A NOTE and SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO EVERYONE...

Even though this project started in the late 1970's and was going to become a published printed piece- I need to apologize that the printed version did not happen. Even though the printed pages were in boxes in storage, they eventually got water damaged and could not be salvaged. I did, however, keep a separate master book as well as kept all the original photographs in a separate file. After compiling this web site, I realized how appropriate this medium is as opposed to a printed book. All the photographs have been sent them back to the rightful owners. In addition, if you have family photographs that you'd like to share or be posted here, please scan and email to me as well.

I would like to pay special tribue to those who have so generously and willingly assisted in gathering data for this family history, otherwise it could not have been accomplished, in saying so I realize that many have already passed on...

Lela Jacklin, Spokane, Washington

Wayne and Sarah Potter, Lovettsville, Virginia

Mildred Witt Thomas, St. Joseph, Missouri

Lucille Grills, Spokane, Washington

Robert Martin Cliser, Wheeling, West Virginia

Herb and Norma Clizer, Savannah, Missouri

Merle Cliser Fox, Luray, Virginia

Paul Kleiser, Munich, Germany

Ina Jane Shenk, Luray, Virginia

Synnove Kildal, Oslo, Norway

George Kleiser, Ontario, Canada

James Matsen, New London, Pennsylvannia

Harry Kleiser, Maple Valley, Washington

I know time marches on and we're not here forever in this life, as far as updates, they will eventually cease - however I hope my efforts may not have been in vain, and that this work may receive your approval and support.  Gary -

EMAIL ME

THE FIRST LETTER from HERB & NORMA CLIZER, 11-12-1978

Herb & Norma Clizer

Savannah, Mo

Dear Gary,

It was a real thrill to receive your letter and to realize that we probably have common ancestors. No one here has ever done any research into the family history except for the part of the family that lived on our family farm since pre-civil war days. Herb and I lived on this farm in 1950 when we were first married, and my interest' in antiques lead me to explore old trunks of school books and letters. I found some marvelous letters from Samuel Cliser of Virginia from 1867 and John E. Clizer from Washington. I am sending copies of the two that may interest you.
We still have the old Clizer Family cemetery on the hill behind the location of the log house. It's not in good shape - one reason is because of the roots from the evergreen trees that were brought back from Virginia to be planted there, (this information on the trees was in a letter). My husbands grandfathers' (Herman Clizer, 1880-1922) grave was moved into Savannah when his wife died about 10 years ago. I am an only child and Herb and I and the youngest children live on my family farm one mile north of Savannah, it is only 108 acres, but land is worth $1000 per acre more or less in the location.
The Clizer's farm is 180 acres and is eight miles west of us. Herb helps dad Ken oversee the crops and the 120 head of cows and calves, although he has this farm to see and a full time job at the co-op in Savannah. Herb is also president of the Board of Education of our county's school district and Chairman of the Board of the Savannah United Methodist Church. He is carrying the traditions of the Clizer family to be involved with education and church. As far as I know, Clizer's have not been involved in politics.
Last year Herb's brother, Herold bought the farm to keep it in the family a while longer although he has no children, he is vice president of Wilson's Meat Company in Oklahoma City. Herold, Herb and I graduated from the university of Missouri. Our son Gregg is there now studying engineering. Our two older daughters, Linda and Denise are teachers. Kevin is in the 7th grade - a good student-athlete, and the first hunter we have had in the family. I've learned to fix all sorts of game.
I substitute teach several days a week, but except for the first year we were married, I have never worked full time. That year I taught 7 students in the country school house at the end of our lane that Joshua Clizer had help build. The next year I found Herb as a second Lt. in Korea.
Kenneth and Iva Mae Clizer did live a mile from the farm on the highway, but now have a lovely house in Savannah. No one has lived on the farm for close to 10 years - many houses nearby are vacant too as farms are merged together and people are afraid to be very isolated as they grow older.
I'll give you more information from the gravestones and look forward to hearing more about your family and you. For some reason I thought you were in your 70's - so nice to know you are the age of our children and interested in all this.

