As genealogists, sometimes we have to be detectives, exhausting every shred of evidence in situations where there might not be much to work with & putting the pieces together to develop a reasonable conclusion.
That’s how I felt as I worked through my KAISLER family line in East Prussia. At times, not going to lie, it seemed helpless. But after relentless searching, I was able to bring the tree back multiple generations. It was possible through the use of rare records, including Schulen-Tabelle (school tables, listing students at the local school, their ages, residences & father’s occupation – very useful). Never before had I used records like this to break through a brickwall… until now… and in this case, traditional records (baptism, marriage, burial) don’t exist for the parish for the time period of interest, at least not as far I can tell.
First, let me set the scene. My 2nd great-grandmother Helene Elisabeth KAISLER was born on Nov. 14, 1870 in Peterswalde, Kreis Osterode, East Prussia, and she was baptized at the Evangelical parish of Groß Schmuckwalde. Finding this baptism record was a long journey, which included her sister Frieda Kaisler Sieg’s immigration record that stated a birthplace of “Peterswalde,” narrowing down which Peterswalde over the years, and finally striking gold. Her parents are recorded as August KAISLER & Amalie NAX, which match the names of her parents provided on her death certificate in the United States.
One day, I got very lucky in a search on Ancestry.com, as August & Amalie’s marriage record was indexed and transcribed. They married in Marwalde, a nearby parish in Kreis Osterode, on Oct. 25, 1864. The groom was from Radomken, a village in the area, and while his parents’ names are not provided, it does note that he had a Pflegevater (Foster Father). A civil death record was found next that helped everything make sense:
It says that the Mill Owner August KAISLER (consistent with other records, which say my August KAISLER owned a mill), who lives in Peterswalde, was the informant for the death of an older lady by the name of “Auguste KAISLER, geboren Kaisler” (interesting as it means that both her maiden name and her surname at death was Kaisler), who died on Apr. 5, 1891 at the age of 77 years old; she had lived in Peterswalde, and she was born in Jäskendorf, Kreis Mohrungen, and had been married to the Schneider (Tailor) “Kaisler.”
After examining this record more closely, and in conjunction with other records, it becomes apparent that this is August’s mother. She was 77, and he would have been 50 at the time. There were no other Kaislers in the parish, so she likely died at his home in the small village of Peterswalde. And the fact she was born a Kaisler, and died a Kaisler, jives with his marriage record which states he had a foster father or step-father. Her husband’s name is not provided, if he was a Kaisler at all, only that he was a Schneider (Tailor). This record also provides a critical piece of information as to the family’s earlier origin – the fact that she was born in Jäskendorf, Kreis Mohrungen. We’ll come back to that.
Next, another marriage was found in Ancestry.com’s transcription of Prussian records: “Frederika Auguste KAISLER, age 28, lives in Dohringen, daughter of Johann KAISLER, Schneider of Jäskendorf, married to Carl Ludwig KNIE, Schneider.” That marriage took place on Nov. 6, 1843 in Kraplau-Dohringen, Kreis Osterode. Since August KAISLER was born in about 1841 per his own marriage record, it appears that his mother was unmarried at the time of his birth, and this Carl Ludwig KNIE would have been his foster father or step-father. A baptism for August still hasn’t been found, and I’ve searched numerous parishes throughout that area, but we now have records linking him to his mother Auguste of Jäskendorf. Plus this Auguste who married in 1843 married a Schneider (Tailor) and was the daughter of a Schneider (Tailor), which fit the narrative from her death in 1891. The ages also match up.
Next: To the records of Jäskendorf. This is where I run into some trouble at first. The traditional baptism, marriage and burial records that I could find start too late. But the Archive of Olsztyn does have miscellaneous records from the parish of Jäskendorf digitized at this address.
