I was able to find considerable information about the Eckers of Hallwangen, another village in Württemberg. As it happens, researchers in Germany went through the church books of the area and transcribed the family registers into modern German. Halaf the struggle is done already! Their book is available through the services of the Church of Latter-day Saints. What a thrill to find the family register of Martin Ecker, the father of Hans Georg Ecker. Here is a compiled image of the original, which spanned two pages.
I have a basic understanding of the structure and format of the entries. The heading identifies record page 92d in the Hallwangen parrish book. Martin Ecker, was a müller in Hallwangen. He was born about 1647 as estimated from his age of 75 at his death, 12 Dec 1722. His parents included NN Ecker (I do not understand the significance of the NN) from Ebershausen, not far from Augsburg. (This is about 150 km to the east, half way to Münich on modern maps.)
He was married (oo) the first time to Anna, the widow of Johann W. Klinck, a müller in Hallwangen (HW). The identifiers such as ‘RKA F 328, HW’ refer to pages in other books and sources. [Details available on request.]
'n(atus) dort' referrs to the estimated year of her birth as calculated from the age of 55 at her death (+) in1678. (dort means 'there' as born there- in Aach.) Her parents (Eltern) are unknown
There was one Kinder (child) from the marriage with Klinck: Hans Wilhelm Klinck, who became the Steifsohn of Martin. Hans William died in 1689 on the dates indicated. He apparently was ill or different in some way. As far as I can tell the terms ‘ein Troph und stumm’ refer to pitied and silent/dumb. (Help anyone?)
The next year, Martin marries for a second time to Anna Döttling who was born and died as shown. The couple have 6 children. [Some of the children can be traced further. Available information will be updated in the family trees on this site.] Nine Tage (days) after the birth of Eva, Anna dies too.
The next year in 1690, Martin marries for a third time to Magdalena Knorr who was born in 1669 . The couple of this third marriage (3. Ehe) have three children. The first two die as infants. The third, George, is born on April 11, 1694. This identifies him as (Hans) Georg Ecker, my 8G Grandfather, who went to Unterreichenbach to seek his fortune. [I have additional information about the ancestors of available elsewhere on this site. For example, Hans Knorr and Margaretha Laistler were born in the late 1500s and are my 10G Grandparents.]
It is not indicated in these records that Martin Ecker was born in Hallwangen. His first wife, Anna, was a widow in Hallwangen so it is likely that she was born in the area. Martin was 20 at the time of this marriage, and Anna 44. We do not know at this time if Martin was a müller before, or “married” into the business, perhaps the boss’s wife. If I can locate the marriage record, or other records, this may become clearer. Next stop, Ebershausen!
Peter Hasselbacher,
Dec 2, 2007