Sincerely, Herb and Norma Clizer

LETTER from MERLE CLISER FOX - 1-31-1979

Dear Gary,

I am getting the information you requested together, but I will have to go to the cemetery for some dates, and we have had snow here and it is calling for more, so just as soon as I can get in the cemetery I will send you what I have which I feel you will be glad to get.

Thanks for the copy of my grandfathers letter to Missouri, it is interesting. I have clippings also of which I will have to make copies. One interesting item I ran across an old Bible where my grandfathers birth was recorded and it was spelled with a Z. Also my father's uncle Ernest Cliser was spelled with a Z.

I will get this together just as soon as the weather permits and mail it to you.

Respy,

Merle B. Cliser Fox
1103 Main Street
Luray, Virginia 22835

LETTER from LELA JACKLIN 1-4-1979

North 1118 Bates

Spokane, Washington

Dear Cousin Gary,

I have your letter here that you wrote to my sister Dora Stockdale. I have copies of some information that you may be interested in.

Our grandfather was Benjamin F. Clizer and our mother was Letitia A. Clizer born in Andrew County, Missouri. We are very much interested in this sort of thing, but have never done anything about it except try to save bits of informatio as we find them. If you are interested, I could trace our family farther to include prresent day members.

My grandfather Benjamin F. Clizer came to Washington around 1879 by covered wagon. They started once and then turned back because of Indian uprisings in the Black Hills. It took them about 3 months to get here. My mother (Letitia) was about 9 years old at the time.

Lela Jacklin

LETTER from EDWARD BOWEN - 1-8-1979

Dear Gary Cliser,

I received your letter asking for information on the Cliser Family. I talked with Merle Fox who was a Cliser before marriage. I beleive she wrote you about all I know on the Cliser Family.

My mother was Mattie Cliser, daughter of Ambrose Cliser. My mother had two brothers names John Cliser and Frank Cliser, but neither of them married. My grandfather Ambrose had brothers brothers named Samuel and Matt, as I always heard him called. Possible his real name was Martin. You mentioned him to be your great grandfather. Matt has a son I know by the name of Jett. Jett had a large family, according to a local 53 year old man, he went to a one room mountain school named Rocky Branch with boy named Bernard Cliser, Could this have been your father? If so, was he born and raised here in Page County?

This is all I can give you on our anscestors. Mrs. Fox may have given you more information. I wish you good luck and success with the book you plan to publish. I am sure it will be very interesting.

Sincerly,

Edward Bowen
Rt 1
Luray, Virginia 22835

LETTER from SARAH (CLISER) POTTER 1-11-1979

Sarah Potter
Lovettsville, Virginia

Dear Gary,
Thanks for all the Cliser family data you sent us recently. Enclosed are reproduced copies of all the ancestral data, except some photographs, that we have on the Oliver Jett Cliser family. I am still compiling data on his descendants, and we will send copies of that when it is completed.
We feel sure that the information Robert M. Cliser sent us several years ago is correct, because Oliver Jett Cliser agreed that it was, as he remembered it: and that Martin Mathias Cliser born August 4, 1846 and died Feb 11, 1895 was his father, and that he was buried on the CLISER FARM as indicated on his family group sheet that is enclosed.
The CLIZER family information you received from Russel Scott of Olympia, Washington is very interesting; from which I have compiled one family group sheet for the JOHN CLIZER family showing the subject JAMES M. CLISER the oldest of 10 children.
On another family group sheet, I have listed the children of the paternal grandparents, but as stated in the first paragraph of James M. Cliser biography, with a third child named Martin Clizer, which you underlined as being Oliver Jett Cliser's father or grandfather. this child Martin died in Virginia as stated.
We do know the father of Oliver Jett Cliser and additional research will be required to find his grandparents. On July 16, 1976, we were searching records in Washington, Rappahannock County, Virginia and found a land record dated "1836, MARTIN CLIZER, 1166 acres, 130 miles from court house, $2.00 per acre, total value of land and buildings $2332.00, tax $1.87" The courthouse must have been in Richmond at the time. At any rate we will have to recheck further on this, They wanted to close the clerks office as it was getting late. We plan to go back in the Spring and look further.

