Euphrosina Wilhelmina Wageli

In the intricate tapestry of my family tree, the story of Euphrosina Wilhelmina Wageli, born on March 14, 1716, in Lampertheim, Bergstrasse, Hessen, Germany, emerges as a particularly fascinating chapter.

The youngest child of Han Philipp Wegerle and Barbara Kessler (Barbara Keßler), Euphrosina, my 7th great-aunt, captures my imagination not just by her direct relation but also by the uniqueness of her name.

The quest to unravel Euphrosina’s life led me down a path filled with linguistic nuances and historical discrepancies. The variations of her last name in German records, including Waegerle, Wegerle, Wageli, and Wägeli, amongst others, depict the fluidity of language and naming conventions over time.

Wegerlin
Wegelin
Wägerlin
Wegerlein
Wägele
Wägeli
Waegerlen
Waegerlin
Weckherlin
Weekerlin
Wegerle
Weggerly
Weikhelin
Wiegerlin
Wigerli
Wigerlin
Waeckherlin
Wuekherlin

A notable aspect of this journey was understanding the pronunciation of ‘Wägeli’. A consultation with a German translator revealed the intricacies of phonetic translation, approximating ‘wu-ghe-ly’ as the closest pronunciation for an English speaker, albeit not entirely accurate.

My research, documented through various records like ‘Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898’, initially led me to believe Euphrosina married Ludwig Gottlieb Siber and had two daughters, Rosina Barbara and Wilhelmina Barbara Sieber. However, this narrative took a turn upon discovering Ludwig’s emigration to Russia in 1862, raising questions about Euphrosina’s life there.

Further examination of baptism records showed variations in the spelling of her name, a common challenge in historical document translations. This need for cross-referencing sources became evident when I stumbled upon another individual, Euphrosyne Wilhelmine Wagerle, born in 1819, with a strikingly similar name and marital connection to a Ludwig Gottlieb Siber.

This 103-year age gap led to a crucial realization: the Euphrosina born in 1716 could not be the mother of the children born in the mid-19th century. The puzzle deepened. How, then, does Euphrosina fit into the Han Philipp Wegerle and Barbara Kessler lineage?

The marriage of Hans Philip Wegerle and Barbara Keßler in 1691 in Lampertheim provides a documented connection to the Wegerle family. But the mystery around Euphrosina’s life and lineage persists, underscoring the complexities and surprises inherent in genealogical research.

PLEASE NOTE: I am taking you on a journey of research to show you how things you are sure are true, later turn out not to be. Please make sure you read this document all the way through before confirming any facts in your own family tree. As you get to the bottom, you find out right about here I made a mistake in my research. I am keeping it here to share with you how I confirmed and discredited documented “facts” from others.

There is a record called the ‘Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 (Deutschland, ausgewählte Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898)‘ and that tells us her full name is Euphrosina Wilhelmina Waegerle and that she married Ludwig Gottlieb Siber and they had a daughter named Rosina Barbara Sieber. Rosina was born on October 26, 1859.

We have another similar document showing us that they had a second daughter named Wilhelmina Barbara Sieber. She was born on May 20, 1858.

Ludwig Gottlieb F Sieber, her husband appears to have emigrated to Russia in March of 1862. It says he was born in Grossingersheim, Germany. His children were still very young, so we can assume that his wife Euphrosina went with him and that is where she died.

On other of Wilhelmine Barbara Sieber’s baptism records, her name is spelled “Euphemia Wilhelmine Sieber.” However, that’s very easily a translation error. As you can see from the original below, it’s not easy to read.

Rosina Barbara Sieber’s other baptism records also misspell Euphrosina’s name. Again, this is a common error when translating texts. This is why you always need multiple records to confirm the same fact, as no one source is ever truly definitive.

Now we come to a stump in the road. There is another out there who goes by the name Euphrosyne Wilhelmine Wagerle [Euphrosyne Wilhelmine Waegerle]. She was born on August 6, 1819, and when she was 37, she married Ludwig Gottlieb Siber.

