When Wilhelm Heinrich Friedrich Thies was born on 29 August 1813, in Minden, Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, his father, Franz Heinrich Thies, was 31 and his mother, Margarethe Elisabeth Kleine- Esselbruegge, was 29. He married Cathrine Wilhelmine Langenkamp on 23 May 1841, in Versmold, Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 4 daughters. He died on 15 November 1864, in Bremen, Randolph, Illinois, United States, at the age of 51, and was buried in Bremen, Randolph, Illinois, United States.