Sarah & Wayne Potter

LETTER from CHARLES B. CLIZER - 2-25-1979

Charles B. Clizer
1206 Pleasant
Walla Walla, Washington 99362

Dear Gary,

I have been long overdue in answering your letter from Christmas time. We had our four children home at Christmas and it was a busy time. Since then I have been very busy with personnel cases and school activities. I am Assistant Sup't of schools in Walla Walla. Prior to coming here I was Sup't of schools for seven years in Dayton, Wa.

I am enclosing some material which may be of interest to you, the information I have doesn't go back as far as yours, probably because our information shows John Edward Clizer being born in Germany around 1795. I would be interested in filling the 'blanks' between John Edward Clizer and Mathias Cliser in your letter.

For you information, I see Gary Clizer and family once in awhile in Coeur d'Alene and his mother and father who live in Spokane.

My father, Charles B. Clizer was named after an uncle of the same name as you can see. My grandfather Benjamin F. Clizer homesteaded near Latah, Wa. He and my grandmother both died before my father Charles B. Clizer married my mother Katherine Power. So you can see I am at least 3rd to bear the name of Charles. My mother is still living in Tekoa, Wa. all of my father's brothers and sisters have now died. The last one to die was Christia who was of the age of 92.

Thanks for your good letter and I hope to hear from you.

Best Regards,

Charles

LETTER from MERLE CLISER FOX - 3-6-1979

Dear Gary,

I mailed your material for the book and failed to tell you that Mrs. Ina Jane Bowen Shenk furnished a good portion of it. She is also the daughter of Charles Bowen and Martha Elizabeth (Mattie) Cliser Bowen and lives on Rt 4 in Luray. You may want to thank her for providing the information. She is a sister to Edward Bowen. Pictured (L-R) Ina Jane Shenk and Merle Fox on Ina Janes front porch in Luray, 1979.

You may not want all the material I sent, but use what you need. I enclosed my dads school certificates as he was a School Teacher and was a very dedicated person.

I have a number of park clippings concerning the eviction that took place, also my mother (Carrie Batman Cliser) have been interviewed concerning this. I feel sure that you are not interested in this for your book, but am just throwing this out to you as it was ridiculous the way they treated those living in the park, and not paying for the land what it was worth, as it would bring a fortune now. I wish we could bring suit against them yet, as the Governor I believe stopped them from condemming the property anymore. Anyway there was an article in the paper that it had to be stopped, it was certainly unconstitutional. My Father was handcuffed and led from our mountain home reciting the Star Spangled Banner (as he could not sing), they were officers in plain clothes.

Well Gary, I trust that the material I sent will be of interest to you, if there is anything you do not understand, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Merle B. Fox.

LETTER from PAUL KLEISER - 7-8-1979

Paul Kleiser
Holzhofstrasse 8
8000 Muchen 80
Germany

Dear Gary Cliser,

I thank you for your interesting letter I received some weeks ago; I wish to excuse my late answering which is because I wanted to connect with some old people of the Black Forest knowing alot about the problem concerning us both.

The Kleiser's are a very old family of the Black Forest coming from the region of Neustadt in Schwarzwald. About 20 miles away from Freiburg. Mostly they were farmers and I found three farms where Kleiser's lived the last 300 years or longer yet. (It's the Klausbubenhof in Langenordnach, the Kleiserhof at Titisee-Jostal and the Unterroturenhof at Vohrenbach-Urach). The problem is that the "Thirt Year War - 1618 - 1648) destroyed most of the documents; but the first Kleiser at that time Klauser (pronounced: Cloiser)) I found named in a document of 1485. You see we are from a very old family! Pictured are old covered tombstones in a Black Forest church cemetery.

