In 2004 Jim Riehle of Ontario Canada, a descendant of the Wagshurst Riehle lineage, provided Riehle.Net with an article on The Baden Region & the Thirty Years War. While Jim’s article is history and the following article includes genealogical speculation, we imagine here how this brutal war might have impacted his paternal lineage.
The earliest identified Riehle in Wagshurst, Baden is thought to have been one of many men with the name Johannes Riehle. Though unverified, we think this one was born “in Germany” in 1630, right about in the middle of the Thirty Years War, and died in Wagshurst in 1674. His son, Markus, was born in Wagshurst in 1650.
We have verified Y-DNA data confirming Markus’s grandson as having had a variant within the Y-haplogroup E-V13 categorized as FTB92833. The recent data discussed below makes it virtually certain Johannes and his father also had this variant which likely originated only a few generation before Johannes’s birth.
We also have confirmed that this variant was held by Mathias Riehle of Nordrach Baden, born 1681. Nordrach is about 30 km by road southeast of Offenburg, Baden-Württemberg via a circuitous route deep into the Black Forest. It is about 50 km south of Wagshurst by car, about 30 on foot.
The Y-DNA variant carried by both Mathias of Nordrach and Johannes of Wagshurst has a point estimate of origination at 1631, the year after Johannes’s birth. It is possible but very unlikely Johannes or son Markus were the originators of the variant and certain that it originated no later than Markus (supporting details available on request). That leaves Johannes’s father, born perhaps between 1600 and 1610, in the statistical sweet spot for origination, although it might well have been earlier.
Those interested in more information about
this E-V13 Y-DNA subclade with ancestry
out of Wagshurst or Nordrach Baden can
contact us for more details or see here
What was the family relationship between Mathias of Nordrach and Johannes of Wagshurst and where did their common ancestor live at, or not long before, the beginning of that century?
If you read Jim’s article on that terrible war it is not hard to imagine Johannes’s birth-home being destroyed and his family scattered. A surviving teenaged son might have been coerced into the fight, or readily enlisted as a way to find adventure and escape starvation, or simply fled the town of his birth amid the death and destruction. In any case, by the time Johannes’s son was born in 1650, soon after the war ended in 1648, Johannes was settled in Wagshurst. Johannes may have been born in the Nordrach area with an older brother who remained there or returned at the end of the war. The existence of a “Rielin” family in Nordrach in the 17th century might suggest older roots in this part of the Black Forest.
As it has been described above, Mathias of Nordrach would have been the grandnephew of Johannes. Yes, this is speculative, with under 50% statistically likelihood of this being a granduncle / grandnephew relation among the various other possibilities. Yet, based on the DNA data and available genealogical information, this is statistically the single most likely relationship. Historically, the resettlement by one or both lineages before the war (begun in 1618) is far less likely than during the war, when the destruction of homes and resettlement of refugees was commonplace. Accordingly, the general outline of such speculative movements is compelling. If Mathias’s grandfather and Johannes were not brothers, they would likely have been first, second or perhaps third-cousins, with the distance of their relationship becoming less likely the greater the separation.
Jim’s article focused on Baden but the same level of misery was inflected upon the people of Württemberg, including vast numbers of refugees. A relatively close Y-DNA lineage to the Wagshurst/Nordrach line comes out of Württemberg. The most recent common male ancestor linking this lineage to the Wagshurst/Nordrach one probably lived more than 6 centuries before the birth of Johannes in 1630, but their relative genetic proximity suggests deep roots of the parent-clade in Württemberg as well as Baden. The graphic at this link shows the E-FTB92833 subclade (with Mathias Riehle of Nordrach and Markus Riehle of Wagshurst clearly shown) just above its sister subclade, E-FTB885. Both are subclades to E-FTB1593 which likely had roots in Württemberg for hundreds of years before the events of the Thirty Years War. While our new-found friends who descend from Jos Siglin (b. 1475) are very distant cousins, other less distant but as yet unidentified Württemberg branches of E-FTB1593 might have included more recent Riehle ancestors who, as described above, were perhaps driven from their Württemberg home during that terrible war. There are significant numbers of Riehle’s in America and in the area of Mähringen Württemberg who descended from the Rielin’s of Mähringen. The Rielin name appears to be less common in the Baden region but is found in 16th century Nordrach.
This is obviously a work in progress, so stay tuned for updates. Better still, support out Y-DNA testing program and help resolve the questions of Riehle migrations.
The Baden Region & The Thirty Years War