♂Beatus Basler

Beatus Basler (1641–1683) was a native of Rheinweiler, a village on the Upper Rhine in Baden, Germany, who was twice married and died in 1683, when the youngest of his four children was a year old. He was the sixth great-grandfather of Ora Emogene Walrath (1925–2014), through his son Franciscus Jacobus Basler (1680–1748).

Early life

Beatus was born at Rheinweiler in 1641, most likely the son of Beatus Basler and Maria Hügin, and was baptized at Bamlach on 12 June that year. Rheinweiler’s baptisms, marriages and burials were then entered in the church book of Bamlach, the neighboring village. Four younger brothers and sisters were baptized there between 1643 and 1649, and his father died in 1653, when Beatus was twelve.

Marriages and family

Beatus married Anna Maria Wieland at Rheinweiler on 17 July 1667, when he was twenty-six. She died in 1671, and no child of the marriage is on record. He was a widower when, on 8 November 1671, he married Apollonia Bürlin (1652–1717) at Bamlach. Their first son, Franciscus Jacobus, was baptized on 28 July 1672, and a daughter, Maria Eva, on 13 June 1675. The first son died young, and his name was given again to a second Franciscus Jacobus, baptized on 26 May 1680. A fourth child, Beatus Nicolaus, followed on 16 March 1682.

Later life and death

By 1680 Beatus is said to have become a Vogt^W, or village bailiff. He died at Rheinweiler in 1683, at about forty-one, and was probably buried at Bamlach on 20 May that year. Franciscus Jacobus was then about three and Beatus Nicolaus a year old.

Notes

Sources of the dates

The village family book^W is Felix Pöschl and Ingrid Kopf, Ortssippenbuch Bamlach-Rheinweiler 1630–1810 (Basel, 2006), online at online-ofb.de/bamlach, a compiled reconstitution of the two villages’ families from the parish registers. It gives years rather than full dates. It writes his name Beatus Bassler and gives his occupation as Vogt, and it notes that the church book styles him praefectus, the Latin form of the title, at the baptisms of his two youngest children, from 1680. It marks him a widower, viduus, at his marriage at Bamlach in 1671, gives his death at Rheinweiler in 1683, and lists his four children with Apollonia Bürlin: an elder Franciscus Jacobus, born in 1672 and dead before 1680, Maria Eva in 1675, Franciscus Jacobus in 1680 and Beatus Nicolaus in 1682. It gives his first wife as Anna Maria Wieland, who died in 1671.

His baptism and parents

FamilySearch’s index of the Bamlach church book, in the Freiburg Catholic Church Records collection, gives the baptism on 12 June 1641 of Beatus, son of Beatus Bassler and of a mother written Maria Hug. The family book has a Beatus born at Rheinweiler in 1642, son of Beatus Bassler, who died in 1653, and Maria Hügin, with four younger brothers and sisters born between 1643 and 1649, whose baptisms the same index holds. It keeps that Beatus apart from the Vogt, but a contributor’s note on his entry gives him the Vogt’s two marriages, at Rheinweiler on 17 July 1667 and at Bamlach on 8 November 1671, and the Vogt’s own entry asks whether he came from the marriage of Beatus Bassler and Maria Hügin; the family book does not join the two entries. A FamilySearch family tree also joins the 1641 baptism to Apollonia’s husband. The two are taken here to be one man. The year of birth given here, 1641, is that of the baptism; the family book gives 1642.

A second Beatus Bassler, married to Maria Mayer, had children baptized at Bamlach between 1644 and 1651 and died in 1660, so the baptisms of the two families are told apart by the mother’s name.

The marriages

FamilySearch’s index of the Bamlach church book gives the first marriage on 17 July 1667, written Beatus Bassler and Anna Maria Winlaüch, and the second on 8 November 1671, written Beatus Basler and Apolonia Büöl. The family book writes the first wife’s surname Wieland, the form used here.

The children

The same index holds the four baptisms the family book lists, and no other child of the couple: Franciscus Jacobus on 28 July 1672, with the parents written Beaty Basler and Apolonia Büol; Maria Eva on 13 June 1675, with the father written Laurentus and the mother Apolonia Bul; Franciscus Jacobus on 26 May 1680, son of Beatus Basler and Apollonia Büel; and Beatus Nicolaus on 16 March 1682.

His burial

The burial at Bamlach on 20 May 1683 is known from FamilySearch’s index of the Bamlach church book, where the name is written Beatus Kasler and no age or wife is given. It falls in the year the family book gives for his death, and the other men named Beatus Bassler in the register were buried in 1653, 1660 and 1706, so the entry is taken to be his. A FamilySearch family tree also attaches the 1706 burial to him; that burial is of a young man of the same name, born in 1680 to another Bassler couple.