The Tessler Family

As I’ve done for other large Maramaros families I’ve set out to try to figure out who was the patriarch of the Tessler family and then locate him in the archival records. Unfortunately, for this family I’ve yet to locate that patriarch in the archival records but I do have a good initial sketch.

DNA findings: We currently have 6 Tessler’s in our Y-DNA project, all of whom match each other¹, as follows:

Y-DNA Lines Tested:

1. Felsovisso #1: Shimon Tessler c1800-1870 / Haplogroup J1
2. Felsovisso #2: Boruch Tessler c1835 / Haplogroup J1
3. Felsovisso #3: Lazer Tessler c1840 / Haplogroup J1
4. Karacsonfalva: Zisman Tessler born c1790 / Haplogroup J1
5. Barczanfalva: Aizek Tessler c1765-1835 / Haplogroup J1
6. Nanfalva: Gedalia Tessler c1855-1890 / Haplogroup J1

Since all 6 Y-DNA profiles match, we know that all of these clans descend from a common male ancestor. Furthermore, since these 6 profiles represent 4 clans (towns) and all of these 4 clans were already formed by the first quarter of the 19’th century, the common ancestor must have lived in the 18’th century.

Typically my first step in tracing the origins of a family is to look in the 1793 & 1795 censuses and see in which towns we can find the surname and then work backwards from there. The challenge here is that these 2 censuses don’t record anyone with the Tessler surname! I then studied the given names in the family and found that the names Gedalia and Chuna (Elchanan) were very popular in the family so I looked for these given names in the 4 above-mentioned towns in numerous 18’th century tax lists but couldn’t find any matches besides for a 1789 tax list for Nanfalva which lists a Chuna Tessler. This is odd, given that by 1814 the Tessler’s were already spread out in at least 4 towns (Karacsonfalva, Barczanfalva, Nanfalva & Kozepapsa).

Given the paucity of 18th century archival records for the Tessler’s, my next focus was the Barczanfalva clan since that’s the clan with the oldest preserved & documented tombstones. As Ari Tesler has shown on Geni – the patriarch of the Barczanfalva clan was Aizek the son of Gedalia. Aizek died in 1835 and must have been born c1765 since his son Shimon was already married by 1814 (the death record in 1872 which says that Shimon was 89 was probably exaggerated as usual). So Gedalia would have been born c1740 or earlier.

Tombstone of Aizek Tessler in Barczanfalva

Another important piece of the puzzle lies in Kozepapsa. An 1814 tax list records a certain “Lazar Gidali” (=Eliezer ben Gedalia) who in the 1818 and 1821 censuses is identified as being “Lazar Tessler” (in each with 4 minor children). So here we have another confirmed son of Gedalia! By 1830 Lazer Tessler seems to have died but we begin seeing his children being recorded, among them a Gedalia Tessler born c1805-1810. Based on the records, I estimate this Lazer as being born c1780, so he was a younger brother of Aizek Tessler from Barczanfalva.

Lazer Tessler as recorded in the 1814 tax list.

Another early Tessler who is recorded in Kozepapsa is Wolf Tessler. He’s listed in the 1818 census with 2 sons and one daughters but then disappears from the town. Looking for him in the 1821 census I found him living in Irholc² with 2 sons and 3 daughters. In the Irholc tax lists I found that he was also referred to as Farkas (=Wolf³) Gedalje. So here we have already a third brother! In this case I was actually lucky to find a Hebrew tax list from c1840 where he is recorded as Zev ben Gedalia. I estimate Wolf’s birth at c1790 and he was alive at least until 1843.

Zev ben Gedalia in the c1840 Irholc tax list

As mentioned above, I found no primary archival records of this early Gedalia but at least we can confirm that he actually existed via his 3 verified sons, Aizek from Barczanfalva, Lazer from Kozepapsa & Wolf from Kozepapsa/Irholc. Gedalia seems to have died c1805 since the 3 earliest namesakes that I found for him are Gedalia from Jood c1805-1871, Gedalia from Nanfalu c1808 & Gedalia from Kozepapsa c1805-1810.

Being that the early Gedalia does not appear in any (known) 18th century archival records, my working theory is that perhaps Gedalia never even emigrated to Maramaros and only his children came over⁴. Another option is that Gedalia actually lived in Sziget since I found a certain Gedalia living in Sziget in the late 1700’s, but I highly doubt that this is our man since 1) Gedalia from Sziget’s father was Jacob and Jacob was not a common name amongst the Tessler’s, 2) There were no Tessler’s in Sziget in the 1818 & 1821 censuses. In the case of most large families, at least some married children stayed “in town” of the patriarch.

Now that we have verified 3 of Gedalia’s children, I want to turn my attention to other early Tessler men who seems to be Gedalia’s children but I have not been able to positively verify them as such.

Chuna Tessler:

Based on surviving gravestones in Felsovisso, we know that Chuna Tessler was the patriarch of the large Felsovisso clan in town but he left no trace in the archival records for Felsovisso. The only record I found for him (living in Nanfalva) is the above-mentioned 1789 tax list but he then disappears and is not recorded in any later records. Based on the dates of his children, I estimate is that Chuna was born c1770 and that he died c1825 since I have documented 3 of his grandsons from Felsovisso all born c1822-1829 who were named Chuna. For the following 3 reasons I believe that Chuna was Gedalia’s son. 1) All 3 Felsovisso Y-DNA profiles match the Y-DNA profile from Barczanfalva and the Barczanfalva profile belongs to a fully documented descendent from the early Gedalia. 2) The name Gedalia was very popular amongst the Tessler’s in Felsovisso. 3) Chune was born c1770 so he was most likely a son of Gedalia and not his grandson.

