Zeisset Family:
The First Century in Germany

The only grandparent I ever knew was my grandmother, Barbara (Bettie) Zeisset Hoerman. Though she was quite old when I was born, I remember many things about her. She was blind in her later years, so this made her more dependent on the care of her family. My brother, Lawrence, and I used to love to hear her stories. We always begged to hear the story about the fire. I don't remember any details about the story, but I presume that this was the story about the barn burning in Germany that led to her father's incarceration. "Grandma" always had an apron with pockets, and in those pockets she always had butterscotch candy for my brother and me. She developed "senility", what we now call Alzheimer's dementia. She would quote scripture in German endlessly. I always felt that if I could speak German, I would have been able to communicate effectively with her. She died when I was 12 years old, before I learned to speak German. Because she was the only grandparent I knew, I have been enchanted with her history all of my life, but only recently have undertaken a serious pursuit of the Zeisset family history. I am delighted to share with you what I have learned.

The story of the Zeisset family, which we have learned over the past years, has been a fascinating one. We have focused on the children of Jacob Friedrich Zeisset and Magdalena Mueller and the arrival of these orphaned children in the United States. We have learned some of the details of the life of the Zeissets and the deaths of Jacob and Magdalena. With some persistence and a bit of obsession, I have been able to find out more about the Zeisset family who lived in Germany and we believe that we will eventually be able to trace our ancestry back to Switzerland.

First Mention

To date, the earliest record discovered regarding the Zeisset family in Germany is a biographical entry in the Mennonite Encyclopedia. Abraham Zeisset was the grandfather of Jacob Friedrich Zeisset's grandfather. The text of this entry is as follows:

" Zeisset, Abraham (d. c1786) >From 1749 an elder of the Immelhausen ( q.v.) and Hasselbach ( q.v.) Mennonite congregations in Baden, Germany. In 1783 (not 1773 as stated ME III, 14) he moved to Willenbach ( q.v.) in Wuerttemberg and served the Willenbach congregation until his death. He played a role in the strife that developed among the South German Mennonites to the left and the right of the Rhine in the 18 ^th century. The occasion for the disputes was the activity of the strongly pietistic Mennonite preacher Peter Weber ( q.v.) of Hardenberg. Weber's justified interest in awakening new life in the Mennonite congregations which were in many cases congealed in tradition met with opposition to the left of the Rhine under the leadership of Jacob Hirschler of Gerolsheim and a strongly conservative group; on the right of the Rhine from 1766 on, Abraham Zeisset was his most active opponent. Contemporary documents and letters about that quarrel indicate that Zeisset certainly had the honorable intention of preserving the old Anabaptist individuality and of representing it with conviction. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that he was guilty of personal obstinacy and unbrotherly attitudes.

The quarrel began when Zeisset deposed from their office on the strength of his own authority the preachers Georg and Abraham Bechtel, Jost Glueck, and Jakob Krehbiel, who were spiritually alive and were friends of Peter Weber. This created great offense in the congregations of these men. They feared a division similar to the one caused by Jakob Ammann ( q.v.). On Oct. 14 and 15, 1766, a conference took place at Rauhof in which three Swiss Mennonites participated besides the ministers of Baden and the Palatinate. Zeisset himself had invited them. The peace that resulted from this meeting was unfortunately of short duration. The newly awakened disunity was so severe that in 1767 the spring communion was not observed in North Baden.

In 1770 a new effort was made to bring about peace at a conference of elders and preachers on the Himmelhaeuserhof (today Immelhaeuserhof). Zeisset and others leaders of the dispute were set back from communion "impartially and without respect of person" for Easter of that year, temporarily removed from the office of preaching, and asked to apologize for their previous hostile attitude. But the strife was not yet completely removed. Zeisset even appealed to the civil authorities for help. Not until 1782 was The affair settled.

Abraham Zeisset was also for a time engaged in correspondence between the West Prussian and the Southern German congregations. But after he had offended other correspondents of the South German congregations and did not succeed in drawing the West Prussians to his side, he dropped out of this circular letter. His relationship with the Swiss Brethren on the whole remained clear, although they were by no means on his side. In spite of the differing judgments concerning Zeisset, it must be reckoned as a service on his part that he contributed to the closer union between the South German Mennonites of the time and their Swiss brethren." 1

Further mention of the Zeisset family in the Encyclopedia is not found. The family can be traced through births, marriages and deaths by reviewing microfilmed church records of the Latter Day Saints obtained through Salt Lake City. These records often contain bits of information concerning the individual about whom the statistic is being written. For instance, the marriage record of Jacob Friedrich to Margarethe, states that Jacob is a Mennonite, a citizen of Menzingen, the son of the deceased citizen of Menzingen, and "bestaender" (inhabitant) of Sindolsheim, Jakob Zeisset and Johanna, born Epp.

