Isabella Jagiellon of Poland was born in 1519. She married John Zápolya, king of Hungary, in 1539. But before that marriage, three years are missing from most history books: the years when Isabella and Johan Hirschberg, one of the first Hershbergers, lived together as man and wife. This book tells that story.
When he was an old man, Johan's son, Abel, with the help of his brother, John Sigismund Zápolya, chronicled the events, and their manuscript passed from generation to generation in my family for four hundred years. More recently, my mother's grandmother, Hannah, gave the book to my mother, Jerusha, and I received it from her. Although the document was brittle and worn, and in some places nearly illegible, I used it to research and write the story of The Mennonite Queen, our family’s matriarch.
“Isabella”
From The Journals of Jenny Hershberger