The Origin of the Musical-Bachish Family (... Ursprung der musicalisch-Bachischen Familie for Nit Pickers" 1735 vs. 2025

By the fall of 2025, most of my roughly 650-page Bach-über-Bach / Bach-on-Bach website had been revised in a massive relaunch. Sentences were edited. Thousands of spelling errors were found and eliminated. And of course: With over twelve years of experience, I also had a few “aha moments” myself. Namely, because although I had researched the facts carefully in 2012 and in the first few years that followed, it simply wasn’t good enough.

Since genealogy had also become a hobby of mine ever since I first began exploring the Bach family, the “Origins of the Musical Bachish Family,” which I found on Bach.de back then, was a wonderful discovery. Not yet knowing who had written it, I sent my appreciation to the author of the aforementioned website, my namesake Dr. Peter Bach. However, I am not related to him. And he does not belong to the Bach family of musicians. It was not until much later that I discovered his list was a transcription.

This collection of Johann Sebastian Bach’s relatives – at the time, I had no idea I belonged to this family – was the perfect playground for a junior genealogist interested in Bach. Especially someone like me. I quickly grew uncomfortable with the term “family tree” for this collection. Because by then I already knew this much: Someone interested in genealogy hadn’t put this together. Too many details typical of genealogy were missing: Details that the author, the most famous musician of all time, could have easily uncovered. Furthermore, all the women and girls of the clan were missing.

In various publications, I have redefined the term “family tree” into the term “J.S. Bach’s collection of musicians in the family”. And only male musicians are included. After all, at least one woman among the Bachs was a musician of exceptional talent: namely, his second wife, Anna Magdalena Bach. She was a soprano at the court in Köthen and received a salary there that was almost as high as that of the future Thomas Cantor himself. 

However, I have, of course, often reflected on this phrasing over the past twelve years. And at some point ... I can't remember exactly which year of the past decade it was ... I found myself having to rethink this definition as well (... Bach listed the male musicians in his family)...

For I discovered that two of the individuals originally listed were not musicians at all. It should be noted here that Bach could, of course, only list those musicians whom he knew by 1735, when this list was compiled, had become musicians. Or, at the very least, that they would be “devoted to music.” Thus, explicit references were missing for two of his sons at that time: In the case of Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (… born 1732) and Johann Christian Bach (… born 1735), he could not yet have known of any musical ambitions in 1735. Because so many other Bach-related topics were so important to me and occupied my mind, however, the realization “somehow just” took hold that there couldn’t have been 53 musicians listed by Bach nearly 300 years ago. The number 53, however, remained wonderfully present in my mind, and one did indeed come across it “here and there.”

My relaunch took place in “three rounds” in 2024 / 2025. And finally, it was the pages about the Ursprung turn again. In the process, I discovered that – based on research I’d done in 2012 – I had actually already listed four men who weren’t musicians. But during my review in 2025, I then came across ( ! ) further “inconsistencies”... 

With the goal of finally presenting a fully developed version of the website – some twelve years after its initial launch – I decided to re-examine this definition of the “53 musicians in the Ursprung,” this time with even greater dedication. As has often been the case, a list – my list – came in handy, and you can now see it below.

To my great surprise, I discovered in 2025 that there were “only” 44 musicians ... professional musicians as well as those who, like Veit once did, had played music for entertainment. In fact, Bach did not define a full eleven people as musicians at all. Either they had other professions or other responsibilities. Or they were still far too young to be musicians. Or ... there is no indication whatsoever of any musical activity: whether professional or merely as an amateur. 

By 2025, it had become clear: “The Origin of the Musical Bachish Family,” written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1735 at the age of 50 in Leipzig, is not a family tree. Nor is it a list of the approximately 50 musicians in the Bach family of musicians, as they were known at the time. You can find a condensed analysis of the list below the following advertisement. 

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