Documenting the Vassel family in Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France

I am documenting, person by person, all our ancestors that have been added to www.familysearch.org in their FamilyTree. Is it a huge job, but being very worthwhile. In the future people will know what I found - and what I missed. As new records become available, we will be able to make our Tree more and more accurate.

I have been working from five sources documenting the Vassel line that was granted a coat of arms in 1598.

I found at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah a book that documents the nobility of Normandy, France and the Vassel family is in this book.

Working in the 1500s and early 1600s is not easy genealogy research and we are very grateful that Klaus Vassel went to the Archives in the city of Caen, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France and found a research paper done in 1924 by Réne Dubourg tracing the Vassel family from the late 1400s into the mid-1700s.

I was amazed to find a microfilm copy of the Dubourg document at the Family History Library which I copied and have in printed book format. It has been a great help to see what Uncle Klaus was working from as he wrote four books about the Vassel ancestors in France.

These are the books I have from Uncle Klaus Vassel:

1. Vassel, Klaus, Die Vassel aus Neuilly-le Malherbe: Department Calvados der Normandie - eine Bestandaufnahme, (Aachen : K. Vassel, c1972) FHL 929.273 Va447v.

2. Klaus Vassel, Die Vassel aus Neuilly-le-Malherbe Departement Calvados der Normandie/ Frankreich - Eine Bestandsaugnahme, (Aachen: Klaus Vassel, 1986) 2nd edition.

3. Klaus Vassel, Les Seigneurs Vassel - Übersetzung -, Die Vassel Lehnsherren von Neuilly-le-Malherbe von René Dubourg, Caen. Übersetzung aus dem Annuaire des cinq Départements de la Normandie (Band 1924 S185 ff). (Aachen, Germany: Klaus Vassel, 1985). This is Uncle Klaus's translation from French into German of the Dubourg manuscript with comments.

4. Vassel, Klaus, Vassel family: Ahnenliste Vassel (Jens, Eick, Jörn), (Aachen, Germany : K. Vassel, c1974) FHL 929.273 Va447vk. Text in German. This is Uncle Klaus's direct-line tracing of the Vassel and his wife's Scheuch lines back as far as he could find them.

Here is the microfilm reference to the Dubourg book at the Family History Library:

Dubourg, René, Quelques Pages d'Histoire Locale: Les Vassel Seigneurs de Neuilly-le-Malherbe, Estrait de l'Annuaire de l'Association Normande (Année 1924) Congrès de Vernon (1923) (Caen, France: A. Mouville, Ozanne et Ct., 1924) FHL INTL Film 661894 Item 1. Printed copy in the possession of Mary E. V. Hill.

In addition, I have a copy of the Vassel entry in the book Messire Guy Chamillart, Recherche de la Noblesse Faite en ordre du Roi (Louis XIV) en 1666 et Années Suivantes, (Caen: Henri Delesques Imprimeur-Librairy, 1887). 

This source has been especially helpful. I am working back and forth between French and German and wow!!! That is a job!!! But Dubourg and Klaus both admit they were not sure about the wives of Nicolas de Vassel II (4), son of Nicolas de Vassel I (1) versus the Nicolas de Vassel (3), son of Pierre de Vassel who was the son of Nicolas de Vassel I. The book with the Vassel noble record has helped me to straighten these two families out. 

Marie de l'Isle was tied to the wrong Nicolas de Vassel (4) on p. 78 and 83 of Klaus's book Die Vassel aus Neuilly-le-Malherbe, 2nd ed. and in the first edition of Die Vassel aus Neuilly-le-Malherbe, pgs. 40 and 43. According to Recherche de la Noblesse Faite en ordre du Roi (Louis XIV) en 1666 et Années Suivantes, p. 741, Marie de L'Isle was the wife of the Nicolas de Vassel (3), son of Pierre de Vassel who was the son of Nicolas de Vassel I (1) who was knighted and received the Vassel coat of arms in 1598.

The reference numbers for the four Nicolas de Vassel men (1) (2) (3) and (4) are those that Uncle Klaus Vassel used in his books. 

Best wishes to you!

Mary Erety Vassel Hill

THANKYOU!

