Hello Everyone,
I had a really good question posed to me in a private email today.
Even though I answered the person privately, I am sharing parts of
my answer with the lists since it might be helpful to anyone researching
this surname.
Here it is:
Absolutely, this email list could potentially help you find out more about your
KELLER grandfather's ancestors. And, the fun thing is that we never know
when someone might post exactly the information that someone else, who is
subscribed here, might need.
By the way, just in case you are not aware, there are over 100 different
Americanized spellings of this surname. For that reason, I encourage every-
one to cross-post to all of the KELLER/KELLAR/KOHLER/CAYLOR/etc
lists. I also encourage everyone to subscribe to all of the different email
lists for this surname. (There are about 8-10, I believe; and, I manage
most of them.)
As an example of the different spellings, my husband's ancestor had spelled
the name as KÖHLER in Germanic Europe. When he came to the US (in 1863),
his name was listed as KOEHLER in some places & COLLAR in others & KELLER
in still others. Since there was no 'standardization' of spelling names years ago,
a
clerk (upon hearing the name pronounced) would just write it down however it sounded
to him or her.
Family History is so much fun!
Leslie Bridges Kohler