Our earliest known Mügler ancestor is Balthasar Mügler born about 1605. His place of birth and origin are unknown. Balthasar first appears in the church records of Lützelstein, Alsace (currently known as La Petite Pierre). Here we find that the widower Balthasar Mügler married the widow Maria Anna Keller and also where their first child Johann Peter was baptized. The records further indicate that Balthasar and Maria Anna had been living in the neighboring villages of Struth and Lohr. By 1640 Balthasar had moved to the village of Waldhambach, Alsace. In the early 1700s a branch of the Mügler clan, which included my direct ancestors, moved to the village of Keskastel.
While living in the villages of Waldhambach and Keskastel the Mügler family was primarily engaged in farming.
This Mügler family remained in Keskastel, Alsace until 1819 when they immigrated to the Kutschurgan village of Elsass, Russia. The Mügler family remained in the village of Elsass for about 20 years. They then first moved to the city of Odessa and later to the village of Josephstal and in the mid-1850s they returned to the village of Elsass.
While living in Russia, our Mügler ancestors changed the spelling of the name from Mügler to Migler.
The name of Mügler is a surname with German roots, which dates back to the mid-fourteenth century and can be referred to or used to describe a plump person. However, the name appears to be quite regionalized. In conducting my research on the early Mügler family, I found two other extended Mügler families living in the Schwäbisch Hall, Jagts Kreis area in the state of Württemberg, Germany. While there definitely appears to be a connection between the two families in Schwäbisch Hall and our ancestor Balthasar, I have not been able to find any documentation supporting this theory.