Tracing Mennonite ancestors is a bit more difficult than tracing evangelical or catholic ancestors. As Mennonites were not part of these churches, the vital statistics of these people were often not included. The churches began keeping records of baptisms, confirmations, marriages and deaths in about 1600. The Mennonites in Germany were a bit nomadic, moving from place to place, compounding the difficulty of tracing them.

Mennonite History Primer

In order to understand the lives of our ancestors, it is important to review the history of the Mennonite church. Thousands of volumes have been written regarding Mennonite history. It is certainly not the task of this article to comprehensively review this history, but a few of the most basic elements of the church will be presented.

The Anabaptist, or Wiedertaeufer (Again-Baptizer), movement began in Switzerland around 1524. This new religion proclaimed that an individual should not be baptized until maturity, so that the recipient could knowingly and voluntarily profess his or her faith. They opposed government by force, as well as military service, and refused to pledge allegiance to rulers of the time. They believed in the return of Christ to the earth and that all those who were not Anabaptist would eternally perish.

The Protestant Reformation included three well-known religious leaders, Martin Luther (1438-1546), John Calvin (1509-1564) and Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531). Zwingli, as Luther, was formerly a catholic priest and was rebe lling against the Catholic Church. Zwingli defended sixty-seven theses before the Great Council of Zurich, which supported him thereafter. Zwingli also met with the Anabaptist leaders, but was unable to come to an agreement with them regarding infant baptism. As a political and religious leader, Zwingli (supported by the Council of Zurich) began a systematic persecution of Anabaptists in 1525. Anabaptists were known as Wiedertauefers, directly translated as "again-baptizers". "Taeufer hunts" were organized to hunt down Anabaptists. They were driven from their homes, tortured and put to death. Their marriages were considered void and, thus, they were accused of adultery. Persecution was based on three principals: 1) preaching without authorization from the government (2) baptizing without governmental authorization and (3) Refusing to take oaths (to the government). Two thousand Anabaptists had been put to death by 1530. Menno Simmons, a converted priest in the Netherlands, organized Anabaptists there into congregations in 1537, thus founding the Mennonite religion. Some of the Swiss Anabaptists sought refuge there. Many emigrated to Russia and the United States. In 1671, there was a large emigration of the Swiss Anabaptists to Alsace, Baden and the Pfalz in Germany. Anabaptist sympathizers fled with them. Persecution continued until another mass emigration in 1709-1717. King Frederick of Prussia interceded for the Mennonites and offered to receive them and help them establish a new life. During this time, many Mennonites also immigrated to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

First Mention of Zeissets in Germany

Open maps in new window

According to the Mennonite Encyclopedia, Abraham Zeisset moved to Willenbach in 1783. Abraham's wife was Elisabetha Landes. Many entries regarding Zeissets are made in Latin in the Catholic records from Oedheim, which is a town near Willenbach. Some churches made separate sections in their records for Mennonites. The first mention found in the Oedheim records, is of the death of Anna, a 3-year old child of a Henrici (Henry) and Magdalena Zeiset on the 17 ^th of April in 1785. The death of Abraham Zeisset, senior, Anabaptist, is recorded on the 25 ^th of April in 1787. He was 69 years old at the time of his death. Jacob Zeisset was the son of Abraham. His birthplace has not been verified, but he died in Willenbach in 1813. He was married to Magdalena Plaetscher of Meckesheim, who died in Menzingen in 1826. This Jacob Zeisset and his wife Magdalena were the parents of Johannes Zeisset, who was Jakob Friedreich's grandfather. Johannes' death notation states that his father, Jakob was a Paechter at Lautenbacher Hof. A Paechter is a tenant, generally in charge of the land management of an estate. Lautenbach and Willenbach were two estates located very near each other, and the church records contain information on both. It appears that more of our line of Zeissets resided at Lautenbach. The German barons in Baden often preferred to employ Mennonites as overseers of their farms and vineyards as they were known for their good care of the land.

