The ancestors of the todays Rall family settled mainly in the Swebian-Wuerttemberg area in the southern part of Germany. The main locations were Eningen unter Achalm near Reutlingen, Geislingen/Steige and Biberach/Riss.
Chart of the Duchy Wuerttemberg 1789The direct RALL family line of the todays Rall family is coming from Eningen unter Achalm and settled there between 1470 and 1518.
Eningen unter Achalm
Where the Rall's came from is not really clear there are different explanations:
- In the US there is the story that a certain Mr. RALLO came to the Eningen area with a count from Italy and after the Peasant's War (1524-1525) and the castle was destroyed, stayed and married. Then he dropped the "O" and became RALL.
- The other variant of the above story is that an Italian guy came from the Italian town RALLO to Eningen married and was then called RALL.
- Professor J. A. Schmeller says the surname RALL is similar to ROLL. So called "Rollwagen" were the wagons which were driving through the country. The wagoners were called ROLLER or RALLER. In a list of all inhabitants of Wuerttemberg dated 1383 we find only one person and no others with the surname ROLL; a Hainz ROLL living at Wuertingen not far away from Eningen. May be he is the ancestor of all the Rall families at Eningen.
- Dr. Gottfried Maier wrote 1922 in his book "Alt- Reutlinger Familien" that the Ralls have always lived in Eningen. The name RALL would come from the family names "RAGNOR" or "RAGER" which we find In Eningen before 1500.
- The monk SULGER from the monastery Zwiefalten wrote in his "Zwiefalter Annalen" that in 1385 a woman named Haile RELLIN from Reutlingen made a big donation to the monastery Zwiefalten and again in 1392 a Hayle RELLINA made a big donation. May be she is the ancestor of all the Rall families at Eningen.
I believe that the Ralls have always lived in Eningen only the family name has changed. The family name “RALL” first was only a nickname. In former times many people which lived at the same time in a small town had the same family name and the same first name.
So people used the first name of the father, or the name of the town where a person came from, his occupation, house names or nicknames to differentiate. Nicknames where used also in official documents as the church records and taxlists. Even in the 19 century we find them in tax lists of Eningen. Sometime between 1470 and 1518 the nickname became the family name Rall.
Eberlin Rall,
Ludwig Rall and
Michael Rall.
In the so called "Herdstättenverzeichnis" 1525 a list of all houses and hauseholds of Eningen again 3 persons with surname Rall are mentioned:
Rall "der Allt",
Ludwig Rall and
Hans Rall.
In the year 1542 five families with the surmane Rall paid so called "Türkenhilfe" a tax for the fight against the Turks:
In the year 1581 we find 6 families with the surname Rall in Eningen:Hans Rall,
Jörg Rall,
Ludwig Rall,
Gall Rall and
Eberlins children
The ancestor of the todays Rall family is:Rall, allt Hannß
Rall, Gall - Anna
Rall, Hans called "Relle" - Anna
Rall, Hans called "der Jung" - Maria
Rall, Jerg - Christina and
Rall, Michel - Steffler, Barbara
He is documentary 1549 as Forrest Ranger in Eningen and 1581 as "allt Hanns". He was born about 1510 and died about 1585.Hannß RALL, 1581 called "Rall, alt Hannß".
In the Family-boocks of Eningen we find from about 1525 up to the year 1800 in total 313 families with the surname Rall. No other surname is found so often at Eningen.
Baptism 1589 and marriage 1611 of Martin RALLThe family line HEISS - STRAUB comes from two different main locations. The STRAUB family a "Miller-Dynasty" came from the fathers side out of the area around Geislingen/Steige with one family part out of the area around Heidenheim/Brenz; from the mothers side they came, as well as the HEISS family out of the area around Biberach/Riss.
The KRAMER/CRAMER family most probably came from Sochau, Schlesia to Mannheim and the MORALT/MURALT family came from Locarno to Switzerland, Austria and Gemany. The family lines KRAMER/CRAMER and MORALT/MURALT then lived in the area around Mannheim and came in 1778 from Mannheim to Munich. The ILGEN family line which comes out of the area of round Kusel and the ROEMMICH family line coming out of the area round Zweibrücken, Meisenheim and Bischwiller in Alsace-Lorraine.
The Moralt, an artists family in Munich.Wuerzburg
Johann Wilhelm and Johann Baptist CRAMER.
The SEISSER family line setteled in the area around Wuerzburg at the Main river. The SEISSER family came most probably in the begin of the 16th century from Tirol in Austria to Bavaria; first to the town of Ochsenfurt and setteled later in Wuerzburg.
Hans Joerg Rall 2002