Research Resources & Surname Variations — Click on the emoji to watch associated recording.
Tom Kessler Nov 2025
Name Spelling — Kessler/Keslar/Kesler Variations
When I first started developing a website to document our family history in 2011, I created a site using a free website development tool named WordPress.com. My first site was named kesslerfamilyhistory.wordpress.com. The focus was on documenting our family ancestors who came from Germany in 1751, arrived in Philadelphia, and settled in Jefferson, Maryland, six miles west of Frederick, Maryland. As far as I knew at the time, the Kessler’s were successful Frederick County, Maryland farmers. My grandfather, Edgar Franklin Kessler Sr., was the first in my line to leave Jefferson, settling in Baltimore after serving in the Army and fighting in France during in World War I. At the time, I thought it would be fairly straightforward to trace our lineage.
I was aware, faintly and tangentially, that there were some surname variations, but I did not really have much awareness of the Keslar and Kesler lines and that they were also direct descendants of Johannes George Bernhard Kessler. I had no idea at the time that the effort to develop a family history narrative would expand to the many relatives who spelled their last name as either Keslar or Kesler. This awareness came over time and evolved from a series of DNA tests that created a new awareness that our family was larger and more diverse that I had imagined and that developing a comprehensive family would be a more extensive effort that I first imagined.
The following DNA test results caused me to change direction and engage in a more ambitious effort to develop a comprehensive family history.
DNA match with a Kessler: In 2004 my brother, Edgar (Ed), asked me to take a DNA test based on a request from Karen Kessler Cottrill, whose brother, James C. Kessler, had already taken the DNA test. Karen’s family ancestors lived Botetourt, Virginia and she was trying to determine if her line was descended from the Frederick, Maryland Kessler line. I took the test, confirming that her brother and I were a DNA match, providing the evidence she was seeking.
DNA match with a Kesler: Fast forward to April 22, 2017, when I received an e-mail from Rich Kesler, a police chief (now retired) in a small Ohio town (Tiffin), communicating that according to a Family Tree DNA test that he recently took, he and I were related. A year later and based on a substantial amount of effort by Rich and I focused on helping him solve his family mystery so that we could link our ancestors, I decided that it was time to more accurately reflect when and how the family surname changed.
DNA match with a Keslar: A year later, in 2018, I received another e-mail from Vance “Chip” Keslar indicating that he too had taken a DNA test and was a match.
These events motivated me to develop a broader, more comprehensive website and blog to accompany the one that I initially developed, focused on our three surname lines — Kessler, Keslar, and Kesler. This website presents a more comprehensive family history and is a result of those efforts: kesslerkeslarkesler.org
Reason for Surname Variations
The timing of the family name variation can be traced to the year 1796, when Andreas Kessler/Keslar left Jefferson Township in Maryland and relocated to the wilderness of western Pennsylvania, in an area that became Westmoreland County. As a result of this relocation and subsequent western movement (discussed in more detail on Ch 4 – 1.3 Andreas (1746-1809), the surname evolved into the present-day use of Kessler, Keslar, and Kesler among our far-flung family. There are many Keslar and Kesler relatives in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other locations across the country.
Although there is no clear record of how the name evolved from Kessler to Keslar and Kesler, it is likely related to a number of factors:
- Many early ancestors were farmers who were either semi-literate or not literate because farming ability was more highly valued than formal schooling.
- On the “frontier” of western Pennsylvania in the years before and after 1800, written surnames were rarely necessary except for legal documents such as deeds and wills, and for the U.S. census, which was first conducted in 1790.
- When a name needed to be recorded, it often was up to the recordkeeper to write it, and they usually did so phonetically.
- The variation in our family surname is likely because of phonetics and the use of the Roman Cursive writing style.
- How the double-s in Kessler became a single-s in Keslar & Kesler.
- Phonetics:
- In German: The single-s and double-s have different pronunciations — the single-s is pronounced like the letter “z” while the double-s is pronounced using a sound similar to the hissing of a snake (“… sss …”). Consequently, the German pronunciation of Kessler is significantly different than Kesler.
- In English: The single-s and double-s sound the same, likely leading it to be written with the single-s.
- Roman Cursive writing style:
- In the late 1700s and early 1800s writers used the “Roman Cursive” writing method. Writers learned to put a line through the cursive letter “s”, making it look like the letter “ƒ“. For the double-s, they tended to write the double-s as two “s” symbols located very close together with a single horizontal line through both, giving the appearance of a single-s instead of a double-s.
- Phonetics:
- How the second “e” in Kessler/Kesler became an “a” in Keslar:
- Phonetics: In German the first occurrence of the letter “e” is stressed, but the second occurrence is reduced to a sound similar to the letter ‘a’ in “sofa” or “comma”. This is also true in English. Consequently, from a phonetic standpoint, the pronounced version of the name sounded like “Keslar”. For this reason, English-speaking officials (clerks, census takers, military officers) would likely transform the second “e” to the letter “a”.
- How the double-s in Kessler became a single-s in Keslar & Kesler.
American Generation #2
Andreas Kessler became Andreas Keslar
Children
- 1.3.1 Andrew Kessler’s surname did not change.
- 1.3.2 Johannes (John) Kessler’s surname did not change.
- 1.3.4 George Kessler because George Kesler
- 1.3.5 Peter Kessler became Peter Keslar
- 1.3.6 Jacob Kessler’s surname did not change.
- 1.3.7 William Kessler became William Keslar
- 1.3.8 Samuel Kessler’s surname did not change.
- 1.3.9 Thomas Kessler became Thomas Keslar
- 1.3.10 David Kessler’s surname did not change.