I took a look into diverse name-books where the origins of German family names were explained. In about twenty booksI consulted, I found the name KLEISER only once., but always found names such as Kleisl, Kleis, Klauser, Kleisler, etc. I am enclosing two pages from Heintze - Cascorbi, Die deutschen Familiennamen, Halle, 1933 - which are quite interesting because 1) my theory that our name is a transformation of the German short form of the christian name "Nicolaus", that is "Klaus" is confirmed. 2) the end syllable "ER" makes us sure that the name must have been formed where the Alemannische Dialeckt is spoken (this means the region of the Black Forest, on both sides on the Rhine river, in Switserland and perhaps in Vorarlberg (Austria). All these things are confirmed by the implications given in the indicated book.

You are right to think that German language uses "C" rarely, but it's different with names coming from Latin or Greek as iin our cases. So you should not wonder to encounter "Claeser" or "Claiser" or perhaps "Clauser". I'll give you some further ideas about the beginning of utilisation of family names in general. Till the 12th century there were only christian names in Europe. Most of the families got a family name by adding for example the christian name of the father, or the name of the farm or the village, etc between the 12th and the 15th century. Such a name was not given for all the time but changed in many ways with the language, the regions, the dialects... Thats the way we are able nowadays to follow up on the development and the specifications of our names. The specific form KLEISER came into existance in a rather limited area: it is the southern part of the Black Forest around Furtwangen - Vohrenbach - Neustadt. Unfortunately I had no time until now to go to the archives in Urach and Furtwangen to see the history of the Kleiser's (or Klausers as they have been told two hundred years ago.) If you were able to give me more indicatation about the exact origin (name of the village) where Joseph Kleiser or Mathias Kleiser came from (you told me that Joseph came from Switzerland - which seems doubtful to me.

KLEISER der KLEISHEIM: Indeed, kleisheim (heim=home) could be a village, but I did not find one named that way in Germany.

How to explain Kleisher / Clisher, that makes no sense in German. In the modern German we never combine S-H, only SCH. When Kleiser's came to America, I think they wished to be called by the old fashion way. And "S" between two consonants is voices - in English as well as in German - except in the Alemannsiche Dialekt.

I want you to know something about the meaning of that name too. As you saw in "Klauser", the name comes originally from the Christian name "Klaus", which is an abbreviation of "Nikolaus". That is shown clearly in "Klausbubenhof" which means the farm (hof) of the sons (buben) of Klaus. By the way, also the name Klauser, is existant principally in the region near Freiburg and directly in that town.

At last, I have never encountered a spelling "Klizer" or "Clizer", but I think that a spelling like that is quite easy to explain; It's the first attempt of a German to 'Americanize" his name to have the correct pronounciation, the same one in Germany, so it's only a transcription.

I hope I could help you a little; If you have another question, please let me know, I hope to answer. and please will you excuse the faults which are probably in the text.

Sincerely,

Paul B. Kleiser

LETTER from CHARLES B. CLIZER - 11-25-1979

Dear Gary,

About three weeks ago Merilyn and i were in Luray, Virginia and had the pleasure (and thrill) of seeing some of the relatives.

Ed Bowen and his son Charles E. Bowen are in real estate there and Merle Fox is there also. Her husband is deceased but her mother Carrie who is a Cliser is living with her. Her mothers age is now 94. Aside from her the family name has disappeared from the scene.

Ed and Merle and now Charles E. are probably the only ones in Luray to know the location of the graves of Mathias and Barbara Klizer. Ed took us there with the help of Charles E. who had a 4 wheel drive panel. We had to walk about 1/3 mile from the road to the grave sites which are in a field above the Shenandoah Valley and in a beautiful setting next to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Luray is a friendly town and is the county seat of page County. We stayed there two days and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I was amazed that Charles Bowen had never seen the graves until his father went with us recently. The graves would be his great-great-great grandparents. They are great-great grandparents of Ed, Merle and myself.

