"People don't know how entertaining a study [genealogy] is.  Who begot whom is a most amusing kind of hunting; one recovers a grandfather instead of breaking one's own neck -- and then one grows so pious to the memory of a thousand persons one never heard of before."
Horace Walpole to the Reverend Mr. Cole, 5 June, 1775


Moeglein Genealogy 


Descendants of Joseph Mögelein and Sophie Borchers

Welcome Moeglein, Borcher, Meyer, Mickens and Schmidt descendants!  This page has grown tremendously since May thanks to the input of many wonderful people.  Everyone has worked together in such a way that we have made great progress in taking our known ancestors back to the old world.  I hope that everyone has enjoyed this endeavor as much as I have.  This page contains a tremendous amount of information, and over the next few days, I hope to reformat it to make it easier to use and see the information, including adding sources for the material supporting it.  For now, I should mention that I have implemented an English/German-German/English translator into the Moeglein Genealogy for quick translations of the documents that we encounter.  It is located on a separate page with a link below.

As the big yellow words above say, this is a new page. It contains the same information as the old, but because it was getting so long I decided to split it into separate pages, by generation. This start page contains the information about the first generation, Joseph Möglein, Sophie Borchers, what little is known of John Rising, and their children. It also contains the guestbook and my address.

You can navigate through the pages in two ways; you can either jump directly between pages using the 'Go to Generation #-' links below, or if you are interested in a particular line you can click on the name of the child you wish to know more about (if that person's name is highlighted), and be taken to the next generation, indexed to that person. The page will load with that persons information on the screen, so there will be no need to scroll down to look for him/her. It may take a couple minutes for the new page to load, but it works very well.

As of today, I haven't gotten around to making the sources page, but that will be forthcoming, as soon as I get the sources (have them out of state you know), and there will also be a links page containg not only the old links to sites about naming customs, but also for general research in central Europe including addresses of the many archives located throughout Germany. I will get to that as soon as possible, and hopefully it will lead to new clues and answers.

For now, please enjoy the information gathered by the many wonderful researchers. I have recently found clues that may answer some questions about Joseph Ernest Moeglein (als Maglen/Maglein), and hopefully will be able to follow up on that soon.

  Go directly to Generation #2 page
  Go directly to Generation #3 page

Generation No. 1

1. JOHN JOSEPH JACOB MÖGELEIN was born 24 Apr, 1826 in Bavaria, Germany; the exact location is not known. He signed his own name as "Mögelein", indicating that he pronounced it [MAY-geh-line], not [MOWG-line] as it is pronounced today. The name Moeglein is said to be toponymic, that is coming from the name of a location, and so we have looked at locations within Germany that could be the source.  There are three towns in Germany named Möglingen, Mögglingen, and Mögelin.  These are close, but none are in Bavaria.  Two are close to the Bavarian border, and may have been included in the country of Bavaria when Joseph was born.  More research will be done in this area.  On 20 May, 1848, Joseph entered America at New York City, aboard the ship London, an American ship that sailed only between N.Y. and London/Liverpool.  This passenger list gave his place of origin only as "Germany".  He noted in his declaration of intent for naturalization that he came from Bavaria (Bayern), but didn't note the name of the town.  He married ENGEL SOPHIE MARIE ELEANORE BORCHERS (Borgers/Burgers) 16 Dec, 1851 in Madison, Dane Co., Wisconsin.  Her information is below.  The 1858 Madison City Directory has the entry Jas. Maglein, laborer, home on W. Canal between Main and Washington avenues.  West Canal is now called Hancock.  It appears that by 1860 he had moved to the house on Williamson, as in that census he was living near the Sprecher Brewery, which was located on the corner of Williamson and Blount.  In January of 1865, Joseph joined the United States Army, 45th Reg, Wisc. Volunteers.  He was stationed at Ft. Negley near Nashville Tennessee, and served as a cook for his company.  At this time it does not appear that he was involved in any battles, but I will try to find a regimental history of the 45th.   On 24 May, 1867, Joseph 'Moeglan' (als. Moglan), purchased from C. H. Gegelschap, a $1000 life insurance policy.  This was just two days short of being six months before his untimely death.  "Mrs. Sophie Moglan" was paid $975.35 on the 26th of the same month.  The information that Joseph supplied for the policy again puts his place of origin as Bavaria, but again without specifying a town.  Joseph died 22 Oct, 1867 in Madison, Dane Co., Wisconsin, and was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, the cemetery used by Fort Randall -- Wisconsin's Civil War military training camp where the University now stands, Madison, Wisconsin.  His grave was recently marked with a veteran's marker, by Lee Moeglein, to replace the original marker which had mysteriously disappeared.

