The spelling of this family's name seems to have varied over the years in the German records. Most of the people in the 17th, 18th and 19th century in rural Germany were illiterate and relied on the local pastor to write their names into the church record books. Often, the pastor simply spelled a name phonetically to the best of his ability or just spelled it without reference to earlier entries by another cleric.

The birth, baptism, confirmation and parent's records for what we will call the Kanseyer line all match in terms of dates, locations and relationships. The exact spelling of the surname, however, did not stay consistent over the decades.

The earliest generation we found listed the father's name as Jacob Canseyer born around 1670. His first child was named Anna Ilsabe Canseyer but the second child was listed as Hinrich Kanseyer. All of Hinrich's children in the next generation are recorded as Kanseyer.

The children of his son, Christoph Friedrich Wilhelm Kanseyer continued that spelling except for one child whose name was spelled Kanseier and a son, Johann Carl Ernst who was listed as "Kansehr" in his church's records.

The next change may have come about because Christoph's church was in another village named Alt Sϋhrkow.  His son, Johann, lived in the village of Thϋrkow and the church records there also even misspelled his village of birth as Alt Sϋrkow.

In the records report we received from East Germany in 1973, the man listed as the "alleged" father of August Friedrich Anton Theodor Heiden was Johann Cansier of Gross Wokern. So, this was yet another clergyman spelling the name of a man who was most likely not personally involved in the process of recording his illegitimate child's birth.

Since the largest number of records spelled the name Kanseyer, that is the one we will use unless or until we find other evidence. Comments? Send an .