Over 220 years old, this is the earliest primary record I have of an ancestor from Affing. It is the marriage record of February 4, 1788 of my GGGG Grandparents. First off, it is in Latin-- just when I thought I was able to cope in a basic way with the old German script! Here is my best effort so far. I hope one of you who actually did take Latin in High School will help. Notice that the names of people are "Latinized" and with a variety of grammatical inflections or spellings.
As I had some time to look at a number of these marriage records, a structure emerged that made it possible to know what to look for, and for me, that is my best chance to make a translation! They begin with the place and the date of the wedding. There is then some church and honorific language with abbreviations that I cannot understand. Next is the first name of the bridegroom, sometimes followed by his occupation and place of origin. Immediately after the groom's name is the name of his father (with occupation and place) and mother with her maiden name. Next follows the name of the bride with her parents. Last is a listing of the witnesses to the wedding. Thus, my understanding of this record follows:
Joannei Baierle and Magdalena Echerin marry on the 4th of February in 1788. The young man (juv.) Joannes, [son of the] honorable Martini Bajerle (occupation ?colic. -colicus is farmer who owns land) from Edenreid, and his wife (uxoris) Maria (?Later); marries the honorable young woman (virgo) Magdalena, the daughter of the honorable Mathias Echerei (living this place) and his wife Theresia. I do not yet understand the structure and content of what follows the name, 'Theresa.' The language may contain the names of the mother-in-law: Führer, or this may be a witness along with Joseph Menzinger, and Mathias Echerer.
A number of interesting observations can be made. Even though the record is difficult for me to interpret because of the Latin, and because of the ecclesiastical and honorific abbreviations; the words and letters themselves are more easily readable by our modern eyes. Instead of the old "Deutschschrifft," we are looking at the Latin script that forms the basis of our current English writing. For example, the "h" in Josepho (8th line), or in "hic" -here) look like a modern ones. The vowels look like ours. Non-terminal "s" are still different than modern ones.
I have heard it said that old Latin did not have a letter "Y" and I wondered if that might explain some of the variations in the spelling of Baÿerl. The text above has some interesting spellings. In the legend on the left, Baierle is spelled with an 'i' and with a terminal 'e.' However, in the text, the underlined word seems to be Bajerle. I understand that 'i' and 'j' are interchangeable in some circumstances. Note also that the writer above had nothing against the letter 'y,' using it at the end of the month 'February.
The big breakthrough from this record is the identification of Johann and Magdalena as the parents of Leonhard and Rupert. Both Leonhard and Rupert were born in Affing, but it is now clear that Martin Bayerl, the grandfather of the two brothers, was from the village of Edenreid, a short distance to the south east of Affing. Following several searches, I have not been able to find a birth record for Johann in Affing, nor other evidence that Martin moved there. I presume that Johann was born in Edenreid. I have sent for the records which I hope will take us back another village and additional generations.
Johann died in Affing in 1835 while still married. I have not yet found records for his wife Magdalena.
[Note added June 2015. The following earlier addendum needs to be corrected, but I will leave it in place for the time being because it has the links to other records.]
Addendum: The Edenried records were indeed informative but present puzzles of their own. Martin died in Edenried as did his wife Maria. Unfortunately I have not found a birth record for Johann there [I did.], nor did I find a birth record for Martin himself [I found it in Hauinsweis.] , even though it is clear he was a boy there. You can follow the search here.