Recently I have been corresponding with Herbert and Norma Clizer of Missouri and hope to see them next year.

I learned that some of our relatives are buried in the Shenandoah National Park. Merle Fox and Ed Bowen are probably the only ones to know where and Charles Bowen is going to embark on a project of probably locating them and will send us details.

I know all this would be most interesting to you if you had the chance to visit Luray, because the people there are from martin's line. The other's migrated elsewhere including my line (John Clizer) who went to Missouri.

Also there are two Cliser's living in Washington DC, but I don't know the line and I didn't have time to contact them. I'll try that another time. They are Melvin M. Cliser and James O. Cliser of Wheaton, MD.

As I get some pictures which would be of interest to you, I'll send copies to you.

Best regards,

Charles Clizer

LETTER from ROBERT MARTIN CLISER - 12-18-1978

420 Warwood Avenue
Wheeling, West Va. 26003

Dear Cousin Gary,

You really have done a bang up job on "Roots" for the Cliser clan. Maybe we will be related to the nobility, then again, maybe to a few horse thieves. You asked about this Samuel D. Cliser from Sperryville, Va. He was as far as I can figure was my great grandfather Martin Mathias Cliser's brother. Martin is your great grandfather. My dad, Elmer and your grandad Jett were born on top of the mounatin between Luray and Sperryville. Luray is in Page County and Sperryville is in Rappahannock County. Samuel had two sons, Ernest and Melanchton Cliser. Ernest did live in Chicago and he had found out about the Missouri Clizer's because his niece Merle Cliser Fox in Luray told me he was in a rest home around Kansas City. Merle is Melanchton Cliser's daughter. She as far as I know still lives in Luray. She is Bergie Fox's wife. During the 1933 Worlds Fair, I visited Ernest in Chicago. He was a widower. He worked on the Great Northern railroad as a brakeman. I think the last time I saw him was in 1935. Now Ambrose Cliser and Melanchton Cliser are buried at the Salem Churchyard in Luray.
Edward Bowen, whose mother was Mattie Cliser, the daughter of Ambrose Cliser who was a brother to Martin and Samuel lives across from the Salem church in Luray. Merle and Edward Bowen and Edwards sister are the only Cliser descendants around Luray, and even Page county for that matter, as far as I know. Well wish you a happy holiday and a healthful New Year.

Your Cousin, Robert M. Cliser

LETTER from GEORGE KLEISER - 4-22-1980

George Kleiser
15 Tuscarora Rd.
Willowdale, Ontario, CAN
M2H 2K4

Dear Mister Cliser,

Thank you for your letter and the additional information.

Attached you will find some material on the family:

"KLEISER von KLEISHEIM" (Urah Prov. of Baden)

Joseph Kleiser was raised to nobility in 1796 and was given the title "von Kleisheim"

Kleisheim is not the name of a community, it was just made up as a Title as was customary at the time. With this Title he was granted a Coat of Arms and is to my knowledge the only Kleiser ever titled.

According to the best German record books of the nobility of Germany, the family is probably extinct in USA.

August Alfred Kleiser immigrated circa 1863 to the United States. Pictured on right. He married 3-12-1866 to Lizzie Theophile and lived in Martinsburg, Virginia. They had three children:

1. August Albert Kleiser, born 2-16-1867 in Woodridefarm, Martinsburg, VA.
2. Emma Dora Kleiser, born 8-8-1868 in Woodridefarm, Martinsburg, VA.
3. Lizzie Lila Kleiser, born 6-22-1870.

There are many families with the name Kleiser in Germany, Austria and Switzerland unrelated to each other. Names also change over the centuries because of the different dialects spoken in Germany and other countries.