I’m going to be honest about this next part. It took hours to go through the many pages of records digitized for Jäskendorf, I wasn’t sure what I was looking at all the time, and very little if anything was indexed. But the relentless searching paid off, because I located these records –
1822 School List
Pg. 247, Eleanora Kayslerin, age 11, daughter of Schneider, Jäskendorf
Wilhelmina Kayslerin, age 9, daughter of Schneider, Jäskendorf
Augusta Kayslerin, age 6, daughter of Schneider, Jäskendorf
Not only Auguste, but two older sisters, and they are all daughters of a man by the name of KAISLER (KAYSLER) who was Schneider (Tailor) of Jäskendorf as we expected from the other records. The age is also correct for Auguste.
Two years later, another school list, and another sister:
1824 School List
Pg 357, Eleanora Kaeyslerin, age 13, daughter of Schneider, Jäskendorf
Wilhelmina Kaeyslerin, age 11, daughter of Schneider, Jäskendorf
Augusta Kaeyslerin, age 8, daughter of Schneider, Jäskendorf
Charlotta Kaeyslerin, age 6, daughter of Schneider, Jäskendorf
Six years after that, and we learn about two more siblings, a brother & another sister:
1830 School List
Pg 33, Adolf Kaysler, age 6, son of Schneider
Pg 43 Charlotte Kaysler, age 12, daughter of Schneider
Amalie Kaisler, age 8, daughter of Schneider
What incredible records. Names, ages, and the occupation of the father, plus confirming that they lived in Jäskendorf, while some of the students lived elsewhere.
From there, it was on to the Confirmation books for the parish, some of which survived and are online/digitized. Under Sammlung der Beläge zu dem Confirmanden Tabelle, I found one of the children above listed, and it identified the father beyond simply “Schneider”:
Amalie Kaisler, born 28 Jan 1821, daughter of Schneider Gottfried Kaysler, confirmed 28 Nov 1834 in Jäskendorf.
Gottfried. So now I can add Gottfried KAISLER as the father of my Auguste KAISLER, and I’m back another generation (note: yes, her 1843 marriage calls him Johann KAISLER but also says he was Schneider of Jäskendorf confirming it’s the same guy – his full name was, in fact, Johann Gottfried KAISLER). Without traditional records, I wonder if that’s all I’ll get. But no, there was more.
Next I found a document which appears to give permission to marry, dated Nov. 1839, for Charlotte Elisabeth KAISLER, daughter of Schneider Johann Gottfried KAISLER of Jäskendorf. The groom is named as Johann GRITZAAN.
And then, an incredible find. Buried in the digitized miscellaneous documents of the parish was this notation related to the confirmation of Auguste KAISLER:
Fredericka Auguste Kaisler was born on 17 Jan 1815 in Bagnitten to Schneider-Meister Gottfried Kaisler and his wife Anna Dorothea Preiss.
Now I had the mother’s name too. I soon learned that PREISS was synonymous with PREUSS in the records, and it usually appeared as PREUSS, so that’s how I have it in my records.
Just as fruitful was a notation in a book of 1797 confirmations for Jäskendorf:
1797 Confirmations
Pg 174, Johann Gottfried Kaisler, born 19 Dec 1783, baptized 21 Dec, Schnellwalde, 6 Jan 1797
Another page added that he was living at Gross Hanswalde at the time of confirmation, that he was the son of a Jaeger (Hunter or Infantryman), and that he attended school previously in Frednau, Kirschensdorf(?), Wittigwalde, Auer, and Hanover(?).
Schnellwalde was a new lead, and the parish of Schnellwade has its records digitized on archion.de. It’s there that I found his baptism record, and identified his parents as Christoph KAISLER and Louisa HAPP. In the same parish, I found Dorothea’s baptism, she was born 3 years later in 1786 to Martin PREUSS and Maria ZDUNEK.
So I went from hardly nothing at all on my Kaisler family, all the way back to Christoph KAISLER, born about 1750, and this was only possible due to these rare records which included school records of all things.
You just never know what you might find if you look into what’s out there. And I’m certainly grateful that the Archive of Olsztyn digitized so many of its collections so that these finds were possible.
Craig Kanalley 
70 responses to “How School Records Helped Break Through A Brick Wall in Prussia”
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