However, there is a 103-year difference between our Euphrosina and this Euphrosyne. This later Euphrosyne’s parents are …

Father:	Johann Christian Waegerle
Mother:	Rosine Catharine Enderle

So now let’s go back to our Euphrosina who was born in 1716. That’s when I realized her two daughters couldn’t possibly be her two daughters because that would mean she would have been like 142 years old when she gave birth.

How do we know she belongs on the Han Phillip Wegerle and Barbara Kessler tree?

We know that Hans Philip Wegerle (Hanß Philip Wegerle) married Barbara Keßler (Barbara Kessler) on June 19, 1691. They were married in Lampertheim, Bergstrasse, Hessen, Germany. This is a documented fact. It is also where all the other Wegleys in my tree have been from, so it all matches up so far.

Valentin Assel

My mother’s grandmother was a lady named Emma Marie, who she loved dearly. It is for this reason I began to look into the maternal side of my family tree.

This led me to Valentin Assel, the first member of his family line to come to America from Germany.

Valentin Assel was born on March 1, 1860 in Essen, Germany. Today it’s a huge city with a population of more than 500,000; making it the 9th largest city in Germany.

Valentin Assel came to America in 1887.

A few years after coming to America, at the age of 30, he met and married Arnstena Wilhelmina Good (Gote?). Together they had at least 7 children.

William Paul
Michael John
Pauline
Anna
Hilda
Emma Marie
Emil

On October 01, 1910 Valentin Assel official became a US citizen.

Valentin Assel died on April 05, 1923 in Monessen, Pennsylvania. He was buried at Saint Paul’s Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (find a grave).

Valentin Weigel

The name Weigel has a long and complicated history. According to some sources it dates back to medieval times and belong to a prominent family that played a large part in shaping European history.

First let’s start with what we know. We know, thanks to our research into Zacharias there are several ways to spell the Weigel family name, which would in time many many years later become the Wegley family in America. Here are just some of the ways people have spelled the Wegley name over the years.

Wegley (1900s)
Weighley (1800s)
Weigley (1700s)
Wageli (1600s)
Weigel (1600s)
Weichel (1500s)
Weigle
Van Veigle
Weagley
Wegerlin
Wagerline
Wegerle
Weygell
Weigele
Wegerle
Weckerly
Freigley (obvious typo)

Silesia is located in the historical region that is now in southwestern Poland. This is where we are told is the first recorded use of the Weigel name. You can view the map here.

The Weigel family was very well established in this area. Then at some point at history they migrated to other places, perhaps due to the political unrest going on in the Silesia area.

At one time they Weigel’s were one family so we can assume it was during this time in Silesia, but that again is not confirmed data so take it for what you will.

Eventually the family separated and branches settled in different places. We know of three main branches of the family. There are the Bavarian Weigls, Saxon Weigels, and further north, along the Baltic Sea, the name appeared as Weigele.

The Bavarian and Saxon Weigels preoccupied themselves mostly with matters of religion and in printing and publishing books. The Bavarian Weigls remained Catholics, but some of the Saxon Weigels became followers of the Lutheran religion.

Valentin Weigel was born on August 07, 1533 in Hayn and died on June 10, 1588 in Zschopau.

He was a German theologian, philosopher and mystical writer, and an important precursor of later theosophy. In English he is often called Valentine Weigel. Valentin Weigel, who was of the Saxon branch of the family, is also been referred to as “Der Grosse (Great) Herder”.

He was born at Hayn, near Dresden, into a Catholic family. Now I should point out that there are other sources which say he was born in Naundorf near Grossenhain – this I tend to believe more because it is in Saxony and well Valentin was of the Saxon branch of the Weigel family, so wouldn’t it make sense that he was born in Saxony, instead of in Hayn, some 118 miles away?

That issue aside, what we do know that in 1533 the Weigel family of the Saxon branch were still Catholic. However that obviously changed because in 1567 he became a Lutheran pastor at Zschopau, near Chemnitz. So now we know that sometime between 1533 and 1567 the Saxon branch of the family went from Catholics to Lutherans. We don’t know why, or the exact dates.

