History of the Kisabeth Historical Review
It was in 1985 that I became interested
in my family’s history. Prior to 85’ I wasn’t even aware of my paternal
ancestors being of German descent. I may have heard that we were German-American
but never gave it a second thought. Like most second and/or third generation
European-Americans, my father’s family never researched their immigrant
ancestor’s beginnings or really even cared to. My great grandfather William
Kisabeth could speak the German language as a youth in rural Seneca County, Ohio
in the 1870s. Sad to say none of his children could duplicate their father’s
knowledge of “Deutsch.”. By the time of my father’s birth in 1909 virtually all
of the “fatherland” was absent from the Kisabeth family.
My research actually started with my
father’s favorite aunt, Hazel Cotrell who was in possession of the family bible.
She in turn passed it on to my father where it gathered dust in our house for
years. Actually, Hazel was the only family member who showed any interest in our
Kisabeth history at that time. One day back in the mid 1980s I happened to open
our bible. Contained in this family heirloom were the standard pages to record
births, marriages and deaths. But one thing my dear great aunt did over the
years was to save all family obituaries and place them in that old bible. There
were several old newspaper clippings and this sparked my interest. I began to
piece the various Kisabeth related families and here I am today some 20 years
later still bitten by the “genealogy bug.”
Along the way of my research I have come
in contact with several cousins and friends both far and near whom have shared
their family information. Without their support & assistance this project would
not have occurred.
The Kisabeth name was my first priority
in this study but I soon realized that the various other related surnames (Kisseberth-Kisaberth-Kissenberth-Küspert-Kispert)
were also a part of my history.
Our first Kisabeth Historical Review was
published on June 1990. The review was started by Gerald & Gordon Kisabeth in
1990 to provide family related news both old & current to our cousins. We had a
very small mailing list fourteen years ago but our circulation has increased
each year. The interest was so good that Gordon established our Kisabeth web
site (www.kisabeth.com) a few years ago. As of this writing we have had over
8,000 hits which is amazing for such an uncommon surname as ours.
Our goal in doing both the newsletter and the web site is
to provide & collect family news and information. We try to update our web site
often and try to send out (snail mail) our free newsletter once or twice a year
to family members who do not have access to a computer.
From my first interest in the Kisabeth genealogy back in
1985, we can now trace our written beginnings back to medieval Bavaria (1400s)
and a family called Küschwert.
Gerald Kisabeth 2004