Based on census records, we know that Clara Brenizer's parents were Joseph, also known as Ritner, and Sarah Brenizer. Family pictures also record the names of Sarah's parents as Ritner and Sarah. Several censuses, including that in 1860, list Joseph living with wife Sarah Brenizer and later censuses show them with daughter Clara Brenizer. Family records indicated that Sarah's last name was Weigle, born 1834, and that her father's name was Jonas. But Jonas Weigle's identity was not known to the family.
The 1850 census lists a Jonas Weigle with daughter Sarah, age 15, living in Adams County, PA, not far from where Joseph and Sarah Brenizer later lived. Is this the Sarah Weigle who married Joseph Brenizer?
Here are a few more clues. One of Sarah's sisters in the 1850 census is Sophia, age 8. In 1910, Sarah's daughter Clara is married to Ira Wolfe and they are living in Florida. A widowed Aunt Sophia English, age 68, born in PA with parents born in PA, is living with them in Florida. Further searches reveal that a Sophia Weigle married Charles English in Ohio 1887 near Darke County where Joseph Ritner was then living. Surely Sophie is Clara's Aunt living with Clara and Ira in Florida! The 1920 census shows this same Sophia English in the household of her niece Gertrude (daughter of Jonas's son Jonas) and William C Lindsey. This shows that Sophia is indeed, the daughter of Jonas Weigle and that the Sarah Weigle listed in the 1850 census is indeed the same as Sarah Brenizer in the 1860 census. This opened the door to Sarah Weigle's ancestry, as shown at this website.
Although it was possible to trace the ancestors of Jonas Weigle in the 1850 census back through time, the search proved difficult. Careful review of many census records found and revealed his father. Ultimately, it was possible to contact other researchers of this Weigle line. The ancestors of Jonas Weigle have been researched by several others and this ancestry is shown here. The documentation for some generations back to Valentin Weigle; born between 1650 and 1677 in Saalbach, Württemberg, Germany; is uncertain. We have found no link back to Valentin Wiegel, a philosopher and religious leader in Europe in the 1500s, although such a link seems plausible. Several of Jonas' maternal lines have also been traced.
Like many of our ancestral lines, much remains to be found and documented about these Weigle-Meals-Witmeyer-Freidle-Klingenmeyer-Baltzly-Bender-Gyloy-Orth-Zimmerman-Wolf lines.
Janet and Robert Wolfe Genealogy