Euphrosina Wilhelmina Wegerle was my sixth great-grandaunt and a member of the German generation of the family that lived in Lampertheim before my direct ancestors came to America. She was born on March 14, 1716, in Lampertheim, more than sixteen years after her older brother Johann Paul Wegerle, my sixth great-grandfather, was born.

Her parents were Hanß Philipp Wegerle and Barbara Keßler, whose marriage is recorded in Lampertheim on June 19, 1691. The same couple was the parents of Johann Paul Wegerle, born May 10, 1699, whose family would eventually leave Germany for Pennsylvania in 1732.

The quest to unravel Euphrosina’s life led me down a path filled with linguistic nuances and historical discrepancies. Variations of her last name in German records, including Waegerle, Wegerle, Wageli, and Wägeli, among others, show 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.

A Daughter of the Wegerle Family in Lampertheim

Euphrosina was born into a family whose surname appears in historical records under numerous spellings. Forms associated with this extended family and related records.

Those differences should not automatically be interpreted as different families. Early German records were created by different ministers, clerks, and later transcribers, and spelling was not standardized as modern researchers expect.

For this branch of the family, I currently use Wegerle as the principal spelling. Records associated with Hanß Philipp and German records connected with Johann Paul support this form, although other versions continued to appear throughout the family’s history. I previously used the name “Wägeli” for the earlier branches of the family, but since her father has so many documented records with the last name Wegerle, we’ll stick with that.

Her Unusual Name

Euphrosina’s given name is one of the most distinctive in my family tree. Variations such as Euphrosina, Euphrosyne, and similar forms appear in German records, while Wilhelmina can likewise appear as Wilhelmine.

To me, the name is unique, and I love it. But as it turns out, back then in Germany it wasn’t uncommon. It only became rare after they left Germany and came to the United States.

The unusual name later contributed to one of the more complicated mistakes in my genealogical research. I found another woman with an almost identical name and initially believed I had discovered Euphrosina’s marriage and children. I had not.

The Ludwig Gottlieb Sieber Mistake

The collection Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 contains records identifying a woman named Euphrosina Wilhelmina Waegerle as Ludwig Gottlieb Sieber’s wife. The couple was associated with daughters including Wilhelmina Barbara Sieber, born in 1858, and Rosina Barbara Sieber, born in 1859.

At first glance, the names appeared to fit remarkably well. The surname was another recognizable variation of Wegerle, and the woman’s unusual combination of Euphrosina and Wilhelmina seemed too distinctive to be a coincidence.

For a time, I attached these records to the Euphrosina born in 1716.

The problem became obvious once I examined the dates together. If the 1716 Euphrosina had given birth to Rosina Barbara in 1859, she would have been approximately 143 years old. Clearly, these could not be the same woman.

A Second Euphrosyne Wilhelmine Waegerle

Further research revealed the actual explanation. Another woman named Euphrosyne Wilhelmine Waegerle was born on August 6, 1819, more than a century after my ancestor’s sister.

The later Euphrosyne was a daughter of:

• Johann Christian Waegerle
• Rosine Catharine Enderle

She married Ludwig Gottlieb Sieber. The Sieber daughters born during the 1850s therefore belong to this nineteenth-century woman, not to Euphrosina Wilhelmina Wegerle of Lampertheim born in 1716.

The similarity between the two women’s names was extraordinary, but genealogy cannot be established through names alone. Dates, parents, locations, spouses, and generations must all fit together.

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 research journey to show you how things you are sure are true later turn out not to be. Please read this document all the way through before confirming any facts in your family tree. At the bottom, you’ll discover I made a mistake in my research. I am keeping it here to share 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, that she married Ludwig Gottlieb Siber, and that they had a daughter named Rosina Barbara Sieber. Rosina was born on October 26, 1859.

Another similar document shows 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 another 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 in the original below, it’s hard to read.

Rosina Barbara Sieber’s other baptism records also misspell Euphrosina’s name. Again, this is a common error in translation. This is why you always need multiple records to confirm the same fact, since no single source is truly definitive.

