/049940/2014-02-05/](https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/049940/2014-02-05/) \- which says the Zeller family were from the Zurich area. There is one Jakob Christof reportedly born 1652, which is near to the dates for the Jacob Zeller I am looking for.

Still no better information on a Lady Clothilde. She definitely seems a fabrication. But there is now some slightly less dubious evidence for a Jacob Zeller.

Edit 2: In Zurich’s State Archives, I was able to find [marriage records for Hans Rudolf Zeller](https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/detail.aspx?ID=2064966), a preacher and scholar from Zurich,[from the Zeller family](https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/049940/2014-02-05/), who moved to Zweibrucken, where his son James Jacques would have been born. James Jacques is who I would be descended from. The first link is the record for Hans Rudolf marrying a Margareta Fels in 1640, which would fit with James Jacques’ mother being named Anna Margareta.

Also, in another entry on the Zeller family, there was a record of maybe brothers of Hans Rudolf, or uncles/cousins, running a poorhouse in Zurich that had been given to them by the Zurich council. Perhaps this was called the Zeller House. This could be an origin story for a castle of the Zeller family, Zellerstein. This makes me chuckle think about, because one of the oldest extant buildings in USA that demonstrates German archtitecture at the time is an outpost fort, known as Fort Zeller. Which when you look at it just looks like…a big farm house. So… yeah. That’s where I’m at so far.

Edit 3: Was able to find the father of Hans Rudolf, Hans Heinrich (II) Zeller. [Here is a notice of his deat](https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/detail.aspx?ID=319894)h. This record says 1668, whereas other places online that weren’t official records said 1672.

Edit 4: I have found record of [Hans Rudolf Zeller’s death](https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/detail.aspx?ID=316240), of dysentery, in 1690.