1789 tax list for Nanfalva.

Tombstone of Shimon Tessler in Felsovisso, Chuna’s son⁵.

Hersh Tessler – Nanfalva:

Hersh Tessler seems to have been the patriarch of the Nanfalva clan and was born not later than 1780⁶ He died c1820 since the 1818 census lists him with 4 children but in the 1821 census he’s not recorded anymore and instead we see his wife, the “widow” Golde. Among Hersh’s children in Nanfalva was a Gedalia who was born c1808⁷. Gedalia lived at least until 1840 since he is recorded in a tax list from that year. Hersh is likely a son of the early Gedalia based on the same reasons that I wrote for Chuna (DNA + naming pattern), but since Hersh was likely younger than Chuna there’s a possibility that he was Gedalia’s grandson.

Hersh Tessler as tax collector for the Kaszo district c1800.

Another early Tessler in Nafalu was Lazer Tessler. Lazer shows up in the 1814 tax lists from Nanfalu but then disappears from Nanfalu. In 1818 there was a Lazer Tessler living in Kisbocsko, maybe he’s the same Lazer from Nanfalu who then moved to Kisbocsko. Either way, I don’t know who this Lazer is.

Zisman Tessler – Karacsonfalva:

Zisman seems to have been born c1790 and first mention of him in Karacsonfalva is a 1814 tax list. There he is listed simply as “Zisman” with no surname. In the 1818 census he is listed with 2 sons and one daughter, 1821 he is listed with 3 sons and one daughter & in 1830 he is listed with 6 children. The last record of him is in a 1835 tax list. In the 1840 and 1843 tax lists he doesn’t show up anymore, so he most likely died between 1835 and 1840. Unfortunately, none of the lists I have seen record his patronym. In the censuses he is listed with his surname Tessler and in the tax lists he just used his given name (no surname or patronym). Zisman had some grandchildren named Chuna so my theory is that he was Chuna’s son but there’s also a possibility that he was Gedalia’s son (= Chuna’s brother).

I’ve been able to trace 4 of Zisman’s children, none of whom stayed in Karacsonfalva. One son moved to Felsovisso and 3 other children moved to Korosmezo (Yasinya), as follows:

1. Daniel Tessler born c1819-1894 (married Gitze Szaliman) – Felsovisso.
2. Mindel Tessler c1833-1905 (married Shmil Halem) – Korosmezo
3. Hersh Tessler born late 1830’s, died before 1894 [1891] (married Rifke Halem) – Korosmezo
4. Tobias/Tovya Tessler born c1840 (married Gittel Halem) – Korosmezo

Daniel Tessler’s plot on the Felsovisso cemetery map

Researchers on Geni have identified another son, Moshe Gedalia who lived in Sziget. I didn’t verify if this connection is valid.

Zisman’s full name was Yekusiel Zisman as recorded by the tombstone of his son Hersh in Korosmezo.

Tombstone of Hersh Tessler in Korosmezo

The Feder family:

One of the members in our Y-DNA project is a Feder who traces himself back to Meir Feder from Vancsfalva (c1760-c1831)⁸. This member has a family tradition that they are somehow related to the Tessler family and indeed when comparing his line to the two Tessler lines (Nanfalva & Karacsonfalva) who tested at the Y700 level, FTDNA.com approximates their MRCA⁹ to have been born in 1731. It’s worth realizing that Vancsfalva is geographically very close to some of the other towns mentioned above from where the Tessler’s originated, such as Nanfalva (2.5 miles) & Barcsanfalva (5 miles).

I have not been able to find Meir Feder’s patronym and do not know exactly how his family connects to the Tessler’s. Based on the timeline tough, my guess is that Meir Feder was a brother or nephew of Gedalia Tessler.

Meir Feder in the 1795 census.

Meir Feder in a 1830 tax list (the last tax list to record him).

Moshe Feder born c1783 (Meir’s son) in the 1848 census for Gyulafalva.

FTDNA time tree for Feder and the two Tessler’s (as of 8/25/24)

1. By “match” I mean that they all match on least 33 out of 37 markers. ↩︎
2. Irhoc/Irholcz. Currently known as Vil’hivci. Yiddish: Vilchovitz. ↩︎
3. Jews with the name Zev/Wolf were sometimes known as Farkas since “wolf” translates to “farkas” in Hungarian. ↩︎
4. There is precedent for such a theory in some other large families. For example, the tradition in the Steinmetz family is that they descend from 5 brothers who emigrated from Galicia around 1790 and a few decades earlier the Stern-Fruchter-Adler brothers emigrated without their father. ↩︎
5. Shoutout to Heshy Nove for locating his tombstone for me. ↩︎
6. By 1814 he was paying a nice amount of taxes and his eldest known son Moshe was born c1800 since Moshe’s first appearance is in the 1822 census (with a wife and one child) ↩︎
7. Gedalia doesn’t show up yet in the 1828 general census but does show up in the 1829 tax list ↩︎
8. His family tradition is that the Feder family originally came from a town near Czernowitz. ↩︎
9. Most Recent Common Ancestor ↩︎