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 The spelling of this family's name seems to have
varied over the years.
Most of the people were illiterate and relied on the 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 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 first
generation we found listed the father's name as
Jacob Canseyer. His first
child is named Anna Ilsabe Canseyer but the second child is 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 chruch's records.
The next change may have come about because Christoph's church was in the
village of 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 that 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
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Alt Sührkow is a village that currently has about 400
residents. It is located a few miles north and east of the
village of 
