Hi Helaina, I am sorry that I have not been able to get back to you but for some reason my e-mail account has been acting up. I did want to get back to you about my Kahler family. My great-great-great grandfather came to the United States in 1851 from Mecklenburg, Germany. His name was Carl W. Kahler (b. 1820 d. 1889). His wife Johanna, and eldest son Otto came afterwards leaving from Marseilles, France. I belive the name of the ship that Carl came over on was the Herschel? Carl and Johanna had another son in 1855 in New York City. He is my great-great grandfather, John Lewis Kahler. They had two more children, Louisa and Christopher. These youngest two were born in Illinois, possibly Chicago.

The Kahler family eventually settled in Sayville, Long Island, New York where they were fisherman. We have been unable to locate the parents of Carl W. Kahler although his death certificate mentions his father as Carl Kahler and mother as unknown. According to Otto Kahler's (the eldest son) death certificate Johanna's maiden name was Meyers.

We had heard from family lore that Carl Kahler may have been an engineer for the Kaiser. Someone else said he was a smuggler in Germany and later in the Great Lakes region, and this accounts for the limited information on him.

I would love to try and link our Kahler families together.

Thanks, Jeff Kahler (KahlerFus@yahoo.com)