Histories

On November 25, 1666 he issued another order:

Because of desolation and whole ruin of quantity of villages that (have) stayed desolate and uninhabited in several places and notably in the Baillage d'Allemagne, the Duke decides that: "all our colonels, captains, lieutenants and cornettes, foreign or original of our countries, their not having any domicile, which will want to withdraw (themselves) of it and to establish their homes presently, we will make them grant and concession of the uninhabited villages and of all rights of high, middle and low justice, pensions and incomes. But it is necessary that the recipients are at least six in every abandoned village and no less. Each will be put on vacation of his military draft with three months of pay. The strangers will get the exemption of all loads during ten years, and those of Lorraine of origin during three years.₍₁₎

As a result of these policies new settlers came to the area around Walschbronn in the period from 1650 to 1720.  The Tamerle/Demerles, Bergdolls, and others came from the Austrian Alps; the Oligers came from southwestern Germany; and others came from Switzerland and elsewhere in France.  Other families, including the Machino/Maginots arrived in Walschbronn about the same time.  Descendants of these same families appear with the Megels and Oligers in the United States some two hundred years later.

From the early Middle Ages the Duchy of Lorraine had been an independent realm whose dukes took a leading role in the affairs of the Holy Roman (German) Empire. At the same time France wanted to acquire Lorraine because of its geographic location on France's northeastern frontier. Thus Lorraine became a prize in the religious and dynastic wars of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  In 1726 Francis I, Duke of Lorraine, married Maria Theresa of Austria, heiress of the Habsburg monarchy.  Subsequently, as part of the settlement of the War of the Austrian Succession, Francis became Holy Roman Emperor, but had to give up Lorraine as compensation.  The duchy was given to StanisÅ‚aw LeszczyÅ„ski, the former king of Poland, and father-in-law to King Louis XV of France.  The new duke willed it to the French crown upon his death and France finally acquired Lorraine in 1766.

During the period of the French Revolution (1789) and subsequent reign of Napoleon Bonaparte much of Lorraine was again laid waste by invasion and famine.  Loyalties in some areas, which had been French for only a few years, were mixed, and many people chose to flee rather than serve in the French Army.  At the end of the Napoleonic era France began to recover and to industrialize. Conditions in poor agricultural regions remained difficult.  Much of the land was worked by poor farmers.  Private holdings were often small.  Families typically had ten or more children, half of whom died in childhood.  Any inheritance would usually go to an elder son, who would stay with his father on the family farm.  Younger siblings were left to find their own way.  Many chose to leave their home villages to join the army or to find work in the large cities like Paris.

At the same time a tradition of emigration to America was well established.  Routes from northern France through the great ports of Le Havre and Antwerp to Baltimore, New York or New Orleans were well known.  It was not unusual for younger sons and daughters, and sometimes entire families, to leave the towns and villages where their families had resided for centuries to seek a better life in the New World.  Often they came in groups, with people from the same region traveling together and settling in the same area.  Those who followed generally had a final destination where they could join people they already knew.  Once in America they formed close-knit ethnic communities much like those in the old country.  Many of those from Alsace and Lorraine, came initially to the Cincinnati area.  It was here that the Megels and Oligers, Megels and  others from their home in France, first settled.   Later many of these same families moved to Spencer Township in Jennings County, Indiana.

The Early Megels 1650 - 1800

The precise origins of the early Megel Family, and thus of the Megel name, are unknown.   The earliest actual record found is the birth of Johann Nicolas Megel, son of Johann Nicolas Megel, in Schweix in about 1645.  The elder Nicolas may have been a soldier who settled in the region, or possibly an immigrant to Lorraine from the Canton of Bern in Switzerland, where the name Moegel is frequently found.  Another possibility is the Austrian Tyrol where names like Megli and Moegli appear in the early records.

