Exploring Joachim Meyer's Siblings
A compilation of known records for Joachim's brothers and sisters
In my initial article “Joachim Meyer’s Family, Revealed,” I outlined the evidence which conclusively identifies Joachim’s parentage, baptismal date, and home neighborhood. Central is a record of his mother Anna Freund, who in 1571 petitioned the courts to settle legal matters after the deaths of both Joachim and his brother Georg. Further evidence also includes a series of property records naming Anna and her husband Jacob Meyer, a papermaker, in 1558, and finally Joachim’s own baptismal record with “Jacob Meyer, papermaker” listed as his father in 1537. These records, in combination, establish Joachim’s origins beyond a reasonable doubt.
This article serves as a compilation of sorts, presenting all of the (known) archival mentions of Joachim’s twelve siblings, and exploring the evidence that solidifies their connections to each other and Jacob Meyer. Their baptismal records include godparents chosen by Jacob and Anna, many of them deeply embedded in the 16th-century papermaking industry at Basel. In a future article we will investigate these godparents in more detail, looking at the many professional and neighborly connections shared by this interesting group of people - and also present sources which give us some insight into their lives.
The baptismal records presented below are freely accessible, after creating an account, on the FamilySearch Basel-Stadt, Sankt Alban Taufen 1532-1571 page. We will discuss the siblings of the family in chronological order of birth, which is especially convenient as Joachim Meyer is the first-born of the whole crew!
All sources were transcribed and translated by myself and/or my research partner Miriam, and can be viewed in full within the main “Meyer’s Family Collection” document.
Jacob Meyer, papermaker, father of the family
The baptismal records from the parish of St. Alban (the Meyer family church) annoyingly only list the name of the father for each child within them. In contrast, when examining the Strasbourg fencers, the inclusion of both the mother and father’s name are often key in validating that each kid belonged to the same family, and it wasn’t just a case of shared names (a very common occurrence during this era, due to roughly a thousand “Hanses” hanging out in each city).
However, the Basel sources are robust enough to help us establish the identity of the other “Jacob Meyers”. More strikingly, the St. Alban baptism register (Taufregister/Taufbuch) for 1532-1571 includes a contemporary index entry for “Jacob Meyer, papermaker.” I had missed this in my past explorations due to FamilySearch bundling this book and later taufbücher in a single collection.
This is a key piece of evidence, as this entry was written during the 16th century, by a local parish scribe, and includes accurate page numbers for not only Joachim Meyer’s own baptism, but also for all but one of Joachim’s siblings. This closes the gaps left by the omission of the mother’s name and the fact that only a few records directly list Jacob Meyer’s papermaking profession. The scribe likely knew Jacob or members of his family in person. In conjunction with a clear pattern of godparents which will emerge, this lets us explore each of the Meyer family children with confidence.
Let’s begin on page 11 with Joachim’s own record.
Joachim Meyer, baptized August 16th, 1537
Here, Jacob gets identified as a “papirer knecht”, meaning a servant or workman, who was likely employed in one of the many paper mills located in the St. Alban neighborhood. Joachim’s godmother Anna Kielhammer was married to Niclaus Dürr - the Dürr family was especially prolific in the papermaking business, owning multiple mills. Her brother Anthoni Kielhammer was also a mill owner. Since the Kielhammer family originated in the city of Schaffhausen, they were commonly called “Schaffhuser” in Basel.
Joachim’s godfather Heinrich Wildt, in contrast, likely did not own any mills, but was the son of a cutler. The only other currently-known mention of Joachim from Basel occurs in September 1571, after his mother had received his inheritance.
Sophia Meyer, baptized December 3rd, 1538
This is an odd one as there is no godfather listed for Sophia, which is not typical. The Hüslers were another prominent papermaking family. No additional records naming Sophia have yet been found, but she is a top candidate for appearing in an identifiable manner in other sources, as Sophia was not a common name at the time.
