Important Genealogical Resources 1) Excel Directory of family members, with family numbering system; and 2) Excel file containing US Census information for all family members from 1790 through 1950:
Other Family History-related Sites
- KesslerFamilyHistoryBlog.com This site is the location for comments posted by others about the family history content and associated responses.
- KesslerFamilyHistory.Wordpress.Com Focuses on my direct ancestors from Johannes to my father, Edgar F. Kessler Jr. The site has been modified using pointers to content contained in this site to avoid redundancy and need to maintain content in two locations.
- FairchildFamilyHistory.Wordpress.Com Family history of my mother’s side of the family. The Fairchild’s immigrated to the colony of Connecticut in 1640, only 20 years after the Pilgrims faced their ordeal a little farther north in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Includes important historical context including Revolutionary and Civil wars, how and why families migrated, and other interesting genealogical elements.
- RykoskiFamilyHistory.Wordpress.com Family history of my wife’s maternal family. It includes a historical perspective of Poland in the mid-to-late 1800s and the Locust Point area of Baltimore.
Research Notes
1. I have been working on the Kessler Family Manuscript since 2009, when my brother Ed passed. He had the genealogy ‘bug’ for many years, before the advent of computers and online resources. He wrote letters and used the telephone to obtain information, and he made solid inroads. I have tried to carry on from where he left off.
2. The manuscript is organized into chapters for each of Andreas’ children and associated pages about their descendants. The pages contain information from correspondence with my brother and facts and information obtained through the Internet and some published documents which I have in my possession. Each chapter includes a table listing husband/wife and children with as much factual data (birth, death, marriage, etc.) as could be located about them.
3. This data is also included in a detailed genealogical database that I maintain on Ancestry.com (Kessler-FairchildFamilyTree(2018.1)) and in FamilyTreeMaker. If anyone wants a GED file to import into their own software, just let me know.
4. In order to make the manuscript more than just a repository of names, events and dates, in some cases I added historical context, especially for older generations where little is known. For generations where I or others have memories, I added what I and those who shared with me can remember.
5. I also added information about “maternal ancestry” to communicate information that was available about the female lineage. This is more challenging since female records were historically less common and more difficult to locate.
6. The manuscript has been written in stages. There is so much information that I am tackling the writing of the blog in phases and will have to go back over time, after adding the baseline information, to enhance and flesh out the details.
7. After completing the general manuscript with I asked myself how I could continue to expand, broaden and improve it. That led me to a series of questions that I am currently working toward answering. For example, I asked myself why did Johannes George Bernhard Kessler and his wife Anna leave Germany and bring themselves and their children to America? That led me into detailed research related to Winden, Germany and Zweibruecken Duchy which was interesting. I have included some of the results of this research into the manuscript.
8. I spent considerable time investigating this question: Why did Andreas relocate from Frederick, Maryland to Donegal Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania which is over 200 miles away when he was in his 50s and why did half his children go with him and half remain in Frederick County? This led me down some interesting pathways. My initial question was that perhaps we had the wrong Donegal Township. I investigated and discovered a West Donegal Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania which is much closer to Frederick. And it was founded in the early 1700s in contrast to Westmoreland County which was not settled until the late 1700s because of Indian attacks and the French and Indian War which occurred in the late 1750s and early 1760s and involved General Braddock, George Washington, and Fort Duquesne? But evidence continues to suggest that it was in fact Westmoreland County’s Donegal Township, which is where old Andreas Kessler lived and is buried. More to follow as I continue my research.
9. Readers might ask an important question: “Are we sure we are descended from Johann George Bernhard Kessler?” In the early 2000s Karen Lynne Kessler asked me to take a DNA test. She also had her brother, James (Jim), take the DNA test. The two of us were determined through testing to be related. Likely Jim is descended from Andreas’ son John while I am descended from Andrew. Both were grandchildren of Johann George Bernhard Kessler. So, in addition to genealogical evidence, the DNA tests provide strong evidence of our family lineage.
Name Spelling — Kessler/Keslar/Kesler Variations
When I started this family history in 2011, I was focused on documenting the history of the Kessler line from which I am descended, building on the work started by my brother many years before.
