Re: surname Whisler, Wissler and Whistler
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In reply to:
Re: surname Whisler, Wissler and Whistler
7/27/00
David, The various spellings, at least in America,(US, Canada, that I know of) depends on where you came from and then where you lived or moved to. Most came to the US and Canada from Germany and Switzerland, some from England, but according to a book "Wisler, Wissler, and Whisler" some of those went to England from Germany or Switzerland, due to the persecution of the anibaptists.(Mennonite, Amish, and so on.)This apparently is why some of those families had lived in both countries, as they were being persecuted, and according to one encyclopedia on the mennonites, they had had to hide out in caves.
This book, Wisler, Wissler and Whisler was Edited by Eby Bonnawit in the 1980's and has traced 10 different original immigrants(non-related that they knew of at that time) and most except possibly some from Great Britian, have had or do have the various spellings in their name. This includes the spelling, Whistler. Much of this was due tp where they lived, where they moved to, and who took the cences' as that person usually wrote the name. In my own family, when my 1st ancester came to the U.S.A., to Pennsylvania, it was spelled Wissler and he came from Switzerland, down the river, Rhine to the port of Rotterdam--yet they call him a German Mennonite. This was in abt.1720. There, in Pennsylvania, it was apparently spelled Wisler. Later, a generation or so, some went toCanada, and some to other states. My ancester,a grandchild of the original immegrant Jacob, moved to Ohio, where it was spelled Whisler. However, I see in the book we have that some other distant relatives who contributed information have different spellings. One who published info. in Canada in 1907 spelled his Wissler, one in California in recent years spelled his Wisler, and in the late 1800's my great great grandfather was married 3 times and the children or a child who moved away-at that time my family was in Iowa, they had the spelling legally changed to Whistler as they did not want to claim those of us from the 1st wife. Apparently this is true as this is what one of there descendents told my sister when they met. However there are other Whistlers in my line whose name was changed to that by where we moved. It seems like another family who went to Canada later spelled theirs another way. I would say the major reason is that no one filling in forms asked, and it was much less complicated to accept it than to try to correct it. Mainly it means that any of them may be relatives. Also, we may discover that some were relatives befor they immigrated. It has been said by one person in his book that my family-in Mr Bonnawits book Family 3 was a distant cousin to the one in Family 2, and were brothers way back in the 1500's.
Hope this gives you an idea, and I am sure some others can tell you this more professionally and I hope that they will. Good luck, Patricia Whisler Knapp
More Replies:
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Re: surname Whisler, Wissler and Whistler
Chuck Prine 3/19/01
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Re: surname Whisler, Wissler and Whistler
Patricia Knapp 3/19/01
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Re: surname Whisler, Wissler and Whistler