Hans Jacob Meyer, baptized August 19th, 1540
Hans Jacob’s godparents include Balthasar Kielhammer (called Schaffhuser), brother to Anna Kielhammer (Joachim’s godmother), as well as Magdalena Hertenstein, sister-in-law to Joachim’s godfather Heinrich Wildt.
Hans Jacob appears multiple times in documents from Basel’s court system, getting in trouble for various misdeeds which I have explored in this article: The Legal Troubles of Joachim Meyer's Family. He also appears once within the Strasbourg council records to request permission for a fechtschule, which I discuss in the original Meyer’s Family article.
He had four to five daughters (one unreliable record) with his wife Agnes Schneider, all of them baptized in the St. Peter parish between 1563 and 1570. Hans Jacob’s oldest daughter Elsbeth shares a godparent with his youngest sister Esther: Gebhart Flachmüller (more on her below).
A man named Lienhart Grünnagel was zunftmeister (guild master) of the Smith’s guild in 1532, but this specific record likely refers to his son who was also named Lienhart. The rest of Joachim’s nieces are laid out in the main research document.
Magdalena Meyer, baptized October 23, 1541
This is the first record to omit the “papermaker” title for Jacob, with the identity of “Michael” being unknown due to a missing last name. However, Anna Kielhammer reappears as a godparent, as does a female member of the Hüsler family who might possibly be identical with the “young godmother Hüsler” of Sophia’s and Hans Jacob’s associated records. No additional mentions of Magdalena have been found.
Ursula Meyer, baptized March 5th, 1543
Peter Sonntag, commonly called “Welschpeter”, was a “papermaker master” and mill owner, who owned the mill which would eventually come into the possession of Hans Thüring. No additional records for Ursula have been found.
Catharina Meyer, baptized September 21st, 1546
Joachim Degenhart was a papermaker who bought a mill from the Hüsler family in 1542. Catharina Dürr was another member of the Dürr family, possibly married to family patriarch Georg Dürr (if so, she was either a cousin or took on her husband’s name). Margret Eckler was the future wife of the papermaker Hans Thüring, who would have a close relationship with the Meyer family. No additional records for Catharina have been found.
Esther Meyer #1, baptized July 7th, 1548
The first of the children named “Esther” was baptized in 1548, with Balthasar Kielhammer again taking on the role of godfather. The record implies that Esther Meyer was named after Esther Hüsler of the Hüsler papermaking family. Anna might’ve been the daughter of a local apothecary, Thoman Silberberg.
This Esther likely died sometime before 1550, as there is another Esther Meyer baptized in August of 1550.
Hans Ulrich Meyer, baptized July 4th, 1549
Gladi Thalliocher was a miller and prominent citizen in St. Alban, who was connected to the large Gernler family, and lived 2 houses west of Jacob Meyer at the still standing 43 St. Alban-Vorstadt. His sister-in-law Dorothea was godmother to Jacob’s daughter Ursula Meyer in 1543.
There was a man by the name of “Ulrich Meyer”, who might have been born around the same time as Hans Ulrich. He appears within the genealogical research of Dr. Lotz, with associated baptismal dates for his children which would line up with a 1549 birth date. However, there are no currently known mentions which tie this Ulrich securely to our Hans Ulrich.
Esther Meyer #2, baptized August 24th, 1550
This is the one Meyer sibling that was not properly indexed, but her godparents and date of birth are consistent with the other siblings. She died some time before 1552, because…
Esther Meyer #3, baptized August 8th, 1552
This Esther outlived not only her similarly-named sister but also Joachim. She appears in the Basel court archives in September of 1571, just a few days prior to the record naming Anna Freund. In this source, her guardianship is shifted from an unknown party to that of Hans Thüring, the husband of her late godmother Margaret Eckler (who died before the late 1550s).
There Esther Meyer, formerly the pious abandoned daughter of Jacob Meyer the papermaker, citizen at Basel, has been lawfully put under the advocacy of Hans Thüring the papermaker. Promised, as is custom.
