Kistler Kin
European Origins
The Documented Auerbach Connection
According to a manumission certificate found in the Karlsruhe archives, in 1737 the Immigrant Johannes Kistler lived in the village of Auerbach, Germany, which was then part of the Lower Margraviate of Baden-Durlach that included Karlsruhe, Durlach and Pforzheim and is now part of the modern state of Baden-Württemberg. (Note that there are other towns named Auerbach in Germany, including one in Saxony and one in Bavaria. Some family trees mistakenly associate Johannes with the Auerbach in Saxony.) The records of the church at Auerbach Baden-Württemberg in the parish of Langensteinbach were destroyed in a fire in 1769, which is one reason researching this Kistler family has been so challenging. Annette K. Burgert and others have shown that the vast majority of German-speaking immigrants during the eighteenth century came from the middle Rhine region that includes Auerbach Baden-Württemberg on its southern margin. Tim and Patricia Ostwald have demonstrated that families associated with the Kistlers in America, including passengers on the Townshend, came from the region around Auerbach Baden-Württemberg.
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The Claimed Aarberg Connection
Although Johannes Kistler came to America from Germany in 1737, his distant ancestors were Swiss. (My own DNA identifies me as Swiss.) There are, however, competing theories as to where this branch of the family originated in Switzerland. The most commonly-cited town of origin is Aarberg in the Canton of Bern where the Kistlers are one of several families honored with a stained-glass window in the town hall. The connection of the American Kistlers to Aarberg comes from the Stammbaum der Familie Kistler von Aarberg, an elaborate family tree by U.E. Kistler of Offenbach am Main, Germany originally produced in 1938. He later amended the tree to include a handwritten note—“Americanishe Line. John George + wife Dorothea came to America in 1737” —and a lead line indicating that this John George was the son of Hans Rudolf Kistler, great-great grandson of Hans Kistler who was mayor of Aarberg in 1593.
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Just because U.E. Kistler declared this John George to be the immigrant of 1737 does not prove it. He provides no documentation or explanation. He does not say whether this John George moved first to Germany or emigrated directly to America. The problem is that the man who arrived in 1737 was named Johannes, not John George. The 1737 manumission certificate was issued to Johannes Kistler. Upon arrival, the immigrant declared his name to be Johannes Kistler; he would never have omitted the “George” on the ship’s register if his name was John George (Johannes Jörg/Hans Jörg). I think that U.E. Kistler simply accepted the faulty Samuel J. Kistler version of the story because he later redrew his Stammbaum to include the American descendants exactly as Samuel Kistler had them. However, because the Stammbaum is a finely-rendered family tree that exudes authenticity, many people to this day accept without question that Aarberg is the ancestral town of the New World Kistlers.
Kistler stained glass window in the Aarberg town hall. The two chests are indicative of the family trade.
Stammbaum der Familie Kistler von Aarberg showing penciled-in "Americanishe Line--
John George + wife Dorotheo came to America in 1737"
The Likely Bözen Connection
There is, however, a more likely scenario. The Kistler family has been documented in the Swiss town of Bözen in the Canton of Aargau for over 500 years. In 1652, Hans Kistler of Bözen migrated from Switzerland to Richen, Germany, which is only about 30 miles from Auerbach Baden-Württemberg. He apparently was part of the mass migration of Swiss into parts of Germany that had been depopulated by the Thirty Years War. This Hans Kistler had a son named Hans who had a son in Richen named Hans Georg who had a son in Richen named Johannes (b. 1701) whose record abruptly ends, suggesting that he moved away—possibly to Auerbach and later to America. The birth date fits. If this Johannes began raising a family in his 20s, his sons would have been in their mid-to-late teens when they departed for America and they would have been in their 20s when they began raising families of their own in Allemaengel. The geography fits since Richen and Auerbach are within the region from which the vast majority of Pennsylvania Germans emigrated. Note also that his father was named Hans (John) Georg. It would not be surprising to find that he had a son named Johannes and another named John George.
If the Bözen-to-Richen-to-America theory is correct, the tree looks like this:
-HANS KISTLER, migrated from Bözen to Richen in 1652
-HANS KISTLER, born in Switzerland
-HANS GEORG KISTLER, born in Richen 1671
-JOHANNES KISTLER, born in Richen 1701, immigrant of 1737
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map of European Origins
Other Records Show Kistler-Bözen Connections
There are other intriguing records showing Kistler-Bözen connections that defy easy explanation.
From a 1779 Swiss government record:
“Hans Kistler from the Botzen emigrated to Pennsylvania with his wife and children 30 years ago.”
From a 1750 advertisement in the German-language newspaper Pennsylvania Geschichts-Schreiver:
“Johannes Kistler, from the Berner Gebiet, von Boetzen, arrived this year and is with Abraham Herr, Conestoga (Lancaster Co.). He seeks his brother Henrich Kistler, who arrived in this country twelve years ago.”
These documents appear to refer to the same man. Cross checking with the ship lists, which are notorious for variant spellings, we find:
Johannes Kessler, arrived 9 November 1749 aboard the ship Good Intent.
Hendrick Keesner/Heinrich Kistner, age 40, arrived 9 November 1738 aboard the ship Charming Nancy.
This Johannes could not be Johannes (Hannes) Kistler of Albany Township who signed the road petition in 1745 and was in Allemaengel raising a family at the turn of the decade 1750. Also, this Johannes must have had some reason for seeking his brother in Conestoga rather than in Allemaengel. Whatever happened to these brothers? What happened to the children? They seem to have disappeared without a trace. It is interesting to note that they apparently came directly from Bözen.
There is also this: In 1756 Paul Geiger and his wife Eva Maria Kistler, from Richen, Germany, had a child baptized at New Hanover Lutheran Church in Montgomery County.
Even if these additional records do not represent a breakthrough in solving the mystery of the Kistler family origins, they at least reinforce the apparent connection of the American Kistlers to Bözen and Richen.