This server provides information about the "Kansas Iselys". We descend from
Christian H. Isely,
and Elise Dubach Isely.
This is a work in
progress. All of Christian and Elise's descendents are invited to contribute.
Please contact John Mattox if
you have questions about what you might contribute and/or
how to do so.
David Mattox's 1995 paper entitled American Missionaries In Turkey is linked from the Turkey Page.
Many of the addresses we have for "contemporary adult Kansas Iselys" have come from Katherine and David McGuire - who distributed in 1988 a three volume transcription of letters, papers and diaries of Christian, and Elise, entitled "Uncommon Writings by Common Folk" - it would be worthwhile to post these on this web site - anyone like to prepare html files? (I have 18 five-inch floppy disks written with a TRS 80 model 4 by David with at least some of these writings.)
We use many of the family photographs digitized in 2003 by Glen Hermsmeier (a grandson of a grandson of Elise & Christian) from the photograph collection that he inherited from his grandfather Merrill (via his mother, Mary Frances). Here is Glen's photo directory.
Video recorded by Charles Christian Isely III as silent 8 mm home movies was supplied on VHS cassette by Katherine and David McGuire. John Mattox then digitized it using a PC.
In 1968 Christian and Elise's grandson, Merrill Isely produced an update of Of-By-For-Ourselves entitled, "For the Grandchildren of the Grandchildren." One hundred copies were produced. It contained reproductions of portions of the text in the 1939 book and a contemporary compilation of Christian and Elise's descendents. In 1996, John Mattox produced a hypertext data base from Merrill's 1968 census. In 1998, John worked with his 2nd cousins (once removed), Anne Bingham, Susanne McGuire Cooksey (great-granddaughters of Elise & Christian) to digitize Bliss & Elise's book, Sunbonnet Days.
In 2005, John Mattox secured the domain isely.info for the expansion of this project, to be called "The Isely Information Project: Of-By-For-Ourselves Goes Digital". When this site went live on 12/22/05, it offered 100 Mbytes of contents (up dramatically from the 5 Mbyte offered prevously through John's account with Time Warner's Road Runner).
As of 12/23/09, family contact information has been provided by the following:
Willam Henry Isely (Bill) & Doris
Philip Isely (of Colorado)
David McGuire (of Albuquerque)
Deanna Isely Nilsson
Susan Cooksey
Sylvia Aguilera
Anne Bingham
David Mattox
We hope to hear from you soon!
For information on other Isely (Iseli) families, see the Erich Iseli's Geneology Web Site.