Lautenbach

According to the tenant, Ulrich Meyer, who is currently renting Schloss Lautenbach, the property was owned by the Landes family for about 100 years. The Landes family now lives in Amorbach, where they have a vegetable farm. Now a German baron owns the property and occasionally lives there. In the 1700s Lautenbach was built and given to the German minister to Paris. At that time, the property covered 1000 hectares (a hectare being 2.471 acres). Now it is only 200 hectares. Lautenbach is a compound, a series of buildings arranged in a large rectangle including barns, stables, housing, servant quarters, etc. Herr Meyer is a furniture refinisher, practicing the French polish method, which is a very tedious method of bringing a high luster to wood. He doesn't consider a piece unless it is 200 years old. When he is not doing this, he is busy restoring the Lautenbach main building to its original state as our ancestors would have known it in the late 1700s. He uses the space to display his furniture and puts on small chamber music concerts in the summer. The land surrounding Lautenbach is dedicated mostly to grapevines.

While living at Lautenbach, Johannes Zeisset married Christina Baer, who was the daughter of Mathaeus Baehr from Dammhof by Eppingen. The Baehr or Baer name is frequently seen with the Zeisset family names, and there seemed to be a cluster of Baers at Dammhof, also a Mennonite settlement. Christina Baer was born in 1798. She married Johannes in Lautenbach in 1815. Jacob Zeisset, Jacob Friedrich's father, was born in Lautenbach on the 14 ^th of June 1816. He was the oldest child of Johannes and Christina. . Church records indicate that Johannes and Christina had eleven children, four of whom were born at Lautenbach. Of these eleven children, four survived infancy. Jakob's sister, Magdalena was born February 21, 1819. This is the Magdalena who married Matthaeus Baer and then moved to Niedersteinach. Magdalena and Matthaeus married in 1839 in Menzingen and their marriage registration indicates that Matthaeus is from Dammhof, a citizen in Adelshofen (the town nearest Dammhof), and that he is the son of Heinrich Baer and Barbara Zeisset. Barbara is the granddaughter of Abraham Zeisset and Elisabetha Landes, daughter of Abraham, "Jr." and Magdalena Fellmann.

Four of Johannes and Christina's eleven children were born at Lautenbach. The children were born about every fifteen to twenty months. Then there is a gap in reported births of Zeisset children from November 1820 to March 1825. Johannes Zeisset's death notice indicates that he moved from Lautenbach to Kochendorf, which is very near Lautenbach. Presumably, then, the family lived at Kochendorf 1821 to 1824. The records from Kochendorf have not yet been located.

Menzingen

In the early 1800s several Zeisset families moved to Menzingen, another town in Baden, about 30 miles from Oedheim. It is known that there were many Mennonites in this area, but the exact reason for the move to Menzingen is not known. Here the church records are much more inclusive and explanatory. Menzingen is also one of the few German towns to have an "Ortssippenbuch", which is a book containing known genealogies of the residents of Menzingen. This eliminates the difficult task of deciphering the parish pastor's handwriting.

The Zeissets were Paechters also in Menzingen. Jacob Zeisset married Johanna Epp November 4, 1838. They were married in the church in Menzingen at 11:00 in the morning. Jacob is described as of the Mennonite Confession, while Johanna is of the protestant confession. Johanna was the daughter of Bernhard Friedrich Epp and his wife, Friederika Grudina. The Epps were long time residents of Menzingen, with church records tracing our Epp line back to the mid-1600s. Friederika Grudina, was born in Michelfeld, Baden to Johann Georg Grudina and his wife, Maria Friederika Neff. The Neffs were long time residents of Michelfeld, and prior to Michelfeld, came from Switzerland. It is suspected that the Grudinas may have come from Russia, as the only references found for this name to date are Russian.

Jacob Friedrich Zeisset was born Jacob Friedrich Epp on May 30, 1837 "uneheliches" or illegitimate. A church entry on September 13, 1838 indicates that Jacob Zeisset is the father of Jacob Friedrich and that he is officially giving the child his name. All indications, including the initial birth registration point to Jacob Zeisset as the father.

Jacob and Johanna had five more children in Menzingen. Isaak was born in 1839, Johannes in 1841, Barbara Friedrica in 1844, Friedrich in 1846, and Daniel in 1848 (though Daniel's birth has not been verified at this writing).