We also know that he studied at Meissen, Leipzig, and Wittenberg. And after becoming a Lutheran pastor in Zschopau at the age of 34, he lived out a quiet life, engaged in his writings. He would spend the rest of his life in Zschopau and would eventually die there in 1588 at the age of 55. I wondered how old the average person lived to be in the 1500s and found out that the peasantry could expect to live to be about 40-45 years while nobility would average 50 years and anything beyond that was considered fairly ancient. So in terms of the sixteen century, Valentin Weigel lived to be an old man.

Valentin Weigel was best known for his belief that the Virgin Mary was herself the product of a virgin birth. He based his belief on the idea of the immaculate conception, which required that Mary must also be sinless in order to bear God in the flesh. He kept his ideas secret, entrusting them only to personal friends. He carried out his parishioner duties in the Lutheran church and kept a low profile.

But all the while he had very profound beliefs that he documented extensively. When he died he left around 6000 pages in printed or manuscript works.

His ideas on human nature were only gradually and posthumously published. Johann Arndt, Gottfried Arnold, and Gottfried Leibniz helped to spread Weigel’s ideas. His mysticism was marked by that of Johannes Tauler and by doctrines of Paracelsus; he was also a follower of Sebastian Franck and Caspar Schwenckfeldt. Like these two latter, he emphasized the inner life. He advocated a “spiritual church” in which one could know Christ without books or scripture. When he died, his followers spread his word and those followers were called the “Weigelaner.”

Valentin Weigel emphasized the necessity of internal unction (an anointing of Spirit; see 1 John 2:20) and illumination. He taught … that knowledge does not come from without, but from the Spirit operating upon our spirit within. In cosmology, Valentin Weigel stands near Paracelsus … (After his death), his writings were published in various places, and Weigelanism became widely spread. His opponents represented him (falsely) as a dangerous revolutionary who aimed at the overthrow of all political and social order.”

Valentin Weigel’s father was Michael Weigel. At least one sort lists Michael’s wife as Anna Katrina Van Veigle, but the English translation of Katrina is Catherine. Also, in German, a “v” is prounounced as a “w”, so that would account for the spelling of her last name. However this information may not be accurate. There is also – Michael Johannes HABLUZEL and Anna Katherina Van Veigle (1750 – 1820) so if this is the person they speak of then Anna Katherina couldn’t be his mother because she was born way after his death. It is worth mentioning however due to the unique spelling of the name.

More About Johannes Michael Hablutzel:
Census: 1764, Colonial America 1607-1789 Pennsylvania Census Index.
Estate Inventory: May 03, 1796, Woodford County Will Book B 1796-1807.
Immigration: 1764, Sailed from Rotterdam on the Ship Chance.

Marriage: Catherine Weigle 1770, Pennslyvania. / Johannes married^{1, 3, 6} Anna Katrina Van Veigle (Weigle) “Caty” in 1780 in , Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States.

Anna Katrina Van Viegle
Catherine Weigle
Anna Katherina Van Veigle
Anna K. Van Veigle (Weigel)
Anna Catherine Weigel
Anna Catherina Weigle
Anna Katrina “Caty” Van Veigle (Weigle)

Johann Paul Wegerlin

The first Wegley to come to the US, at least in my line is Johann Paul Wegerlin. He is my 6th great grandfather and was born on May 10, 1699, in Lampertheim, Bergstrasse, Hessen, Germany.

When I first started this website, I was sure I knew everything I could about him. but in time I learned that just because someone else says something is true, doesn’t make it so.

Is Johann Hana Paul Michael Wägeli the same as Johann Paul Wegerlin or Paulus?

That’s really what I needed to try and figure out. Only it’s not exactly that easy. The Germany birth, death and marriage records are hosted by Family Search and not a single image is available. The translated data is, but as we all know, that is very possibly wrong. My question is simple … what is our real family name … not our anglicized name, but our original name? Simple enough question, right? Well not so easy to answer.

In the same batch of Germany records, here are the 15 common variations of our family name.

