Posted by transfer on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - 01:52 PM

We are not sure how many possible American spelling of Iseli there may be. Since most name changes took place at the time of immigration, all Swiss documents have the original spelling and all American documents have the new spelling.

Since the German "I" is pronounced with an "e" sound in English, either the spelling or the pronunciation had to change. The Esely branches choose the former, while most keep the letter "I" and now pronounce the name "I-sel-ee" or "I-sal-ee". Nor did the spelling changes stop at the immigration office.  The change from Isely to Isaly may have been made by census takers. The New York branch of Esely had their name changed by a Union Army clerk in the 1860's.

Tim Isely writes:

All my life, I have been plagued by a misspelled name. I often receive two sets of junk mail - one address to Isely an another to Isley. One of my university diplomas is spelled Isley. A good portion of my email is forwarded to me by another system user named Isley. Strangely, I never get any of his mail.

Over time I came to think of this problem as type of birth defect - something one just lives with. However, since starting to work on the Iseli Family genealogy, I now realize that I am an inheritor of a long and proud Family tradition in America. This letter was sent to Christian H. Isely during his enlistment in the Union Army, around 1862. Notice the misspelling of the last name.

Research is continuing to find any other "lost" Iseli Family branch in America using a currently unknown spelling variation. For instance, we have just eliminated Easely as a possible variation, tracing this spelling to an English line of descent. If you have any ideas about a possible Iseli spelling, please comment below!