The elder Johann Nicolas Megel had at least three children: Johann Nicolas, Sebastien and a daughter, Anna, who subsequently became the progenitors of many of the Megel and other families in Schweix, Liederschiedt and Walschbronn and the surrounding countryside.

The younger (Johann) Nicholas first married Susanna (?) in about 1668.  Between 1670 and 1690 this couple had six children, four sons and two daughters, who.  When Susanna Megel died in March, 1691 in Walschbronn she left her husband, Nicholas, with several minor children.  In order to provide for them Nicholas married Marguerite Strauder the following August.  This couple had seven more children, four sons and three daughters. One of these children, Anna Appolonia, born in 1704, married Theobald Zimmermann in January, 1723. Their younger daughter, Catharina (b. 1731), in turn married Johann Wendel Demerle'.  These were the parents of Anna Barbara Demerle, who married Benoit (Benedict) Oliger and came to America in 1830. They were the grandparents of Maria Oliger who married Jean Nicolas Megel in Cincinnati in 1859.

Sebastien, born in 1650, the second son of Johann Nicolas Megel, married Anne-Marie Koelsch in about 1670 in Liederscheidt.  This couple had four children, a son, Jean Adam, born in 1670, and three younger daughters, Catherine, Anne and Jeanne.  Jean Adam Megel in turn married Regine Meyer in 1693 in Walschbronn. This couple had eight children, four sons and four daughters. The eldest, Jean (Johann) George Megel, born in March 1697 in Liederschiedt.  In 1736 he married Maria Elisabeth Bergdoll (b. 1716), whose family had recently immigrated to Lorraine from the Austrian Tyrol.  This couple had eleven children.  Their second son, Jean Nicholas was born March 20, 1774 in Liederschiedt.  It seems likely that he may have served in the French army during Napoleonic Wars since he did not marry until he was nearly thirty six years old.  In January, 1810 he married Barbara Bertel in Liederschiedt.  Between 1811 and 1823 this couple had six children; Balthasar, Jean Adam, Elisabeth, Appoline, a child who died at birth, and Peter.  Peter emigrated to America in about 1845 and is a direct Megel ancestor.

Barbara Megel died in March, 1824, leaving her husband with several minor children.  Shortly thereafter Nicholas married Catharina Ketterle, twenty two years his junior.  This latter couple had five more children; Madeliene, Madeliene (Lena), Jean Nicholas (1831), Jean Nicholas Theodore (Nicholas), and Anne Marie.  The first Jean Nicholas died at age 9 months, and it is likely that the first Madeliene also died in infancy.  Their father, Jean Nicholas passed away in August 1840 at age 66, leaving his second wife with several minor children.  Three of these children, Lena, Nicholas and Anna Marie emmigrated to America in late 1853.

Mention of numerous other Megels is found in the church and civil records of Liederschiedt, Walschbronn, Schweix and adjoining villages.  Over the years these Megels intermarried into other local families, creating numerous additional family lines throughout Lorraine and northern France to the present day.

The Oligers in Walscbronn

The origins of the Oliger family are also hidden in the mists of time. Probably they migrated to Lorraine from the Pfalz where the names Oliger, Ohliger and Ohlinger are quite common. The earliest mention of the Oliger name is the birth of Nicholas Oliger in 1655, the son of Nicholas and Gertrude Oliger. His pace of birth is uncertain. In about 1680 he married Catharina Buchheit, who was born in Altheim, Germany, in 1658. The couple settled in Bousseviller, west of Liederschiedt,  where they had four children: Marie, Jean Nicholas, Pierre and Jean Adam.  The second son, Pierre, born in 1685, married Anna Elisabeth Dietrich from Haspelschiedt in about 1705.

Pierre and Anna Elisabeth Oliger also settled in Bousseviller.  Between 1707 and 1734 they appear to have had sixteen children.  About 1731 the third of these, Jean Adam, born in 1710, married Anna Regina Roth.  Anna Elisabeth was born in Walschbronn in 1711, so the couple settled there after their marriage.  This couple were the paternal grandparents of Benoit (Benedict) Oliger, who emigrated to America with hi family in 1830.