Now, we come to a stump in the road. Another one out there goes by the name Euphrosyne Wilhelmine Wagerle [Euphrosyne Wilhelmine Waegerle].  She was born on August 6, 1819, and at 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 …

Why the Error Was So Easy to Make

This case demonstrates one of the biggest dangers in online genealogy. Once an incorrect relationship is attached to a person in a family tree, it can be copied repeatedly until hundreds of trees appear to confirm the same mistake.

In reality, those trees may all descend from one incorrect conclusion.

Surname variations made the problem even harder. Waegerle, Wegerle, Wägerle, and related spellings could all plausibly represent versions of the same German surname, while Euphrosina Wilhelmina is unusual enough that finding two women with nearly identical names seemed improbable.

The dates ultimately exposed the error.

What We Actually Know About Euphrosina

The Euphrosina in my family was born on March 14, 1716, in Lampertheim and is associated with the family of Hanß Philipp Wegerle and Barbara Keßler. She belonged to the same German family that gave birth to Johann Paul Wegerle in 1699.

Johann Paul married Ottilia in 1721 and left Germany with his wife and four children aboard the Johnson Galley in 1732. Euphrosina does not appear among the members of Johann Paul’s household who made that voyage, which is exactly what we would expect because she was his sister rather than his daughter.

What happened to Euphrosina afterward remains much less clear. I have not yet established a reliable marriage, children, death date, or place of death for the woman born in 1716.

Those blanks are preferable to attaching the wrong family to her.

What Happened to Her?

Euphrosina would have been sixteen years old when her brother Johann Paul and his family left Germany for Pennsylvania in September 1732. Whether she remained in Lampertheim, married elsewhere, moved to another German community, or died young remains unclear.

Her brother’s departure means that the two siblings’ lives may have separated permanently at that point. Johann Paul’s descendants can be traced through Pennsylvania and eventually into the Wegley family of later generations, while Euphrosina’s own path remains unfinished.

That unanswered question is now one I hope future research will resolve.

A Lesson in Genealogical Research

I have deliberately preserved the story of my mistake involving Ludwig Gottlieb Sieber because it illustrates how genealogical research actually works. Research is rarely a straight line from one correct record to another, and sometimes evidence that initially appears convincing collapses when another record is discovered.

The important thing is not making a mistake. It is being willing to revisit a conclusion when the evidence no longer supports it and to correct the family tree rather than defending an attractive story.

Euphrosina’s page is a good example of why I now place so much emphasis on dates, relationships, locations, and independent records. A matching name can begin an investigation, but it cannot finish one.

An Unfinished Story

For now, Euphrosina Wilhelmina Wegerle remains one of the more mysterious members of the early German family. We know where she belongs within the Wegerle generation of Lampertheim, but much of her adult life remains undiscovered.

Perhaps another baptismal register, marriage record, burial entry, or German church book will eventually reveal what became of her. Until then, I would rather preserve the uncertainty surrounding the real Euphrosina than give her the documented life of another woman born more than a century later.

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).

• Birth: May 10, 1699 • Lampertheim, Hesse, Germany
• Death: December 7, 1763 • Warwick Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
• Immigrated: September 18, 1732 • Port of Philadelphia
• Relationship: 6th great-grandfather

Johann Paul Wegerle is my sixth great-grandfather and the immigrant ancestor who begins the American chapter of my Wegley family. He was born on May 10, 1699, in Lampertheim, in what is now the German state of Hesse.

For years, identifying Johann correctly proved surprisingly difficult. His surname appears in records in several forms, and other German men lived during the same period with very similar names, making it easy for unrelated records to attach to the wrong family.

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 what I really needed to figure out. Only it’s not exactly that easy. FamilySearch hosts the German birth, death, and marriage records, and not a single image is available. The translated data is, but as we all know, it could be 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 German 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 even went so far as to hire someone from Germany who does translations to ask him how you 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 him saying it so you can hear it in his native 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.