SOPHIE was born in Stroit, in the Duchy of Braunschweig on 22 Oct, 1830 (according to emigration records--Oct, 1829 by death certificate), daughter of HEINRICH CHRISTIAN BORCHERS (linen weaver) and SOPHIE MARIE HAARS.  She immigrated to the United States sometime in ealy 1851.  The Emigrant Index cards from the German archives have the note "Br.1.1851", which means Volume one of 1851.  Three of her brothers came to America in 1854; they were: Friederich Wilhelm Borchers, born 26 Mar, 1818 in Stroit, also a linen weaver.  Johann Ernst Conrad Borchers, born 27 Sep 1823 in Stroit.  And finally, Heinrich Andreas Ludwig Borchers, born 24 Jun 1826 in Stroit.  The younger two were not married, and their occupations were not listed.  Friederich was married to Johanne Justine Caroline Steinhof in Stroit on 14 May 1843.  Johanne was born 3 Jul 1821 in Groß Freden, daughter of Ilse Dorothee Steinhof.  Friederich and Johanne had the following three children when they came to America: (1) Heinrich Christian Wilhelm, born 23 Jul 1847; (2) Engel Marie Dorothee, born 8 Dec 1849; and (3) Engel Sophie Caroline Auguste, born 12 Jul 1853.  At this time it is not known where these three settled, but it should be noted that about this same time (mid-1850's) at least two Borchers men settled in a small community just west of the town of Crete, Indiana.  They used these same family names over and over (Sophie, Engel, Dorothea, Conrad), but I haven't been able to check further into these families.  In the 1850 census of the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin was listed a Frederick Borchers from Braunsweig--relationship to our Borchers is unknown.  Sophie died 31 Mar 1899, while living with her daughter, Lena Meyer, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was buried in Crystal Lake Cemetery there.
Children of JOSEPH MÖGELEIN and SOPHIA BURGERS are:
2.     i. MARIE MAGDALENA "LENA" MOEGLEIN, b. 1 Jun, 1853, Madison, Dane Co., Wisconsin; d. 23 Sep,
              1935, Minneapolis, Hennepin Co., Minnesota; m. FREDERICK AUGUST MEYER, 8 Sep 1873, Dane Co.,
              Wisconsin.
3.    ii. JOHN GEORGE FREDERICK MOEGLEIN, b. 22 May, 1855, Madison, Dane Co., Wisconsin; d. 19 Feb,
               1930, Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minnesota.
      iii. MATHILDA MOEGLEIN, b. 3 Jul, 1858, Madison, Dane Co., Wisconsin; d. 7 Sep, 1880; m. HEINRICH W.
               STORK, 27 Apr, 1879, Madison, Dane Co., Wisconsin. Buried Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, as is an
               infant child.
      iv. CHARLES MOEGLEIN, b. 12 Mar, 1860, Madison, Dane Co., Wisconsin; d. 26 May, 1870, Madison,
               Dane Co., Wisconsin. Buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison.
4.    v. JOSEPH ERNEST MOEGLEIN [MAGLEIN], b. 6 Sep, 1863, Madison, Dane Co., Wisconsin; d. 29 Dec, 1943,
               Duluth, St. Louis Co., Minnesota.

Barely over a year after Joseph's death, Sophie married a second time, on 26 Oct 1868, to John Rising (or Reising). John was born about 1840 in Bavaria, son of Peter and Margaret Rising, and was a brewer. He gave Sophie at least one child who survived, Sophia, Jr. It would seem that since Sophie and the children were again known by the name Moeglein, by 1880, that she and John were later separated or divorced.Child of JOHN RISING and SOPHIE BORCHERS MOEGLEIN is:
5.    i. SOPHIA J. MOEGLEIN, b. 1 Mar 1871, Madison, Dane Co., Wisconsin; d. 9 Nov 1922, Minneapolis, Hennepin
               Co., Minnesota.
 



Moeglein

I believe that most genealogists welcome the dissemination of data to other researchers. The collection of genealogical information is a group endeavor. Thank you Alan Bennyhoff, Lynn and Erin Betlock, Suzanne Gonneville, Sandra LaGrone, Bim Moeglein, Father Jim Moeglein, Lee Moeglein, Tom Moeglein, Melody Redman, Dorothy Swanson and Paul Selk for your contributions toward informing and uniting our widespread Moeglein family members.

Please e-mail me with any additions or corrections: teufelfrau@geocities.com

This page updated Monday 13 Mar, 2000.