Martin Chroniclar Meili

Martin MEILI

Notes from Janet and Robert Wolfe Genealogy Gateway

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   * Father: Hans MEILI

* Mother: Elsbeth HOCHSTRASSER
* Birth: 26 DEC 1607, Birmensdorf, Zurich, Switzerland
* Death: BET 1658 AND 1668, Schaffhausen, Switzerland
* Sources: Individual
* Sources: Marriage Martin MEILI and Anna Barbara BAR
* Partnership with: Katharine WINTSCH
o Child: Katharina MEILI Birth: 18 JUN 1631, Stallikon, Switzerland
o Child: Barbara MEILI Birth: 1632, Stallikon, Switzerland
o Child: Hans MEILI Birth: 1633, Stallikon, Switzerland
* Partnership with: Anna Barbara BAR
Marriage: 1635, Switzerland
o Child: Elsbeth MEILI Birth: 1636, Stallikon, Switzerland
o Child: Verena MEILI Birth: ABT 1637, Stallikon, Switzerland
o Child: Jakob MEILI Birth: ABT 1639, Stallikon, Switzerland
o Child: Hans Peter MEILI Birth: 17 JUN 1642, Predigerkirche, Zurich, Switzerland
* Notes for Martin MEILI
Ancestors of Martin MEILI
/-Jacob MEILI
/-Hans MEILI
Martin MEILI
\-Elsbeth HOCHSTRASSER
Descendants of Martin MEILI
1 Martin MEILI
=Katharine WINTSCH
2 Katharina MEILI
2 Barbara MEILI
2 Hans MEILI
=Anna Barbara BAR Marriage: 1635, Switzerland
2 Elsbeth MEILI
=Hans Jagli KUNDIG Marriage: 1666, Zurich, Switzerland
3 Elizabeth KENDIG
=Anstett VOLKEN
3 Martin KENDIG
=Elizabeth BAR
4 John Jacob KENDIG
=Annali MOYER
3 Henirich KENDIG
3 Susanna Orendorff KENDIG
=Hans GROFF Marriage: 1700, Germantown, Pennsylvania
4 Peter GROFF
4 Hannah GROFF
=Peter GOOD Marriage: ABT 1728
4 Samuel GROFF
=Christiana HUBER
4 Fronica GROFF
=Henry LANDIS
4 Marcus GROFF
=Anna HUBER Marriage: 1733
4 Daniel GROFF
4 John GROFF
4 David GROFF
=Barbara MOYER
4 Mary GROFF
=John KRY
2 Verena MEILI
2 Jakob MEILI
2 Hans Peter MEILI
source:

email: bobwolfe@umich.edu;janwolfe@umich.edu

Mennosearch.com

Meili Family

Richard W. Davis

Martin Meili, b. 26 Oct 1607, Stallikon. He died at Dühren by 1668. He moved to Alsace in 1647 and then in 1650 to Dühren, Germany. He married first about 1630 Katharina Wintsch and second after 1634 Anna Bär, daughter of Anabaptist Osli Bar of Ebertswil. He was called an Anabaptist in 1634 with his wife Katherina Winschli. He was called an Anabaptist at Stallikon in 1637 and 1640 with his wife Anna Bähr. Their marriage was unblessed. The son of Martin Meylin was from Dühren in 1661 when he attended an illegal worship meeting at Steinsfurt, Germany. According to Anna Bar's uncle Jacob Bar's estate papers in Switzerland in 1668 she was called the widow of Martin Meili living in the Pfalz and was reported to be an Anabaptist.

1. Katharina Meili, b. 18 Jun 1631, Stallikon. She was living with her parents in 1634. Not in 1637 census. Not 1640 census. In 1641 and 1646 she was living with her uncle Jakob Wintsch of Landikon, Birmensdorf.

2. Barbara Meili, b. 1632, Stallikon. age 5 in 1637, age 7 in 1640.

3. Hans Meili, b. 1633, Stallikon. age 4 in 1637, age 6 in 1640. He was living with his uncle Jakob Wintsch in 1641.

4. Elsbeth Meili, b. 1635, Stallikon. age 2 in 1637, age 4 in 1640. She was living with her uncle Hans Hochstrasser at Birmensdorf, age 8 in 1643. She married Hans Jagli Kündig and moved to Alsace.