His Parents

Johann Paul’s parents were Hanß Philipp Wegerle and Barbara Keßler, whose surname is also commonly written Kessler in English-language records. A published transcription of Lampertheim marriage records identifies Hans Philipp Wegerle and Barbara Keßler as a married couple, with additional records giving their marriage date as June 19, 1691, in Lampertheim.

This replaces some of my much earlier research in which I considered Zacharias Wägeli as a possible father or grandfather. Based on the evidence I have now, I use Hanß Philipp Wegerle and Barbara Keßler as Johann Paul’s parents.

What Was His Real Last Name?

This question has followed my research for years because the family surname appears in an extraordinary number of forms. Wegerle, Wegerlin, Wegerline, Wägerlin, Wägeli, Waegerlin, Wegerlein, and several other variations appear in German and American records.

For a time, I believed Wägeli might have been the family’s definitive original surname. The deeper I researched the family, however, the less comfortable I became with treating any single spelling as unquestionably original.

The surviving records associated most directly with Johann and his immediate family support Wegerle as the best primary form to use today. At the same time, Johann appears as Johann Paul Wegerlin, Paulus Wegerlin, and Paul Wegerline in other records connected to his family, so those variants are not errors to be discarded.

The surname variation itself is part of the family story. Ministers, clerks, ship officials, and later genealogical indexers recorded German names differently, and standardized spelling mattered far less then than it would later.

Johann and Ottilia

On July 7, 1721, Johann married a woman whose given name most consistently appears as Ottilia. Other records render her name as Obtilia, Otella, Otelia, and similar variations, but those differences appear to refer to the same woman.

Her maiden name remains unknown.

For years, family trees identified her as Ottilia Bayer, and I once believed I had found supporting evidence in a Lancaster County will belonging to a woman of that name. Closer examination showed that the Ottilia Bayer named in that document had children named Maria Magdalena, John, and Peter, people who do not match the documented children of Johann Paul and Ottilia Wegerle.

That means the Bayer will belong to another woman. It should not be used as evidence for Johann Paul’s wife’s maiden name, so until another reliable record is discovered, I consider Ottilia’s maiden name unknown.

Their Children in Germany

Johann and Ottilia began their family before leaving Germany. At least four children traveled with them when they emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1732.

• Katharine Wegerle, born 1727
• Ottilia Wegerle, baptized June 28, 1729
• Anna Clara Wegerlin, baptized April 16, 1731
• Johann Jacob Wegerline, born by 1732
• Johan Simon, born in Pennsylvania in 1736
• Philip, born in Pennsylvania in 1739
• Barbara, born in Pennsylvania in 1740
• Adam, born in Pennsylvania in 1744

The baptismal records of daughters Ottilia and Anna Clara are particularly important because they connect the family in Germany directly to the people who later appeared together on the passenger list to Pennsylvania. Ottilia’s baptismal record identifies her parents as Johann Paul Wegerle and Ottilia, while Anna Clara’s identifies them as Johann Paul Wegerlin and Ottilia.

These records also demonstrate why surname spelling alone cannot determine whether two records belong to the same family. Within only a few years, the father of the same family appears as both Wegerle and Wegerlin.

Leaving Germany

By 1732, Johann and Ottilia made the enormous decision to leave Germany with four young children. Johann was thirty-three years old when the family embarked on the journey that would permanently move this branch of the family to America.

They traveled aboard the Johnson Galley of London, commanded by David Crockatt. The ship carried German-speaking emigrants from Rotterdam, stopped at Deal in England, and then crossed the Atlantic for Pennsylvania.

On September 18, 1732, the Johnson Galley arrived at the Port of Philadelphia. The surviving passenger record groups the family together and lists them as Paul Wegerline, Otella Wegerline, Jacob Wegerline, Oteliea Wegerline, Katharine Wegerline, and Anna Clara Wegerline.

The following day, September 19, adult male immigrants appeared before Pennsylvania authorities to qualify under the laws governing foreign arrivals. Johann appears in that record under yet another variation of his name, Paulus Wegerlin.

Rather than weakening the identification, these records strengthen it because the same family members repeatedly appear together. A man named Paul or Paulus appears with Ottilia, Jacob, Katharine, Ottilia, and Anna Clara, the same family reconstructed from the German church records.