My own name was spelled in deifferent ways: GLEISER, CLEUSER, KLAUSEN, von KLAUSEN

Best Regards,

George Kleiser

LETTER from SYNNOVE KILDAL - 3-3-1982

Synnove Kildal

Trudvangveien 29

Oslo 3, Norway

Dear Gary Wm. Cliser,

Thank you for your letter which I shall try to answer, but i am not sure that i am able to solve your problem. However, I can at least add some more information to what you already might know. Let's start with the forefathers:

MARKUS KLEISER and ELIZABETH (years unknown)
JAKOB KLEISER b. 1625 m to Anna (married in Urach 1652)
MATTHAUS KLEISER b. 1655 and Maria from Schollach near Urach
BARTHOLOMAUS KLEISER b. 1696 and Maria Tritschler
JOSEF KLEISER b. 1753 d. 1814 m. Apollonia Langenbacher

AUGUSTINE KLEISER, b. 1778 in Schollach married to Maria. He used to go to Norway bringing clocks for sale. One year he brought our great-grandfather then 16 years old. His name is HEINRICH KLEISER b Jan.12, 1814 and his two brothers GEORG KLEISER b 1811 and HIERONIMUS KLEISER b. 1815. The two later, or at least Georg Kleiser emigrated to the USA. Probably without his wife, who refused to go. But I am sure Georg Kleiser was in Norway (Kongsberg) 1846 because our Heinrich then was godfather to his second son August Joseph Kleiser.

Heinrich married a Norwegian girl and had already started his business in 1836 (my brother is 4th generation wholesale in watches). They had the following children: Marie, Henriette, Karl, Josephine, Gustav Lorentz (my granddad) Johan and Ragna. Karl stayed in USA and has family left there. Johan had a son, Henry Kleiser who lived in Elgin, Illinois (not the one you mentioned)

I am enclosing a copy of a letter to me from my uncle Lorentz Kleiser. you mentioned that you are in the advertising field, any connection with the mentioned George?

Must tell you how I started looking into the family history. I was in Switzerland spring 1969 and on my way home I decided to get off the train in Freiburg, hired a car and drove up to Neustadt where I found a room in a 300 year old hotel. Learned from the hostess that the lady next door was born Kleiser. I got a hearty welcome and he took me in his car to Urach (would have never found it myself). We found the vicar who later sent me a list above. Before returning I bought the book with the local history. As you will see, the name has been spelt in many ways. Your name is spelled phonetically as they pronounce it in Germany. (Back to my Urach visit) I saw the church and took a few photo's. There were lots of Kleiser's in the grave yard. One was MARIA KLEISER born Ketterer 1726 d. 1798 who had been married to JOSEPH KLEISER, but which of the many Josephs?

Once my brother went to the Black Forest, he met one called KLEISER by accident and I have his genealogical table here. There is one MATHIAS KLEISER, born August 21, 1716 and his son by the same name MATHIAS born Sept. 21, 1768, d. 1828. and his son JOSEF KLEISER b. March 3, 1825 d. 1906. Not at all in accordance with the two you mention.

You will see from the pages I copied that all KLEISER'S are related to JOSPEH von KLEISER who is born in Urach Sept 9, 1760 and died in Konstanz May 5, 1830. I have found more details about him here in the University Library (Briefadel taschenbuch 1908) Joseph was knighted on July 18, 1776 and was given a coat of arms. Titled: HOFRAT JOSEPH KLEISER von KLEISHEIM zu HEILIGENBERG he was married to Josephine von Langen (b. 1771) on May 6, 1796. There is a lot about his family but I did not write it all down. One son - Karl Adolf - was married to a lady with a terribly long name: maria Kreszentia Salome Sabine Romana Werhart von Bernegg.