5. Verena Meili, b. 1637, Stallikon, age 3 in 1640. She was living with her uncle Hans Hochstrasser in 1643 at Birmensdorf, age 7.

6. Jakob Meili, b. 1639, Stallikon, age 1 in 1640. In 1648 his father took him away secretly to an unknown place. He was probably the son of Martin Meili who attended the illegal Anabaptist meeting in 1661 at Steinsfurt, Germany with his father.

7. Child, b. 1642. In hospice in Zurich.

8. Anna Meili, b. 13 Apr 1645, Obholz, Kloten, Zurich.

The Woman Who Had a Baby in Jail

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In 1637 they caught the minister, Hans Meyli, of the Horgerberg, in the snowcrowned Alps south of Lake Zürich in Switzerland. They tried him and threw him into the Oetenbach castle dungeon, but after forty-three weeks he escaped. The Protestant authorities (of Zwingli's reformed church) were furious. They did

continual house searches and harrassed the believers. Thirty Täuferjäger (Anabaptist hunters) found out where the Meylis lived and with bare swords and firearms stormed the house, hacking through doors and throwing things around to find the escaped minister. They cursed and swore and blasphemed God. When

they realized that he was not there, they took his two sons, Hans Jr. and Martin Meyli captive.

Martin was already married. They grabbed his young wife and tied her up tightly. Her name was Anna. She had a fourteen-week-old baby, which they took from her and gave to people from the state church to keep. They took the captives to Zürich, tried them and locked them up in the Oetenbach castle dungeons. They took off the men's clothes and chained them to the stone floor for twenty weeks. They tortured them with spiders and caterpillars. They gave them just enough food and water to keep them alive. But the prisoners would not recant. After one year the two men escaped "with undamaged consciences" and after two years, on Good Friday, 1641, Anna escaped as well. They fled from place to place, but the people betrayed them. Anna fell into the hands of the Täuferjäger again and was imprisoned, first at the Oetenbach, then in the Spital jail. This time she was expecting a baby. They left her shackled until the pains of labour came upon her. Then they loosened her to have the baby, and "with the help and grace of God" she escaped. After her husband found her they fled across the mountains and through the Black Forest to Germany.

Source: The Secret of the Strength, What Would the Anabaptists Tell This Generation? by Peter Hoover

http://www.gw.org/Sos/Sos.pdf

Martin Meyli in 1658 wrote an account of the persecution of the Anabaptists which was included in the Martyrs’ Mirror.

http://people.musc.edu/~geesey/BaerHist.html

1648 - 1660 Mennonite Refugees

mennosearch.com

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I [assume Richard W. Davis, site owner] have put this list together from emigration lists for Canton Zurich, court records of Bern and the list of Anabaptists taken at the time of their arrest for attending an illegal worship meeting at Steinsfurt, Germany.

Hans Meili, b. c 1585, of Stallikon, Zurich. -- Father

He was in Duhren, Pfalz by 1650.

Martin Meili, b. 1608, Stallikon, Zurich. -- Son

He went to Alsace in 1647 and to the Pfalz

by 1661.

Hans Meili, b. 1615, Stallikon, Zurich. -- Likely Son, Hans Jacob

He was living at Ittlingen, Pfalz by 1652.

In 1645 Martin Mylin and Jere Mangold chronicled the Mennonite troubles. In 1658 Martin published his "Mennonite History". Ref.:Mennonite Encyclopedia,Vol.III,p.666. Hans Martin's first wife,Trini Wintsch,gave birth to three children:Tryni,born 18 June 1631;Barbel b.c1632;and Hans(Jr.)b.c1634. His second wife Anna Bar gave birth to Elsbeth,1636;Verena,1637;Jakob c1639;Hans Peter c1645;and Anna 1645. Some claim that Jakob c1639 was father of Martin the immigrant,but according to H.F.Eshleman's "Annals of the Swiss German Settlers of PA.",1917,Martin the immigrant was son of Hans Jr.(no mention of Jakob being the immigrant's father). Ref. also "Mirror",p.1052;and "Rupp",p.74. An interesting descendant of this Martin Meili/Meyli appears to be James Lewis (J.L.) Kraft (1874-1953),the cheesemaker.