Friedrich Ebgert was born in 1708. He was probably the son of Johannes Adam Ebgert and his wife Anna Sophia, who lived in Niederdreis, although no record of his birth or baptism has been found. Niederdreis was a hamlet in the Westerwald (literally ‘western forest’), an area of mainly forested, rolling hills, east of the Rhine River. It is in the northeastern portion of the former conglomeration of small Germanic states known as the Palatinate. Now a part of the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz, the Westerwald was, in the early 18th century, in that portion of the Rheinland (territory along the Rhine River), which was under the domination of the state of Prussia.

Friedrich or “Fritz”, as he was called and signed his name, had other brothers and sisters. The church books at Puderbach, the local parish church, document the baptism of an unnamed (?) child born to Anna Sophia & Joh. Adam Ebgert of Niederdreis on Feb 12, 1701. It appears that Anna Sophia died within about a year of Fritz’s birth, and that Johannes Adam Ebgert had re-married, because the same church book includes an entry for Johannes Peter Ebgert born October 25, 1710, the son of Anna Veronica & Johan Adam Ebgardt of Dauffenbach. (Dauffenbach is another hamlet near Puderbach.) Johannes Peter would have been Fritz’s half-brother.

Other children of Johan Adam Ebgert included Anna Veronica (who married Antonius Schiff of Dauffenbach on November 21, 1721), Anna Maria (who married Johan Peter Schaeffer of Muscheid on October 31, 1731, Johan Arndt Ebgert of Dauffenbach, who married, Anna Maria Becher(?) of Munscheidt, his first of four wives, on April 17, 1732, and Phillip Ebgart of Oberwambach (who was a sponsor at the baptism of Fritz’ eldest child). The Puderbach church books record the burial of Johan Adam Ebgert on August 12, 1729, at the age of 60 years.