The Kemmler family of Wankheim

When did I start my research?

I have started my research in the end of 1999, when my son Florian got a pedigree with 3 generations as a home work in school. We had to notice, that it was really difficult to name all the great-grandparents and further back, the information was only available partly.

Where are my Kemmler's from?

My research has started with my hometown Wankheim and the surrounding towns like Maehringen, Jettenburg, Immenhausen, Kusterdingen (the Haerten area), Stockach, Betzingen, Reicheneck, Pfullingen, Ohmenhausen, Bronnweiler, Goenningen, Undingen, Gomaringen, Nehren, Moessingen and Dusslingenin Germany.

All these towns are located between or in the surrounding of the old university city of Tuebingen and the industrial city of Reutlingen in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in the former Kingdom of Wuerttemberg. Please click her for a map of the area. In the meantime some other places have been researched like Döffingen, Ebingen, Erbstetten, Kirchberg an der Murr, Magststadt, Maichingen, Malsmheim, Marschalkenzimmern, Oberesslingen, Reichenbach an der Fils and Renningen .

When does the Kemmler history start?

I was able to trace down my Kemmler ancestors back to 1600. The last I've found is Jacob Kemmler, born around 1590 in Ohmenhausen. But there are also relation to other Kemmler lines in Wankheim, Jettenburg and Maehringen as well. As the families have married under each other, most of the Kemmler's will be connected to multiple Kemmler lines. This was one of the reasons to spread out with the research to evaluate, how the lines of the neighbor cities are related to each other and it is very interesting to see, how the descendants flow over the various neighbor cities. My oldest Kemmler ancestor is Johann Kemmler born around 1538 in Wankheim

Where did I find the highest density of Kemmler's?

After my actual status I can clearly say, Wankheim is no. 1 followed by Goenningen and Ohmenhausen.

Where does the name come from?

According some heraldic books the name was Kembler or Kambler being an occupation to comb wool. The first appearance of the name is given with about 1350.

Some Kemmler tid bits

The Kemmler piano

This piano was very likely manufactured in London by the piano company of Carl Kemmler, an emigrant from Pfullingen. His brother Robert Eugen emigrated first to London as well, but then moved on to New York in 1891 to search his emigrated uncles in PA and New Orleans.

The piano was offered for purchase in an online piano shop in the U.K.

The Bismarck tower on the
Kemmler hill in Plauen

The pictures shows the Bismarck tower on top of the Kemmler hill in the city of Plauen in the Eastern part of Germany. On this website you can get a 360° from the Kemmler . If you want more information about the city of Plauen you can get to the official website.

The ADR Kemler code

If you see a truck transporting dangerous goods you may have seen the orange plates indicating the loaded type of how dangerous they are. One of this codifications issued by the United Nations is the so called ADR Kemler code. Named after a French delegate in charge of this code

William Kemmler
- The first man on the electric chair -

The most famous Kemmler is William Kemmler, who was the first man, who was sentenced to death on the electric chair in Auburn prison, New York on Aug 6, 1890 after he had murdered his friend Tilly in Buffalo, NY.

After a long time of research I could figure out where his family originally came from. He obviously had some more siblings as the younger brother mentioned in the news. Although I couldn't find out whether they did after the arrival in the U.S. or moved out to some other places and where not mentioned in the news.

Interesting is the background story and the competition between Edison and Westinghouse, which resulted in the electric chair built by Edison and equipped with ACDC to proof, that AC DC can be dangerous for the people.