Before emigrating to Monroe County, Michigan in 1873, this branch of the Heiden Family originated in the northern Germany province of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The ancestors of the modern day family members were born and raised in tiny villages surrounded by farms owned by the Dukes or other elites of the day. After World War II, this area was included the former East German Democratic Republic but is now part of the re-unified Germany.

 
Ruggelin - Ruggelein - Roggelin - Roggelen
 Roglin - Roggelein - Roggelien -  Regelin

The spelling of this family's name has appeared in many different forms over the years and throughout the documents. Most of the people in rural Germany in the late 19th century were illiterate and relied on church pastors to write their names into the record books. Often, the pastor simply spelled a name phonetically to the best of his ability or just spelled it incorrectly without reference to earlier entries by another cleric.

The birth, census, marriage and death records for what we will call the Regelin family have been recorded in at least the eight variations listed at the top of this page. The dates and places match for each person but the name may be spelled differently on various forms. We will give most weight to instances where the person actually signed his or her name. Also, names chiseled onto headstones are usually creditable.

If you have some personal knowledge about this name, please let us know.





"Vater: angeblich Johann Cansier, Knecht zu Thürkow

Mutter: Maria Heiden, ein Madchen zu Gross Wökern"

  Translated into English, this would read:

“Father: Alleged to be Johann Cansier, farm worker from Thürkow

Mother: Maria Heiden, house servant from Gross Wokern”
 

 
 
 

The ancestors of the modern day family members were born and raised in tiny villages surrounded by farms owned by a Duke or other elites of the day. After World War II, this area was included the former East German Democratic Republic but is now part of the re-unified Germany and is called Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

 

In the summer of 1996, I took a trip to the northern part of Germany to visit the area where our ancestor's lived. On the speed-limit-less autobahn, it took no time to travel from Rostock out to the area in question. It was easy to envision our relatives living there with very little having changed in the past century or so.

Life for the people who lived in this part of the country was, obviously, quite different from what we experience nearly 150 years later. To help to understand the differences we have included brief units about farm life, houses, burial customs, marriage and emigration patterns for the late 1800s including a report about the Port of Hamburg.

 
It can help to see a physical representation of facts and other data involved in a family history. This partially explains the use of "family trees" with relatives scattered among the branches which helps to bring order to things.

The RootsMagic software that I use has many, many options for displaying the information in its database. I have included a few examples and hope to add more in the future. If you are interesting in getting a chart or display for your particular branch of a family, I would be glad to help you.