Benoit Oliger, son of Piere Oliger and Christine Huber, was born in Walschbronn in October, 1771.  According to Jean-Philippe Chaumont, an archivist at the French National Archives in Paris, the town records show that, at the time of the French Revolution (1789-91), Benoit was wanted by the police, presumably because he had left to evade the French military draft.  As of the 5th year of the Republic (1794), Benoit Oliger was no longer considered as a fugitive because he was able to show certificates according to which he lived in Walschbonn and in Kreppen.  On the 11th of Frimaire of the year IX (December 2, 1800), he swore fidelity to the Republic in the sous-prefecture in Sarreguemines.   The following year, at age 30, he asked for a pardon, which was granted on the 18th of Brumaire of the year XI (November 9, 1802).

In April, 1795, shortly after returning to Walschbronn, Benoit Oliger married Anna Barbara Demerle', daughter of  Johann Wendel Demerle', of Austrian descent.  Research into the civil records indicates that Benoit and Barbara Oliger settled in Walschbronn and had at least twelve children.  Eight of these, Peter, Catherine,  Marie Anna, Balthasard (Balser), Anna, Johannes Wendel, John and Barbara joined their parents and emigrated to America in the early 1839's. 

The Demerles/Tamerles

The ancestry of Benoit Oliger's wife, Anna Barbara Demerle', can be traced to the middle 1600's in the Tirolean Alps of western Austria, where the name was spelled Tamerle.   The earliest record found to date is the marriage of Michael Tamerle, son of Matthaus Tamerle and Margarethe Nestler, to Katharina Lentsch on September 12, 1666.  Their grandson, Peter Paul Tamerle, was born in 1703 in Strengen.  He moved to Lorraine from Austria some time in the 1720's and remained there until his death in 1780.

In about 1730 Peter Paul Tamerle/Demerle' married Anna Ottilia Strassel who came from a well-established family in Waldhouse, near Walschbronn.  Anna died in 1741 at the age of 32, leaving five minor children.  Peter Paul remained in Walschbronn until his death in 1780.  Their eldest son, Johann Wendel, born in 1733, married Catharina Zimmermann.  These were the parents of Anna Barbara Demerle' who married Benoit (Benedict) Oliger and came to America in 1830.  

Michael Gerth, was born on November 11, 1832 in Lochwiller, a French village about 10 miles from Strasbourg in Lower Alsace. Family legend says that Michael was a schoolteacher before he came to America, although his marriage record lists him as a farmer. Although the Gerth Family had lived in the area since at least the early 1700's it has only been possible to trace his line back to Michael's parents, Jean Gerth and Anne Marie Linder, who were born in Lochwiller in 1804 and 1801, respectively. They were married about 1830 and had one son, Michael and two daughters, Sophie and Marguerite.

Michael's wife, Madeleine (Magdalena or Lena) Mullar was born on December 10, 1840, also in Lochwiller. Her father, Michael Muller, was born in 1811, and her mother, Anne Marie Linder, was also born in 1811. The Muller line traces its ancestry back to Joannes Muller, who was born in the 1670's. Madeleine Muller's mother was also Anne Marie Linder. No connection has been found between Michael Gerth's mother and Madeleine Muller's mother, although the shared the same name. It seems likely that they may have been cousins born about ten years apart.  Michael Gerth and Madeleine Muller were married there in Lochwiller in January, 1867. The newly married couple left Alsace shortly thereafter for America

Between 1830 and all of the family's immigrant ancestors moved to America, settling initially in Ohio and moving later to Indiana.  Today members of the family can be found throughout the United States.  For the history of the family in America please go to The Megel Family in America 1830 - Present  in the Histories section of this site.

Dan Wedig

Updated November 2016