I was aware, faintly and tangentially, that there were some surname variations, but I effectively ignored them and recorded family tree information and information contained in this family history using the Kessler surname, with a specific focus on those who lived in Jefferson, Frederick County, Maryland from 1751 through present-day.
However, on April 22, 2017, I received an e-mail from Rich Kesler, a police chief in a small Ohio town, 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.
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 later), the surname evolved into the present-day use of Kessler, Keslar, and Kesler among our far-flung family. There are now many Keslar and Kesler relatives in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other locations across the country. It seems important that they appreciate how their ancestors relate back to Johann George Bernhard Kessler, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1751.
I have been updating the Ancestry family tree to more accurately reflect accurate surnames. This is difficult, because some were born Kessler and became Keslar and others were born Kessler and became Kesler. I will try to accurately reflect the basis for the surname changes.
Initially I tried to maintain two separate blogs, but I have become convinced that this one will be the primary source for family information. I am now working to integrate the information from kesslerfamilyhistory.wordpress.com into this one. I hope to complete the effort during 2023.
Tom Kessler, Punta Gorda, Florida — May 2, 2023 (revised)
You Can Help
If ANYONE in the family is interested in helping with some of this research, please let me know and I will help you get started.
As you can see, I continue to investigate and report on the family history. I have done extensive work as well for my mother’s family – the Fairchilds …. who came to the colonies in the 1640s …. only 20 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts. The stories and details will continue to be added and adjusted as long as I am able to do so.
In particular, the most valuable way you can help is by identifying mistakes and letting me know (kesslertg@gmail.com) and contributing photos (any and all), narrative describing your memories — parents, grandparents, growing up, family lore. I will incorporate it here and it will outlive all of us in this family repository.
WordPress Hints & Pointers
These are things I have learned in trying to upgrade our websites.
1. WordPress.org is better than wordpress.com
WordPress.com has the advantage of being free, but its development features are very limited unless you subscribe and pay.
WordPress.org is an open-source software, but you need to have a “hosting site” to store the websites. I am using Hostinger, which was highly recommended. When I create a website, I need to declare that I want to maintain it using WordPress, and from there, I have what I need.
The key is that if we do not renew the Hostinger account, then our websites will be at risk.
2. Creating a site. The key here is to acquire a URL for each site, and that has to be renewed (financially) every year or the URL (and the website) will be lost. Don’t forget to renew! I have not tried it yet, but one video suggested using namecheap.com to reserve a URL. I just do it through Hostinger. You can check to see if a website is available using “whois.com”
3. Using WordPress:
- There are a lot of options for developing websites with WordPress. One highly recommended option is called Elementor, but I did not have a great experience with it. The recommended template is “Astra.”
- Instead, I decided to use “Generate Blocks” and to use the template “Generate Press”, which seem to have worked very well. Other suggestions that I did not try are: Cadence, Stackable, and Greenshift. But generate blocks seems fine.
- Plug-ins are the key to WordPress. I was going crazy, was depressed, and really thought about throwing in the towel when I was developing sites on WordPress.com because the darned Gutenberg editor was so limited. Ug. But with a lot of work and watching YouTube videos, I learned about the great plugins that really have been a boon and got me past my really bad feelings about WordPress. Here are essential plug-ins that everyone who is doing a data-intensive website like we need for Genealogy should include. I’m sure I will find more over time, but these are essential.
- FileBird Lite: Organize thousands of WordPress media files into folders/ categories at ease. Note: Use “Screen Options” at top of page to increase # of pages per screen.
- Classic Editor (!!!): Enables the WordPress classic editor and the old-style Edit Post screen with TinyMCE, Meta Boxes, etc. Supports the older plugins that extend this screen.
- Duplicate Page: Duplicate Posts, Pages and Custom Posts using single click.
- GenerateBlocks: A small collection of lightweight WordPress blocks that can accomplish nearly anything.
- Simple Page Ordering: Order your pages and hierarchical post types using drag and drop on the built-in page list. For further instructions, open the “Help” tab on the Pages screen.