Sindolsheim

Around 1850, the Zeisset family moved to Hohenstadt Hof by Sindolsheim. There is notation of the birth of Magdalena to Jacob and Johanna on December 28, 1854 at Sindolsheim. Previously, we thought that the daughter of Jacob and Johanna was named Iona, according to a photo of the family. Perhaps this is Magdalena and Iona may have been a nickname. There is no notation of a daughter being born after Magdalena. Magdalena later moved to Schrozberg, which is the "county seat" near Kreuzfeld.

Johannes and Jacob both died at Sindolsheim, Johannes in 1855 and Jacob in 1861. Since the daughter appears to be about 5 years old in the photo we have of the family, that would date the photo to about 1859. The church records refer to the Zeissets as Mennonite, Johanna as evangelical. The photograph documents that the clothing of the Zeissets was not "plain", so they did not appear to be following the Mennonite dictates of simple and plain clothing. The dates and locations of the wives of Johannes and Jacob have not been determined YET.

Isaak Zeisset, brother of Jacob Friedrich, married a local girl, Bertha Hettinger from Eberstadt in 1863. Their first daughter was born in Sindolsheim in 1864, the second in Kreuzfeld in 1865. A son was born in 1866 in Kreuzfeld and the next son was born in Rosshof, Bayern (Bavaria) in 1868.

Johannes Zeisset, the next son of Jakob and Johanna, was born in Menzingen in 1841. He married Elisabetha Baer, daughter of Matthaeus and Magdalena Zeisset Baer, in 1869. Her residence is listed as Niedersteinach. Johannes is listed as a citizen of Menzingen, but a resident of Wiegelshof in the region of Feuchtwangen. This area is about 90 miles east of Menzingen. The marriage was performed by a Mennonite minister from Himmelhaeuser Hof (a small hamlet), Jacob Buecher. The marriage was in Berwangen, about 30 miles east of Menzingen. It would appear that transportation was not much of an obstacle! There is a memorial to those who died in the Prussian war, 1870-1871, outside of the church at Menzingen and Johannes Zeisset's name is among those names on this memorial. Elisabetha, Johannes' wife, was the older sister of Lena, Anna, and Heinrich Baer who came to America. To date, it is not known what happened to Elisabetha after the death of her husband.

Margaretha Mueller

Margaretha Mueller was born November 8, 1842 in Semd, Hessen, Germany to Johann Georg III. One might think that Johann Georg Mueller III was the son of Johann Georg Mueller II. This is not the case. Johann Georg Mueller III was the son of Johann Heinrich Mueller. Johann Georg Mueller was quite a popular name in Semd and as a child was named Johann Georg Mueller, a number was assigned to him in the order in which he was born in the community of like-named boys. At the last count, the records had Johann Georg Mueller XVII. This provides the elements for interesting research, complicated by the fact that many of the Johann Georg's married Anna Marie's. The couple can then be differentiated by the wife's maiden name. Our Johann Georg was married to Anna Marie Schneider, daughter of Johann Michael Schneider and Anna Maria Rhein. Johann Georg III and Anna Marie had eight children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Margaretha Mueller's siblings remained in Semd, and it is not known how Margaretha came to meet Jacob Friedrich Zeisset and later marry him. One of the sponsors at the wedding was the teacher of the girls' school in Adelsheim. Did Margaretha "go away" to school and meet Jacob Friedrich? This is a question we may never be able to answer.

Jakob Friedrich Zeisset and Margaretha Mueller

A copy of the marriage record of Jacob Zeisset and Margarethe Mueller is included. It shows that the couple was married in Adelsheim on 15 March 1864. The record states that permission to marry was given by the lutheran pastor in Umstadt (a town near Semd) on 9 March, and from the evangelical pastor in Menzingen on 19 February and from the evangelical pastor at Sindolsheim on 17 February. And just to make sure everyone agreed, they had permission from the Adelsheim pastor on 14 March. It denotes Jacob Friedrich Zeisset as a Mennonite and a citizen and farmer at Menzingen. He is described as the legitimate, never-married son of the deceased Jakob Zeisset, citizen in Menzingen and Paechter in Sindolsheim and his wife Johanna Epp. Margarethe is described as of the evangelical lutheran Confession, legitimate, never-married daughter of Georg Mueller III, citizen and shepherd in Semd, "county" of Dieburg, Hessen, and his wife, Anna Maria Schneider. Witnesses of the marriage were Georg Dietz, farmer in Sindolsheim and the evangelical "Maedchenlehrer" (girls' teacher), Ludwig Bether (?sp.).

