What do we know about Michael?  There are precious few pieces of hard data. We have eight records for children born to Michael and Elizabeth Baÿrl in Edenried between 1720 and 1733. I can not yet find a birth nor a marriage record for Michael in the Edenried church books, (nor in Haunswies records). We do learn some things from the children's records, including that their godparents were from haunswies.  That is the fact that sent us to Haunswies to look for further records.  (Two additional children, Andreas and Martin were born in Haunswies in 1717 and 1718.) 

We also find that in Haunswies, Michael served as witness to marriages in 1719 and 1722.  In the latter, he was said to be from Edenried. I assume he moved from (the church) in Haunswies to Edenried sometime after 1718 and before the birth of daughter Apollonia in 1720. I do not know where either he or Elisabeth came from originally, but it does not seem like it was Haunswies or Edenried.  There is only one clue at present, but it is a cryptic one.

The most important piece of hard evidence so far is his death record below.  His death record tells us that he died 3 Dec 1769 at the age of 85. That would give an estimated birth year of 1684. There is language I do not understand.  He is referred to as the old "Ruepp."  I think "Siliceonio" refers to a decrepit old man. Help needed!  None the less, this is a peg in the sand.

What do we know about Elizabeth?  We have her death record, and that of her son Jacob, but they only give dates of death and not ages.

If Elisabetha started having children in 1717 (son Andreas)  as a 21 year-old young woman, her year of birth might be 1696.  When she dies in 1744, Maria, the youngest of her children for whom we have a birth record, would have been 11. It may be that Michael and Elizabeth began having children earlier in another place, but I have no confirmation or death records of Bayerls that are not accounted for by available birth records. I looked as carefully as I could at baptismal records in Edenried as far back as 1692 and could not identify a Bayerl family birth in Edenried earlier than Apollonia in 1720.  Neither could the indexer of the 1800s who indexed all the church records as far back as 1637.  The family of Michael and Elizabeth are the first Bayerls in Edenried in this period. Looking back through the marriage and baptism records of Haunswies, I can find no marriage record, and no birth earlier than that of Andreas in 1717.  A subsequent indexer could not find any either.

Michael suffered an unimaginable loss in the winter of 1744.  He lost his children Andreas and Firmus at age 16, and Jacob at age 13; as well as his wife Elizabeth, all in the space of a month. He had earlier lost an infant daughter, Clara.  Apollonia survived into adulthood as did Martin. I have no death records for remaining children Andreas born 1717, Simon born 1723, Clara born 1727, or Maria born 1733. The fact that Martin seems to take the place as senior Bayrl in Edenried makes me fear that his older brother did not survive to adulthood.