Wegerlin
Wegelin
Wägerlin
Wegerlein
Wägele
Wägeli
Waegerlen
Waegerlin
Weckherlin
Weekerlin
Wegerle
Weikhelin
Wiegerlin
Wigerli
Wigerlin
Waeckherlin
Wuekherlin

I actually went as far as to hire someone from Germany who does translations to ask him who you even pronounce the name Wägeli. Was it why-gull or wu-ghel-ly or something different altogether?

He ended up telling me that the “ä” has a sound that is unique, there is no way to write it correctly for an English speaker but if you had to sound it out like why-gull, he said the closest would be the one that you said “wu-ghe-ly” but it’s only close and not the right way.

Here is a recording of his saying it so you can hear it said in his nature German tongue. 🙂

What I can say for sure is that Johann Paul came to America, specifically the Port of Philadelphia when he was 33 years of age, on September 18, 1732. Once in America, he would become known as Paul Wegerline. This “Americanization” of names wasn’t uncommon. More specifically he arrived in the Port of Philadelphia on board of the Johnson Galley of London. We have the passenger list that tells us on that day he had with him his wife, Ottilia and four of their children … three girls, one boy.

And we aren’t even sure if her name was Ottilia or Obtilia or Otella or Otelia. I will say this though, Lancaster County, PA records her death in the year 1763. They have a copy of her will on file in book J, volume 1, page 344, again listing the spelling of her name as Wegerlin, Obtilia.

Katharine Wegerlin became Catherine Wegerline

1727 – 1800
Ottilia Wegerline

1729 –

Anna Clara Wegerline

1731 – 1784
Jacob Wegerline

Born sometime between 1716 and 1732

When they came to America the original oath translations listed them as

Paul Wegerllue, (husband)
Jacob Wegerline, (son)
Otella Wegerline, (wife)
Oteliea Wegerline.. (daughter)
Katharine Wegerline. (daughter)
Anna Clara Wegerline. (daughter)

See how easy it is to lose track of someone when names are often times so misspelled? Also, I should note there is a separate entry for a Paulus Wegerlin.

We have a birth record for Anna Clara and on that record, it tells us that her mother’s name is Ottilia and her father’s name is Johann Paul Wegerlin. This record tell us that Anna Clara was baptized on April 16, 1731, in the city of Darmstadt in Germany, which is just south of Frankfurt.

The exact record reads “Evangelisch,Lampertheim,Starkenburg,Hesse-Darmstadt” but this is a translation mistake. “Evangelisch” tells us that she was baptized in the Evangelical Church in Germany. The identifying location is “Lampertheim, Starkenburg, Hesse-Darmstadt” which is actually the city of Darmstadt, in the province of Starkenburg in the German state of Hesse. I asked a few different people from Germany and got varied results. While most agree it was in the city of Darmstadt a few said it meant she was baptized in the town of Lampertheim, a small town near Darmstadt in Germany.” Google maps tells us that Lampertheim is about 25 miles south of Darmstadt.

So now we’ve matched the mother, father and at least one child in two different records – the immigration passenger list and the child’s baptismal records. So this tells us that his full name is “Johann Paul Wegerlin” and when he came to America it became Paul Wegerline.

Next, we have the baptismal records of their daughter Ottilia. She has her mother as Ottilia but the father is Johann Paul Wegerle. This is a perfect example of why I wished we could see the actual records because obviously, the person who transcribed the data made a mistake. We know from other sources though that Wegerle is a common misspelling of Wegerlin / Wegerline.

So moving forward we now have three records that group this family together. It may not seem like a lot but keep in mind these are records from hundreds of years ago and there were a lot of people with similar names.

There was a Johann Nicklaus Wegerlin or married a Clara and had a daughter named Ottila who also happened to be baptized in the exact same place as our own Ottila Wegerlin. Of course, we know this wasn’t our Ottila because this one was was baptized in January of 1735 and by then our Ottila was already in America. There was also a Paulus Wegerlein who married an Ottila Beyer and came to America but they are not the same as our Paul and Ottila.