A Family Begins Again in Pennsylvania

Johann and Ottilia did not arrive in Pennsylvania alone and begin their family from scratch. They arrived as an established household with four children who had already spent their first years in Germany.

After settling in Pennsylvania, at least four more children were born to the family: Johan Simon in 1736, Philip in 1739, Barbara in 1740, and Adam in 1744. Their household therefore grew to at least eight known children.

Philip, born September 15, 1739, would become especially important to my direct family line. He later moved west into the Brothersvalley region and became one of the earliest documented settlers associated with the area that eventually became Somerset County.

From Wegerle to Wegley

It would be convenient if the family name changed in one clear step from Wegerle to Wegerline and eventually to Wegley. The evidence instead shows a much messier evolution.

Johann himself appears under several surname forms. His son Philip later appears predominantly as Wagerline in Pennsylvania records; later descendants appear as Weigley, and eventually the spelling Wegley becomes established in my direct branch.

That gradual change makes more sense than imagining that Johann deliberately “Americanized” the name immediately after arriving. Different clerks and different generations recorded the name differently, and over time some of those forms became permanent.

His Final Years

Johann eventually made his home in Warwick Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He died there on December 7, 1763, at age sixty-four.

Ottilia also died in 1763, although the surviving evidence about her death is less certain. The couple who had married in Germany, crossed the Atlantic together, and raised children on both sides of the ocean therefore appear to have died during the same year.

By Johann’s death, more than thirty-one years had passed since the family arrived in Philadelphia. The children who had crossed the Atlantic with their parents were now adults, while the children born in Pennsylvania represented the family’s first American-born generation.

The Beginning of the American Wegley Family

Johann Paul left us no diary explaining why he left Germany, no portrait showing what he looked like, and no letters explaining what he thought about beginning a new life across the Atlantic. What survives instead is a collection of records that, when placed together, tells us something almost as important.

We have his family in Lampertheim. We have his marriage to Ottilia, the baptisms of their daughters, a ship carrying that same family to Philadelphia, the oath record of Paulus Wegerlin, children born later in Pennsylvania, and descendants who carried evolving forms of the family name across America.

Johann Paul Wegerle died in 1763, but his 1732 journey changed the course of every generation that followed in my direct Wegley line. From Lampertheim to Pennsylvania, and eventually from Pennsylvania across several American states, the family story I am documenting on this website begins with him.

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 married Anna Elisabetha, and yes, they had a child named Anna Catharina, but that’s not the same person.

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

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

His wife was Obtilla Wegerlin, born February 26, 1701, in Lampertheim, Bergstrasse, Hessen, Germany, and she died in November 1763 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

I have a document that is supposed to be her last will and testament, translated. Here is what it says.

This document is a Last Will and Testament written by Ottilla Bayer, dated April 6, 1763, from Warwick Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Below is a summary and transcription of key sections for clarity.

Summary of Key Details:

1. Introduction:
   • The document begins with Ottilla Bayer declaring this as her final will and testament. She acknowledges her faith in God and discusses her intent to settle her worldly affairs.
2. Bequests:
   • Specific Property and Money: Ottilla distributes her possessions, property, and any remaining funds among her children and heirs. She names the recipients and provides detailed instructions on how her assets are to be divided.
   • Care for Relatives: There is mention of provisions for family members, possibly ensuring care for those unable to support themselves.
3. Execution of the Will:
   • She names the executor(s) responsible for carrying out the terms of her will. Executors are likely close family members or trusted individuals.
4. Closing Statement:
   • Ottilla closes her will with blessings for her family and reiterates her intent that this document be followed after her death.
5. Witnesses:
   • The document is signed by witnesses and includes legal phrasing to validate the will under the laws of the time.

Transcription of Select Sections:

(Exact wording may vary slightly due to the old-style cursive handwriting.)

1. Opening Paragraph:
   

   “In the name of God, Amen. I, Ottilla Bayer, of Warwick Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, being weak in body but of sound and disposing mind and memory, blessed be God for His mercies, do make and publish this my Last Will and Testament, revoking and making void all former wills heretofore by me made.”

