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Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows whether the surname Koehler had alternate spellings in German in the 1600/1700's, and especially whether the "r" was sometimes dropped (as in Koehle). Was it ever spelled with different vowels such as Kuehler, Kuehle, Kiehler, Kiehle, etc.? My husband's surname is Keeley, but the immigrant ancestor's name is spelled many different ways in early PA records, including all of the above. Most of his descendants today use Keely or Keeley.
The ship "Mortonhouse", Captain John Coultas, left Rotterdam in early June 1728, stopped off in Deal, England where a passenger list was compiled on 15 June 1728, then arrived in Philadephia on 23 or 24 Aug 1728, where another passenger list was compiled. Valentine KEELY's name was written as "Felde Kille" on one version of the passenger list, and "Valtin Kuhle" on the other. Another interpretation of his surname was "Keuler." Apparently one list was compiled by a German-speaker and the other by a non-German, which accounts for the different spellings.
In PA records his name was spelled many ways over the years including KOHLER and KOEHLER.
Valentine "Keely" settled in the area north of Philadelphia (which became Montgomery Co.). He was naturalized in the Supreme Court at Philadelphia in September of 1740. Valentine's will is on file in Philadelphia, dated October 5, 1754 and proved on June 3, 1771, providing for his widow Susanna (Mueller) Keely, children Valentine, Mathias, Sebastian, Henry, and Anna Maria.
I'm thinking that the original German spelling of Valentine Keely's surname was probably KIEHLE(R), KUEHLE(R), or KOEHLE(R), but would like to get some input on this. Were Kiehle, Kiehler, Kuehle, Kuehler, Koehle, Koehler etc. distinct surnames in German, or were they just alternate spellings for the same name?
Other passengers on the same ship included Michel Kehler (Keiler), Jonas or Jonis Koehler (Keeler), and Johann Albrecht Koehler (Keeler). It is not certain but they were probably closely related. Most researchers have said that Valentine, Michael, and Jonis. (abbreviation for Johannes?) were brothers (whose name became KEELY), but fail to mention Johann Albrecht Koehler who was on the same ship.
Johann Albrecht Koehler/Keeler was perhaps the same man as Albrecht (Albert) KIEHLER of Conestoga, Lancaster County, PA, who was born about 1704, married Rachel ____, and had a daughter Martha KIEHLER born 1730 in Conestoga, Lancaster Co., PA who married Jacob Zimmerman 17 Dec 1749 in Lancaster County.
Does anyone have further information about any of these people, or about the surname spelling in general?
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