Our theme this week is “Live Long.” Trying the obvious approach, I combed through my family tree and did not find any centenarians in my direct line. When I investigated a few that were related by marriage, I was unsure whether the dates of death were accurate. One fellow supposedly lived to be 118. I am inclined to believe that this was an offspring with the same name. At any rate, I don’t want to perpetuate a tale that may not be true.

I decided that I should, therefore, turn the theme sideways. Live long – live long enough and you may learn your family’s deepest secrets. I am afraid that I shocked my aunt (now in her 90’s) this week by revealing to her a secret about her grandmother. Let me explain how this story unfolded. Most family historians who blog will understand when I say say, this is why I blog.

On April 13, I was very surprised to receive a comment on my blog about Anna Marie Kessler Lindner.  She died during the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden. It must have been a horrific death and I think about her often. I have a photo of Marie and my great-grandfather, Max Lindner, hanging on the wall next to my desk. The comment came from a man who introduced himself as Ingemar Nåsell. He is a Swede and, as I learned later, a somewhat renowned mathematician. He told me that he is married to Anne-Marie Kessler. He informed me that his wife is a granddaughter of Oswald Kessler, who was born in Freiberg on April 22, 1863. Oswald Kessler made his home in Sweden in 1889. This all immediately connected for me. Besides having written about my great-grandmother Anna Marie Kessler, I have also blogged about her brother Oswald and about their parents. Oswald Kessler married Marie Sörensen in 1890, who was born in Flensburg in 1860. Together they had eight children, born from 1891 to 1903. I further learned that Marie and Oswald had had an older brother, Hermann Paul Kessler. He also settle in Sweden and had four children there. The idea that I had so many potential cousins is Sweden was new to me and a very pleasant surprise.

Ingemar Nåsell and I began a dialog. In his second comment, he had this to tell me:

I got some interesting information about the Kessler family from the Stadtverwaltung in Freiberg. According to this, Anna Maria Kessler had a son, Oskar Paul Kessler, who was born on 1884-05-15 in Freiberg. Oskar Paul first lived with his grand-parents. In June 1896 he went to Sweden. Later, in 1899, he attended a music school in Dippoldiswalde. He moved from Freiberg to Wildsdruff on 1904-03-31. I have no further information about him.

Of course, I decided to look for some independent confirmation for Oskar Paul Kessler. I searched on Ancestry.com and quickly found a military record indexed as Paul Oskar Kessler. There was no doubt that this was the same person. The birth date and place of birth were a match; furthermore, his mother was Maria Lindner, born Kessler and shown as living in Dresden. The forename, Paul, was underlined which I believe indicates that Paul was how he was called. This is in keeping of the German custom to be commonly known by one’s middle name. Paul was a musician in the military and this matches his education in Dippoldiswalde. He was also single.

Oskar Paul Kessler Military Record – Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Mnchen; Abteilung IV Kriegsarchiv. Kriegstammrollen, 1914-1918; Volume: 10728. Kriegsstammrolle (image edited to include column headers)

While I could read some of the record, I received translation help from Matthias Steinke of the German Genealogy Transcription group on Facebook. Here is the additional information:

Rank: private – Kessler Paul Oskar – Lutheran – place, district and date of birth: Freiberg in Saxony, district Dresden, 15th May 1884 – profession and residence: musician, Dresden-Striesen, Zinnwaldstr. 12 – unmarried – name, profession and address of the parents: father: deceased, mother Marie Lindner nee Kessler, Dresden-Striesen, Zinnwaldstr. 12 – notes: 13 March to 13th may 1916 reserve military hospital, 13th may to 29th June 1916 military hospital Bad Wildungen sanitarium – 18. June to 26 June 1917 – reserve Leipzig I Leipzig

What made this bit of family history so surprising is that in 1884 Anna Maria Kessler was not yet married to Max Lindner; and it appears that she was unwed. Gradually, the news began to sink in. My grandfather had a half-brother that he probably never knew. Certainly, Paul was never mentioned in the conversations that I had with Grandpa Lindner. I needed to phone my Aunt Marian to find out if she had ever heard a whisper of this while growing up.

Anna Marie Kessler Lindner – Dresden – year unknown

I think Aunt Marian was pretty shocked and it was very clear that she had never heard that Marie Lindner had a child before she was married. Suddenly, it occurred to me that the reason that Grandpa may not have spoken much about his Kessler grandparents was that he may not have known them very well. Since Paul was living with them, at least in his early years, it certainly would have created some awkward family gatherings.

Now, if you examine the military record for Oskar Paul Lindner, you will see that he gives his address and his mother’s as the same: Dresden-Striesen, Zinnwaldstr. 12. He also reported that his father was dead. That could have been true, but also may have been a fabrication. I spent some time browsing through the address books that have been digitized in a joint project of the Municipal Libraries Dresden and the Dresden City Archives trying to determine if Marie Lindner ever lived on Zinnwaldstrasse. I found no indication that she did; nor did I find Paul Kessler or any other Kesslers living there either. I did locate a listing for Emil Heinrich Max Lindner, my great-grandfather, residing first on Altenbergerstrasse (1904-1907) and, then, on Glasshütterstrasse (1908-1945) as I expected.

When Aunt Marian and I discussed learning of Oskar Paul Kessler, she said she felt certain her father didn’t know he had a half-brother. Otto Lindner frequently spoke of his older brother Max who was killed fighting for Germany in WWI.  We think he would have cherished another brother, regardless of the circumstances of his birth. Aunt Marian said, “I am picturing your grandfather’s face when we tell him this news.” Since Otto passed away over 25 years ago, I think he already knows.

Next, I want to know, what became of Oskar Paul Kessler? Was he killed in WWI? I have looked through casualty records and not found one for him.  If not, did he ever marry? There always seems to be a new mystery to research.  I am extremely grateful to Ingemar Nåsell for sharing the family secret.