As Jacob Meyer likely died in 1563, there was possibly an unknown intermediary. Additional records for Esther have not yet been examined.
Georg Meyer, baptized June 8th, 1555
Georg is an anomaly, as none of his godparents are shared with the other Meyer siblings. They do however appear in other records, with Hans Lienbacher for example acting as godparent alongside Nicklaus Dürr and a member of the Gernler family.
Luckily for us, Georg is the other sibling to appear in the “smoking gun” record, being directly named as Joachim Meyer’s brother and Anna Freund’s son! No additional records have so far been found.
Hieronymus Meyer, baptized November 18th, 1556
The record for Hieronymus Meyer exhibits a strangely high-class collection of godparents. The theologian and professor Ulrich Coccius (called “Essig” in Basel) is named first, then the printer and publisher Hieronymus Curio (son of the famous Valentin Curio). Finally, maiden Charity Gyrenfalck (= Gyrfalcon) was the daughter of Thomas Gyrenfalck, preacher at Basel’s main cathedral.
Perhaps Jacob Meyer had begun making different connections at this time and these godparents were a way of solidifying those social ties. Hieronymus might’ve even been set up as a future member of Basel’s Calvinist clergy. Whatever the plan was, it likely did not come to fruition, as Hieronymus Curio died in 1563 in the same year as Jacob Meyer, and a “Hieronymus Meyer” does not reappear in our sources.
Gabriel Meyer, baptized April 19th, 1559
Georg (Jerg) Dürr Jr. was the son of Georg Dürr Sr., who had established the Dürr papermaking family in Basel. Jacob Thurneysen was Joachim Degenhart’s successor, who took over his mill in 1557. Barbara Koller might’ve been identical with Barbara Keller, the daughter of the tailor Thoman Keller. Thoman Keller is recorded as having illegally left for war in 1558, to fight as a mercenary together with Esther Meyer’s godparent Gebhart Flachmüller!
No additional records for Gabriel have been found.
Conclusions
That’s the lot of them! So far, only three of Joachim’s siblings show up outside of their baptismal records, with Esther, Hans Jacob, and Georg appearing elsewhere. Others might’ve died in infancy, or possibly due to the plague which caused mass mortality in Basel in 1563/64 (claiming the lives of Hieronymus Curio and possibly Jacob Meyer). This plague outbreak was one of the worst disasters in Basel history, killing roughly 4000 inhabitants according to a contemporary witness.
Otherwise, the lack of further mentions for Joachim’s sisters might come from Basel parish records being less detailed or less exacting than those of other cities. For example, in Strasbourg most baptismal registers contain the names of both the father and the mother - causing women to be recorded more often within them.
Additionally, Basel is surprisingly deficient in surviving marriage records prior to the 17th century, with partial notes existing for only one or two parishes. These were also treasure troves of data in Strasbourg, where they regularly list the name of the father of the bride, or a previous husband if widowed - thus allowing us to tie families securely together through these data points.
What happened to Joachim’s male siblings Hans Ulrich, Gabriel and Hieronymus is more mysterious. It seems possible that they may have died in the plague outbreak, or moved to a different city like Joachim and appear in records which have not yet been investigated (I have checked all indices at Strasbourg, just in case). Gabriel Meyer is a rather unique name, so he might be a top candidate for a potential future discovery.
Hopefully this compilation of evidence, dates, records, and names will help other researchers (which includes you if you study our open source research documents) find even more pieces to fill in the Joachim Meyer puzzle!
Thank Yous
Thank you to my research partner Miriam, for all of your help in revising this article and adding in extra details about the godparents for each entry. Building this network has been a long running project, and I cannot thank you enough for all of your assistance, guidance, and continued teaching.
Additional thanks to FamilySearch, the Staatsarchivs Basel-Stadt, and the Strasbourg archives.