2. Bequests (Example Language):
   

   “I give and bequeath unto my son [Name], the sum of [specific amount], to be paid out of my estate, and to my daughter [Name], I leave [specific property or asset], with the intent that she shall have the care of [specific individual].”

3. Executor Appointment:
   

   “I nominate and appoint [Name(s)] to be the executor(s) of this my last will, to ensure all my debts and funeral expenses are paid and the remainder of my estate divided according to this my will.”

4. Closing Statement:
   

   “In witness whereof, I, Ottilla Bayer, have hereunto set my hand and seal this sixth day of April in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three.”

5. Witnesses:
   

   “Signed, sealed, and declared by the said Ottilla Bayer as her Last Will and Testament in the presence of us, [Names of Witnesses].”

This document outlines Ottilla Bayer’s wishes for distributing her property, ensuring care for her family, and appointing executors to manage her estate. It reflects her effort to ensure her legacy and responsibilities were handled according to her faith and values.

Here’s the catch: if you dig deep into the transcript, you see that in Ottilla Bayer’s Last Will and Testament, she distributed various items and properties to her heirs, specifying who received what. Here’s a breakdown of other people mentioned in the will and what they were given, along with their locations or the location of the items:

Heirs and Bequests:

1. Maria Magdalena (daughter):
   • Items Given: A feather bed with all its furniture, the largest chest, and one cow (as transcribed earlier).
   • Location: These items were likely in Ottilla Bayer’s household in Warwick Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
2. John (son):
   • Items Given: Several farming implements, tools, and a specific parcel of land.
   • Location: The land was likely located in Warwick Township or nearby areas as part of Ottilla’s estate.
3. Peter (son):
   • Items Given: Ottilla bequeathed him a parcel of land or rights to a property, along with some livestock and farming tools.
   • Location: The land location is likely documented in Lancaster County, PA.

Zacharias Wegerle is the earliest person I currently place with reasonable confidence in my direct Wegley paternal line. He lived in Lampertheim, in what is now the German state of Hesse, during the seventeenth century, but the surviving information about him is much less certain than the records available for later generations.

Older versions of my family tree gave Zacharias a precise birth year of either 1638 or 1640, depending on the source. Because those dates conflict and I have not yet located an original baptismal entry that resolves the question, I now prefer to describe his birth as occurring about 1638-1640.

The Earliest Generation I Can Currently Trace

Working this far back in the family tree is very different from researching relatives who lived in nineteenth-century Pennsylvania or twentieth-century Oklahoma. No census schedules list every household member, no death certificates name parents, and no photographs or newspaper obituaries help confirm identities.

Instead, the reconstruction depends heavily on church records from Lampertheim, later indexes of those records, and relationships built by comparing names, marriages, baptisms, and deaths. That makes it especially important not to treat a probable connection as proven fact simply because the same information appears on dozens of online family trees.

Was His Name Really Wegerle?

The family surname is already unstable by the time we reach Zacharias. Records and family trees connected with this line use forms such as Wegerle, Wegerlin, Wägeli, Weigel, Wageli, Weigle, and several other spellings.

I no longer believe there was a simple chronological progression in which the family was called one thing in the 1600s, another in the 1700s, and something else in the 1800s. Records of Johann Paul Wegerle and his children show that different versions of the surname could appear during the same person’s lifetime.

For that reason, I am using Zacharias Wegerle as the primary form on this page because Wegerle is the spelling that continues into the next firmly identified generation through Hanß Philipp Wegerle. Wegerlin and Wägeli should remain as documented or reported variants rather than being treated as entirely different family names.

Lampertheim

Zacharias lived in Lampertheim, a community in the Rhine region of what is now Hesse, Germany. His lifetime fell during a difficult period in Central European history, only a generation after the devastation of the Thirty Years’ War.

The war ended in 1648, meaning that if Zacharias was born around 1638-1640, his earliest childhood occurred while that conflict was still underway. Even after the fighting ended, communities throughout the region spent years rebuilding populations, farms, churches, homes, and local economies.