After I left Urach the next day I drove to Furtwangen to see the famous clock museum. Quite near it was an old house with the sign: Joseph Kleiser - Kuck-Kuck-Uhren. Met him and it turned out that we had the same forefather: JOSEF KLEISER b. 1753. I also drove to Hubertshofen and found the house where our Augustine grew up (my g.g.grandf.). Had lunch in the guest house and on the wall was an old clock marked: JOHAN KLEYSER 66 HIGH STREET BORO LONDON. Also a barometer marked JOHAN KLEYSER as well. He came from Rotenbach which is slightly east of Neustadt. He was the first from the Black forest to set up shop in London. His "shop" was just a stand put up close to the London Bridge. (The bridge which also has been moved to USA- Arizona). Later, back in Oslo, I looked up in a book about old clocks and found J. KLEYSER, wooden clockmaker, 191 High Holborn. There was a Georg Kleyser & Co, wooden clockmakers (1790-94) 3 Little Tower Hill, london and 1810-30 T & J Kleyser, 191 High Holborn.

In 1842 there was a JOSEF KLEYSER from Rotenbach who had Kleyser and Burger in Highstreet, london (must have been the one who took over after Johan - same address.

Some confusion about if Kleiser's came from Switzerland or Black Forest, but I believe that in the old days the border's were different from today.

Regards, Synnove

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E-Mail from Norway Kleiser's

From: Oyvind Michelsen [mailto:oyvind.michelsen@online.no]
Sent: October 29. 2008 Time: 23:41To: 'GaryCliser@yahoo.com'Copy: 'lorentzkleiser@yahoo.no'; 'Jon Kleiser (mailto:jon.kleiser@usit.uio.no)
Subject: A letter from Norway - The Kleiser family in Norway and Germany, Europe

It was nice reading your website. One of the first Kleisers in the USA I think was my grandmothers grandfathers brother Georg Kleiser. His brother was Heinrich Kleiser an emigrated German Watchmaker who came to Norway in the 1820s. George went on to the USA and a third brother settled down in St. Peterburg in Russia.
As you mention at your website my aunt Synnove Kildal who died some years ago, mentioned this in a letter to you. Her information to you is very accurate because she did a lot of ancestry research in her lifetime both in her profession and private.
http://cliserletters.blogspot.com/2007/07/letter-from-synnove-kildal-3-3-1982.html

I have some photos of the Kleiser family in Norway that is George Kleisers brother Heinrich and his ancestors in Norway which I will enclose in this email. The first photo is from about 1875 and shows Heinrich and his wife Caroline (to the right of Heinrich) and the wife sister and her daughters in behind at a medieval ruin place on one of the small Islands in the Harbour of the City of Oslo, Norway, Europe.

The second photo is of his grandson the Norwegian-American Artist Lorentz Kleiser (1879-1963) an oil painting in my possession, painted by his fellow student Gustav Stamnes at the Norwegian Art Academy about 1896.

The third photo is of Heinrich Kleisers son Gustav Lorentz Kleiser. The photo shows Gustav Lorentz Kleiser, his wife Caroline. (The photo was taken in Elgin Illinois, USA in about 1884.) Their children from the left:Ragna Karoline (emigrated to Canada), on her fathers lap Nelly Henriette Kleiser, between his parents, Lorentz Kleiser (Norwegian-American artist of paintings, carpets and tapestries 1879-1963) and to the right by her mother, my grandmother Josephine Marie Kleiser born 1880.
The whole family lived at this time in Elgin Illinois, USA maybe because the father Gustav Lorentz Kleiser worked at the clock production factories there or had some business going on there at that time.

The last photo is of Heinrich Kleisers son Gustav Lorentz as mentioned above and this photo is taken in Oslo, Norway maybe after 1900.

Heinrich Kleisers grandson Lorentz Kleiser born 1879 emigrated to the USA in 1900 and lived his entire life there until he died in 1963 at Edgewater, New Jersey, USA. He was a painter and an artist and made oil paintings, carpets and artistic tapestries in New Jersey and elsewhere in his lifetime.

If it is of interest you can get more information of the Norwegian Kleisers later because I have some ancestry records of them here.

I hope this letter is of interest to you even if it is the European Kleisers that inform you about.


Regards

Mr. Oyvind Michelsen
Street Address:
Etterstadsletta 35 b
N-0660 Oslo
NORWAY, Europe
Mob. 004799252884
Email: oyvind.michelsen@online.no

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