As the first child of Jacob and Margaretha was born in Kreuzfeld on 2 November 1864, the newlyweds must have moved immediately to Kreuzfeld upon their marriage. Little is known of the lives of the Zeisset family at Kreuzfeld. Jacob was a "Gutspaechter", the lessee of an estate. Margarethe was kept busy having children, as she had a baby every year until 1872 (1864, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869, 1870 and 1871). Then she had Georg Jakob in 1873, Barbara in 1875 and Henry in 1878 and the last baby in 1881, who was premature. The death record of Margarethe in the Schrozberg church book states that she died on the 20 ^th of February 1881 at seven o'clock in the morning from a difficult childbirth. She was buried at Crailshausen at 1:30 in the afternoon two days later. The German church records often contain a "Family book" in addition to the separate baptism, confirmation, marriage and death books. The family book lists each family of the church, with the husband and wife at the top, their parents and then their children below. The family book for Kreuzfeld notes the death of Jacob on 6 October 1884 from typhus in the Landesgefaengnis (state prison) at Hall. It also states that he does not belong to the local population.

In 1985, I met Alfred Kupler, the man who was farming the ground that Jacob used to farm. He related the story that he had heard of Jacob Zeisset, and that he reportedly had a wagon loaded with hay, lit it on fire and pulled it into the barn. The family legend has him at the local tavern reportedly saying to let it burn, that it was insured. To date, documentation of this crime in the court or newspaper records has not been discovered. We do, now, have a copy of the prison daybook listing the death of Jak. Zeisset of Kreuzfeld, prisoner number 565, on the 7 ^th of October 1884. The church book lists his death as on the 6 ^th and his is the first entry on the 7 ^th, so it may be that his death was discovered in the morning of the 7 ^th. Prisoner number 564, Julius Weist of Heilbronn also died on the 7 ^th. One wonders if they were, perhaps, cellmates.

Other Schrozberg Zeissets

During the time our immigrant Zeisset family lived in Kreuzfeld, there were other relatives living in the same area. As previously noted, Jacob Friedrich's brother, Isaak moved to Kreuzfeld and lived there from about 1864 to 1868 according to documentation of the location of births of Isaak and Bertha's children. They had a son, Jakob Friedrich born in Rosshof in March 1868, presumably named after our Jacob Friedrich. This child was called by his middle name, Friedrich. Rosshof is in Bavaria northeast of Munich. Bettie Zeisset Hoerman, born in 1875 in Kreuzfeld, has Isaak Zeisset listed as a baptismal sponsor and her birth documentation states that Isaak was from Rosshof. This document was completed in 1885, just prior to her emigration to America. Henry Zeisset's birth documentation states that Isaak was a sponsor and lived in Eichenau. It doesn't state whether this is the Eichenau in Wuerttemberg or in Bavaria. This document was completed in 1893. At the time of his son's marriage, Isaak Zeisset lived in Dasstadt in Bavaria. This would then be the Isaak to whom reference is made in Merton Zeisset's Our First Century in America in connection with Floyd Zizert. The name of the town, thought to be Dasstadt, is obscured by a line drawn through it (on the record of Friedrich's marriage) and no town by the name of Dasstadt has been found to date. The family story maintains that Henry Zeisset lived with Isaak Zeisset and his family in Niedersteinach. No records have been found to indicate that Isaak ever lived in Niedersteinach. Friedrich Zeisset, Isaak's son, was married in Schrozberg in 1896 where he was a teacher. He and his wife, Anna, moved to Bartenstein, just west of Schrozberg, in 1897.

Jacob Friedrich Zeisset's sister, Magdalena, who was born in Hohenstadt, near Sindolsheim, moved to Schrozberg also. She was married there in 1873 to Johann Belzner. He died in 1876. This couple had one daughter, Luisa, born in 1874. Luisa married in 1894 and died in Fasanenmuehle in 1904. Her mother, Magdalena married Georg Soender in 1881. Magdalena died in Wuerzberg in 1932.

The Immigrants

Louise was the first of the orphaned Zeisset children to come to America, as noted in Our First Century in America. From the ship passenger list in German to America, her destination is listed as Philadelphia, her arrival date being 13 July 1883 in New York. She departed from Antwerp and sailed on the Belgenland. This ship could carry 1150 passengers. It was previously thought that Louise came to America in 1884. Though the date of her father's incarceration is not known, it is suspected that she came to America prior to Jacob's imprisonment.

