Josef Guggenheim was born in Endingen on August 24, 1790, the son of Baruch Simon Guggenheim and Blume Gutmann in the Swiss canton of Aargau, one of the two so-called “Jewish villages” in Switzerland. His mother came from Hohenems, so it was only natural that Josef, in search of a spouse, took up a position in Hohenems in 1814 as a servant for Leopold Hirschfeld, a textile merchant. But unlike some of his relatives, the bridal show in Hohenems was apparently not successful for Josef Guggenheim. He returned to Endingen, where he died in 1856, married to Elkola Pollak.