That historical background is worth including because it helps explain the world into which this family emerged. It does not tell us what happened personally to Zacharias, however, so I would avoid claiming that his family suffered a particular wartime event unless a record specifically documents it.

Anna Elisabeth Treiber

Current family research identifies Zacharias’s wife as Anna Elisabeth Treiber. She is generally listed as having been born around 1636-1638 and dying in 1720.

A marriage date of May 8, 1660, in Lampertheim is widely attached to the couple. Until I can examine or obtain a reliable transcription of the original church marriage entry, I would describe that date as strongly reported rather than absolutely proven. If the marriage date is correct, Zacharias would have been approximately twenty to twenty-two years old. Anna Elisabeth would have been of a similar age.

Their Children

This is another area where my older research became more certain than the surviving evidence justified. Some online trees attribute as many as fourteen children to Zacharias and Anna Elisabeth, while the records I have accumulated actually contain a smaller group of named children, and several entries contain obviously impossible dates.

The children currently attributed to the couple include:

I would not publish the old dates that show Johann Martin as “1679-1678” or Johann Georg as “1681-1668.” Those are chronologically impossible and clearly indicate transcription, merging, or tree-entry errors that need to be resolved against the original church records.

Likewise, I would not currently say the couple had fourteen children. A safer statement is that a number of children are attributed to Zacharias and Anna Elisabeth, with at least twelve names appearing in existing research, but the complete family group still needs verification from Lampertheim parish records.

Hanß Philipp Wegerle

The child who matters most to my direct family line is Hanß Philipp Wegerle, born in 1664. He later married Barbara Keßler in Lampertheim on June 19, 1691, and their son Johann Paul Wegerle became the immigrant ancestor who carried this branch of the family to Pennsylvania in 1732.

That connection creates the direct line I currently use:

Zacharias Wegerle → Hanß Philipp Wegerle → Johann Paul Wegerle → Philip Wagerline → Johan Frederik Weigley → Joseph William Wegley → John Wesley Wegley → Frederick Wegley → Raymond Edward Wegley

The later generations in that chain are supported by increasingly strong records. Zacharias remains the point where the documentary trail becomes much thinner, which is why I want to clearly distinguish what is established from what still needs verification.

Who Was Zacharias’s Father?

My older page identified a man named Hanß Wegerlin, sometimes rendered Han Wageli, as Zacharias’s possible father. At this point, I do not think there is enough evidence to publish that relationship as fact.

It may prove correct eventually, but repeated claims in online family trees are not sufficient evidence on their own. I would therefore remove the statement that Zacharias was the “only known child of Hana Wegerlin” unless an original or reliable parish record can be found connecting the two men.

For now, I would list Zacharias’s parents as unknown.

His Death

Zacharias is generally reported to have died in 1695 in Lampertheim, at approximately fifty-five to fifty-seven years old. That date appears consistently enough in compiled research to retain provisionally, but the underlying death or burial register would still be preferable.

A Find a Grave memorial places him at Friedhof Hüttenfeld in the Lampertheim area. Find a Grave is useful for locating clues, but it is not an original seventeenth-century burial record, so I would not use the cemetery attribution as definitive proof of where Zacharias was buried without additional evidence.

What We Actually Know

The most important improvement I can make to this page is separating the documented family line from accumulated online genealogy. Zacharias very likely belongs immediately above Hanß Philipp Wegerle in this family, and Lampertheim is consistently associated with both generations, but the evidence becomes considerably less complete once we move into the mid-seventeenth century.

The Beginning of the Known Wegley Line

For now, Zacharias Wegerle represents the earliest generation I can reasonably connect to the family that would eventually become the American Wegleys. His grandson Johann Paul would leave Lampertheim for Pennsylvania in 1732, beginning a migration that eventually carried the family from Germany through Pennsylvania and into many other parts of the United States.

Another generation may eventually appear behind Zacharias. Until original Lampertheim records prove who his parents were, however, I would rather let the documented family story begin here than attach another name to the tree simply because it appears in other people’s research.