For your donations to the Vassel Family Organization Fund

Because of the kindness of your donations to the Vassel Family Organization Genealogy Fund, you have also been donating, behind the scene, to the mission of Bruno and Cari Vassel in Germany. Your donations have been sufficient so that I have not had to ask for any additional money from Bruno and Cari this past year. Thank you so very much!

The family history effort continues to move forward. I have scanned and attached many family pictures on www.familysearch.org on the Vassel, Elmer, Edwards, Kessinger, Hill and Davies family lines. You can log in for free, and see the pictures in Memories as well as under each person that has photos attached. Such fun!

I marvel at the genealogy records that are becoming more and more on the Internet. A really great discovery was the church records of the town of Gröben just south of Berlin, Germany which has provided information back into the 1500s on our 4^th – 7^th great grandparents and their families. Ordinances for 116 people from this town and surrounding villages have been turned into the temple. Another link gave me information about 232 descendants of our Vassel line that went to Turkey during the French Revolution. These names have also been processed through the temple system.

I have worked with Bruno and Cari to identify the correct Kessinger family line ln Karlsruhe, Germany and we are pleased to nail that down. I am also working through the information Bruno, Cari and I found on our 7 week research trip in 2013.

I just keep praying the Lord will give me a few more years of health and wisdom to keep this great work moving forward! It has been fun to communicate with Elizabeth Smithson and Cayr about helping with the research work. My sister Elisabeth Vassel Anderson and I really enjoy Skyping and working together on the hundreds of names in the two Greiner books we have from Germany. Bruno and Cari were able to attend a couple of Greiner family reunions in Germany this year, and in the process met family members who gave us new information on the Greiner families who moved to Brussels, Belgium and Hungary. I also found Vassel families in Slovakia from records that have been indexed and are online in www.familysearch.org.

I have been sorting hundreds of letters and photos in preparation for writing the Bruno Vassel – Mary Elmer book with will be a companion book to the Vassel-Kipke of Brazil book Vera kindly encouraged me to write with her help. Onward and upward.

Thank you so much for keeping the bank account with sufficient funds so that I can cover the various costs associated with genealogy research!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Today on Ancestry.com the Hamburg passenger list for Bruno Vassel, Else and Dieter was posted! I was thrilled to see it! It is hard to read but I copied it and am attaching it. Ancestry has done an amazing job of reading it!!! Now we know for sure that it was 21 Sep 1923 when they left Germany for Brazil.

Bruno Vassel

 in the Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934

Saved to

Vassel, Bruno in tree "Vassel-Elmer Family Tree" 

View

• Report issue

	way down the list of passengers... Bruno Vassel 49 Elisabeth Vassel 40 Diter Vassel 2

maryevhill@gmail.com

http://www.andiesisle

BRUNO VASSEL II VIDEO - 1983

UPDATE on KESSINGER FAMILY 

Research in Germany on family origins

  Family and Friends:

       Our quest has taken us to this point -- we now know “for certain” that

   Andreas Kessinger, and his brother Johann Georg Kessinger, -- were the first

   of our line of the Kessinger family to emigrate from Germany to the American

   Colonies.   And that our Solomon I (Old Sol) was not born in Germany; but was

   born on Feb. 03, 1745, in Lancaster County,  Province of Pennsylvania.

       We have had to sort through a lot of misinformation to arrive at these 

   conclusions;  but it has been worth it. 

       Now we can delve deeper into these ancestors and find out who they were,

   where they went,  and what they did.         

AT THIS POINT, OUR PATH SEPARATES INTO TWO DIRECTIONS

        We will continue to research the lives of Solomon 1 (Old Sol) and his family

    as they join the Westward movement in America.   

                And we will attempt to find out more about Andreas in Germany, who his

   parents were and where they originated from.

      To this end, we are indebted to Carolyn Vassel of Utah and the research that

   She has done on the Kessinger family in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2014.

       Cari found a recently published book which contains references to Andreas

   Kessinger; Johann Georg Kessinger; their wives and children; -- AND,

    the names of their parents. 

       

A New “Key Link”  is Discovered

    In 1988 Judy Nelson, in researching the historical records in Karlsruhe, Germany

Came upon our “missing link” -- when she found the records of Andreas Kessinger.