I AM STILL WORKING ON VERIFYING SOME OF THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE DO NOT CONSIDER IT 100% ACCURATE AT THIS TIME.

It is possible his full name is Johann Hana Paul Michael Wägeli or Johann Hana Paulus Michael Wägeli or Johann Hanß Paul Michael Wägeli.

It is possible that his father is Zacharias Wägeli and his grandfather is possibly Hanß Wegerlin …. although at this time I can not say for sure. It could be that Zacharias is his grandfather making his father possibly Han Philipp Wegerle, which to me seems far more likely if you do the math.

So is Johan Michel Weigel the same as Paulus Wegerline?

I’m sorry to say but Johan Paul and Johan Michel Weigel are not the same person. And I can prove it with old obscure German birth records.

Johan Michel Weigel was married to Anna Elisabetha and yes they had a child named Anna Catharina but it’s not the same.

Paul or Paulus Wegerlin was married to Otillia. We know this because they came to America together and we have a zillion records to prove that they came over together with two of their daughters that we also have old German birth records for.

Another bit of proof is that during the 1736 PA Early Census Index, Johan Michael Weygell lived in Philadelphia County, and we already knew Paulus was living in nearby Lancaster County during that time period.

Zacharias Wegerle

Life as we know it, for my family at least all leads back to a man by the name of Zacharias Wegerle aka Zacharia Weigel or Zacharias Wegerlin. He is my 8th great grandfather and he was born in or around 1638 in Lampertheim, Bergstrasse, Hessen, Germany which turns out means he was born in the town of Lampertheim within Bergstraße district. Lampertheim is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany. You can click here to view the map of the town as it exists today.

What makes doing research on the Wegley family line so complicated is that there are so many spellings and misspellings of the last name. Here are just some of the ways people have spelled the Wegley name over the years.

Wegley (1900s)
Weighley (1800s)
Weigley (1700s)
Wageli (1600s)
Weigel (1600s)
Weichel (1500s)
Weigle
Weigel
Weagley
Wegerlin
Wagerline
Wegerle
Weygell
Weigele
Wegerle
Weckerly
Freigley (obvious typo)

I haven’t proven who his father is yet but it looks like it may be a man by the name of Hanß or Hanss, Han or Hana. Hanß could have been known by the last name of Wegerlin or Wageli. To avoid confusion for now we are going to call him Han Wageli as this is what most of the other researchers are calling him. The only thing I can really do now is get all the records from the 1600s for the town of Lampertheim within Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany.

So what do we know about Zacharias?

We know that he died and was buried in Germany (1638-1695)
(FIND A GRAVE LINK)

Zacharias Wegerlin

BIRTH	1638 Lampertheim, Kreis Bergstraße, Hessen, Germany
DEATH	1695 (aged 56–57) Lampertheim, Kreis Bergstraße, Hessen, Germany
BURIAL	Lampertheim (Friedhof Huettenfeld) Kreis Bergstraße, Hessen, Germany

Zacharias Wägeli was born in 1638 in Lampertheim, Germany and died in 1695, in Lampertheim, Germany. He appears to have married a woman by the name of Anna Elisabeth Treiber (1636-1720) on May 8, 1660 when he was 20 years old.

They possibly had 14 children.

Han Philipp Wegerle (1664 – 1747)
Anna Catharina Wegerlin (1665 –)
Han Georg Wegerlin (1667 – 1668)
Nicolaus Wegerle (1675 – 1731)
Johann Heinrich Wageli (1678 – 1678)
Johann Peter Wegerle (1678 – 1678)
Johann Martin Wageli (1679 –)
Paulus Wegerle (1684 – 1684)
Euphrosina Wegerle (1686 – 1686)

Zacharias Wegerlin was born in 1638 in Lampertheim, Starkenburg, Hesse-Darmstadt the only known child of Hana Wegerlin and his wife (UNKOWN NAME??). He married Anna Elisabeth Treiber on May 8, 1660 in Lampertheim, Starkenburg, Hesse-Darmstadt in the Lutheran Church. They had four children in 14 years. He died in 1695 in Lampertheim, at the age of 57.