Since the creation of this site in December of 1995, new information, that has greatly extended our knowledge of the Family worldwide, has continuously been arriving. The Swiss Iseli's family members have been steadily emigrating since the 1700's. These emigrations seem to be mostly independent of each other. For organizational purposes, this site will consider each emigration episode a "branch" of the Family. We have tentatively catagorized each known branch into the following groups.

• The Swiss Iseli: This is the original "root" of the Family in Switzerland. The Iseli name is reasonably common in Switzerland, as is its Basel variant Iselin. So far, we have identified 12 Iseli branches in Switzerland.
• The Wisconsin Isely and Esely: This is the largest American family branch and is descended from Christian Iseli (1737) of Luetzelflueh whose sons and grandchildren immigrated to America at different times between 1840 and 1880. Many members of this branch settled in Wisconsin where a large cluster of descendants still live, especially in Monroe and New Glarus areas.
• The Ohio Isaly: This is the eldest known branch of the Family in America descended from Peter Iseli of Walkringen and his wife Johanna Kunz. Peter's son, Christian (1803) and his wife, Verena Zwygart, immigrated to Monroe County ("little Switzerland") Ohio in 1833.
• The Kansas Isely: This Family Branch descended from Christian H. Isely and Elise Dubach who immigrated in the 1850's and settled in Kansas. This branch also originated in Walkringen and may be directly related to the Ohio Isaly branch.
• The U.S. East Coast Iseli: This is the tentative name given to the descendants of Jacob Iseli who immigrated to America in the 1890's.
• The U.S. West Coast Iseli: This is the tentative name given to those Iseli who settled on the West Coast, especially in Oregon and Washington states.
• The New York Esely/Esley: This branch was established by Johannes Iseli (1807-1900) and Maria Gueder (1806), who immigrated to the U.S. around 1850 with their 10 children. The spelling of the name changed again thanks to an Union Army clerk.
• The Dutch Iseli: This interesting branch of the Family was started by Johannes Iseli, a Swiss mercenary working for the Dutch in colonial Indonesia. After WWII, most of his descendants left Indonesia during the difficult early day of independence. Most of family resettled in Holland, but a few immigrated to America in the 1950's.
• The South African Isel/Izel/Yseli/Yselle/Yssel: Thousands of Family descendants can be traced toJohannes Christian Iseli (abt. 1733) of Hasle bei Burgdorf who immigrated to South Africa in 1755 and sired 12 children. Because of their close association with the Dutch Boers, the spelling was changed over time. Today, the names are common throughout South Africa.
• The Canadian Iseli: We have confirmed information from Switzerland of at least two Iseli families immigrating to Canada in 1891 and 1899.
• The Australian Iseli: Search of the Australian White Pages on the Internet shows clusters of Iseli's listed in the Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne areas. Frank Iseli of Melbourne has contacted the site and has promised to send more details in the near future. Greetings were also received from Fred Iseli of Morley in Western Australia.
• The French Iseli and Isely: We know they exist because of the French phone directory, but we have no information on them yet.
• South American Iseli: Many German families emigrated to Argentina, Chile and other Latin American countries. Although I have found the odd Iseli and Isely name in Argentina, I do not know if these are foreign visitors or local residents.

At this point, we can not be sure if there is a direct connection between all these family branches. At best, we hope to connect those branches that have emigrated from Switzerland to the known Swiss Families.

Do you know the history of your early family members? Oral history, stories passed down from one generation to the next, is a valuable tool for genealogical research. Post your stories and share them with the whole Family through this web site.