    Twenty-six years later, in May of 2014, Carolyn “Cari” Vassel, while on a mission to Germany for her Mormon church, visited the records of the Karlsruhe library and has

supplied us with another “key link”  by finding the names of the parents of Andreas and Johann Georg Kessinger;  they are :  Johann George Kessinger ( Sr.)  and Sususanna

Kiefer.   (Daughter of Conrad Kiefer.)

 Thank you Cari.   

     Carolyn (Edwards) Vassel  and  Bruno Vassel, III

       (Cari is a descendent from Mathias Kessinger I)

Ortssippenbuch der ehemaligen Gemeinde Welschneureut heute Ortsteil Neureut-Süd der Stadt Karlsruhe in Baden von Walter Müller

   Family and Friends:

       Our search has led us to a path that we need to explore.

       This discovery of the names of Andreas’ parents is a “key link” in the

    research of our Kessinger family – however,  it has presented us with

    an Enigma.

     

       It has long been conjectured that there might be a ”possible connection”

    between Andreas Kessinger and the family of Peter Kissinger [Born 1620 in

    Selzen, Rheinhesse, Hesse, Germany].  It was believed that Peter might be the

    great-grandfather of Andreas.    This connection is no longer viable.

      

       Andreas’ parents were:  Johann Georg Kessinger (Sr.) and Susanna (Kiefer)

    Kessinger who were from Teutschneureut (Welschneureut), Karlsruhe, Germany.

       

        The question now arises; is it possible that there were two separate families

    with an Andreas and a Johan(nes),  born between 1701 and 1710? 

                            One in Selzen;   and one in Karlsruhe? 

         Fortunately, we have not had to wait long for an answer to this question.

         We thank Glen H. Cook of Cincinnati, Ohio for his contributing article:

                                    “A Tale of Two Families”.

  

IN CONCLUSION:

   We are now certain, that the Johannes and Andreas Kissinger, (who were born in 1701 and 1703 in Selzen, Germany)  --  are an entirely different pair of brothers from Johann Georg and Andreas Kessinger  (whose marriages were recorded in Karlsruhe in 1726; and who, with their families, arrived in America on the ship William  in 1737.)  

As a matter of fact, there has not been any evidence uncovered, thus far, that our Andreas and Johann Georg Kessinger had any connection, whatsoever, to Selzen, Germany – or the Kissinger’s who lived there.       Further research will resolve the debate.

ADDENDUM:

To assist the reader in a better understanding of the geography mentioned in this article, I have included the following:

In the 18^th century, the Rhine River was a major means of transportation and flowed into the English Channel at Rotterdam, Netherlands.  This was where many of the German Palatines departed Germany,  on their way to new home lands.

Selzen, Germany -- is near the present day city of Mainz on the west side of the Rhine River.

Selzen is 75 miles north of Karlsruhe.

Sandhofen, Germany -- the European home of Jacob Kiessinger, “. . . was probably a rural and independent community, in 1726-27, however, it is, now, one of the eight "parishes" that comprise the City of Mannheim, in the County of Mannheim, that adjoins the County of Heidelberg.  Both counties are, now, in the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg but, they were formerly, in the Duchy of Baden, in the Electoral Palatinate.”    ("The Atlantic Bridge to Germany, Volume I, Baden-Wuerttemberg", by Charles M. Hall. - The Everton Publishers, Inc., Logan, Utah, 1974.)

Karlsruhe, Germany – is on the east side of the Rhine River.  It was founded by Margrave Karl III Wilhelm on June 17, 1715. The small villages of Welschneureut and Teutschneureut -- are situated in the Neureut district [that was created in 1260 by Count Rudolf I]; both of these villiages merged in 1935, and are now part of the present day Karlsruhe.  It was the birthplace and home of Andreas and Johann Georg Kessinger.

According to Catherine S. Dippo  (Welschneureut Church Records,  Heritage Books,  2003), the area of Neureut was devastated during the Thirty Years War between (1618-1648) and the War of the Palatine Succession (1688-1697).   (Neureut is now part of Karlsruhe.)

In 1698 the Markgraf Friedrich Magnus invited 58 French speaking Calvinist and Huguenot families to help repopulate the area.  This group had been driven out of several provinces in southern France during the Reformation because of their Protestant faith. With the settlement of these refugees, the new town (which was predominately French speaking) was established in 1699 and named Welschneureut; to distinguish it from the original villiage of Teutschneureut (which was German speaking).