Bertha and Bettie arrived in New York on 6 June 1885. They departed from Bremen and sailed on the ship Fulda. The Fulda could carry 1120 passengers. Interestingly, the Baers and Bletschers had traveled on the same ship, arriving only a few months before.

Jacob traveled on the EMS, departing Bremen, through Southampton, arriving in New York on the 26 ^th of February 1890. He is listed as a clerk. The EMS was a large ship, accommodating 1125 passengers. Elizabeth's name has not been found on any of the passenger lists. A notation in the 13 March 1890 Leonardville Monitor reports that "Jacob Zeisset, brother-in-law of John Swart arrived here last Thursday from Germany to make his home in glorious Kansas, under the grand old flag of freedom." His travel from New York to Kansas would have been from the 26 ^th of February to the 8 ^th of March. As this newspaper notation and the ship list do not mention Elizabeth, one wonders if she traveled separately.

Henry traveled aboard the Braunschweig, departing Bremen and arriving in New York on the 10 ^th of April 1893. His occupation is listed as farmer. The Braunschweig was an older ship, which could accommodate 667 passengers.

Zeissets in Germany Today

Contact has been made with a Zeisset family who still lives in Germany. Raphael Zeisset lives in Weisweil, Germany. He was recently studying for his degree in business administration as an exchange student in California. His line of Zeissets is descended from Matthaeus Zeisset, a brother to Jacob (father of Jacob Friedrich). Matthaeus was born in Menzingen in 1830 and married Friederica Ribstein. Nine children were born in Menzingen to this couple, but sadly only one survived to adulthood. Friederica died with the birth of her twins in 1869.

Raphael reports that Matthaeus left Menzingen with his son, Matthaeus, "Jr." in the 1880s or 1890s and eventually moved to a city on the Bodensee, on the southeastern border of Germany.

Other Zeissets in America

In the past year, contact was established with Dean Seizert of Florida. His great-grandfather was Jacob (Yes, another Jacob!) Zeisset, born in Menzingen in 1825 to Johannes and Magdalena Zeisset. This Johannes was the grandson of Abraham and Elisabethe Zeisset. Mr. Seizert reports that when his grandfather was in school in Michigan, the teacher convinced them that it would be better to spell their name differently. Some of the Zeisset entries in the German church records spelled the name "Zeissert" or "Zeisert". Mr. Seizert's family kept the spelling Zeisert, until this teacher had them change the spelling. The name was changed to Seizert and Zeizert, although some of the family kept the name Zeisert. Mr. Seizert supplied much of the family tree as he obtained it through the LDS data files. This has provided an excellent source for directing study of the actual church records.

Back to the Baer/Bletscher Connection

Throughout the Zeisset research, the Baer or Baehr name keeps showing up. We now know that Magdalena Baer, mother of Lena, Anna and Heinrich was a sister to Jacob Zeisset, therefore a great-aunt to the immigrant Zeisset children. We also know that Jacob Friedrich's brother, Johannes, married Elisabetha Baer. Elisabetha was the oldest daughter of Magdalena and Matthaeus Baer. We believe this may be the Johannes whose name is on the war memorial at Menzingen. Or is this another Johannes? If so, it could be that Jacob Friedrich's brother lived with his wife's family at Niedersteinach and that this is the uncle who took in the Zeisset children. Unfortunately, records pertaining to our relatives at Niedersteinach have not been found, with the exception of the confirmation of Henry Zeisset.

Heinrich Baer came to America in 1879 and settled a mile north of the Alida church. Peter Baer, Lena's husband and first cousin, emigrated with Heinrich. Peter and Lena's son, Peter Jr., later came to America and then the rest of the family joined them in 1884. The obituaries of Lena and Peter Baer's children say that they were born at Rals-Hof, Baden. It is more likely that they were born at Rauhof, Baden, which is where many Mennonites lived. Peter Baer, Sr. was born at Dammhof, as was Matthaeus Baer.

The name Bletscher may be a variation of Pletscher and so it may be that this family also married into the Zeisset family, as our line is traced through a Jakob Zeisset married to Magdalena Pletscher.

Conclusion

Well, the Zeisset family is not as small as we once thought. It is quite likely that we will be able to connect all of these Zeisset lines. The name Zeisset is not very "German" and we will probably find out that the name used to be Zyset in Switzerland. This is a common Swiss name more French, maybe, than German.