Mike's Mathom Collection - Genealogy
My uncle, Martin E. Ressler, was long the family historian. As a kid, I used to visit his farm every Labor Day for a large family reunion, and it was a joy sneaking through his library (it turns out it was the largest private collection of Mennonite musical material in North America! - and a lot of other literature as well) to see what interesting tidbits would turn up. “History” emanated from the place, and discussions around the dinner table would often turn to family history as well.
At some point, he put together a family tree that extended back to the mid-1800s. After he passed away, his youngest brother, my father Elvin, picked up the torch and kept up with the many new generation members that have come along. I have extended the tree by trying to push back into the past; with the advent of the Internet, it has been possible push the strands that my uncle painstakingly assembled back much farther.
Family Tree
The full family tree, as it stands now, is presented here. Please be aware that I have virtually no access to original documentation apart from the testimony of a few living relatives and sadly more relatives who are no longer with us. Beyond that, while I have tried to select (primarily online) sources that should be relatively authoritative and have compared them for consistency, this tree is only as reliable as those sources from which I copied the information. I have tried to be careful to include sources for every person (so I can blame the original link if something is wrong!), but I'm sure some relatively speculative links have managed to slip through. Anything more than 150 years ago should be taken with a grain of salt; anything more than 300 years ago will probably need a bucket.
Note to Ressler/Pawling family members — a password-protected private version is also available, along with some additional supporting documents.
Colorful Characters
Occasionally I will find information about people that goes beyond birth, marriage, and death dates. Sometimes it is a simple tidbit about their lifestyle or occupation, other times a story about a particular incident. Here are a few of the more interesting I've managed to find in my ancestry:
- Hans Landis (1555) was executed for his Anabaptist faith, and Martin Meili (1607) and George Weber (c. 1578) suffered for theirs
- Henry Pawling (c. 1649) - a possible Pawling ancestor who was a captain in the British Army in the late 1600s. However, things kind of fall apart halfway along the chain at Isaac Pawling (1811), one of my great-great-great grandfathers, so the link to Henry is speculative at best
- Martin Meylin (c. 1665) - possible inventor of the Pennsylvania Long Rifle - see here.
- Christoph Denger (1710-ish) - had a hymn sing on the way to his hanging (Yes, this is my blood!)
- Jacob Metzger (1734) - a Revolutionary War captain
- Thomas Russell (1785) - a private in the War of 1812
- Isaac Franklin Ressler, Sr. (1850-ish) - my great-great grandfather and the earliest Ressler I can tie myself to; shows the danger of incomplete/incorrect documentation
- Friedrich Bohler (1826) - my most recent immigrant ancestor, possibly died in the Civil War; his Swiss ancestry is exhaustively detailed at a website devoted to the region of Frutigen — see my commentary and the link here.
- William Remp Blankenbiller (1836) - a private in the Union Army
- George Miller Spotts (1844) - another private in the Union Army
- Elsbeth Schnebli (1592) - my kids always loved her name, but in addition to her being the wife of George Weber (above), she is also my link to …
- Rudolfus von Lunkhofen (c. 1132) - a minor Swiss knight
Documents
I do have a few “original” sources of information. These are as follows:
- Two papers (combined) on Zimmerman genealogy that were collected/assembled by my uncle Martin that I think are worth preserving.
- Notes on the Sechrist family found in a Bible amongst my aunt's possessions when she passed away that I now have.
Software
Given that I am a long-time Linux/FOSS user, I use the opensource Gramps software to keep track of my records and to generate the family tree above. While it started on linux, it is now available for Windows and MacOS as well and it is entirely free. It has a fairly steep learning curve, but it is very flexible and powerful, and since I've been using it since early 2007, I have gotten used to its way of doing things. (Of course, it has advanced a lot and is easier to use than when I started!) If you would like to dabble with creating a family tree with zero cost except your time, I definitely recommend it.
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