Looking for history of family name

[bluehills]

Hello;
I'm new to this forum. Iam curious to the history of our family name. Our family name is Kassela which as far back I can find originates from the Opolskiego region of Poland...around the area of Poppelau..
The internet is getting more family history out there but it seems like this surname is very rare.
Can anyone tell me more about this family name?
The trail kind of stops there at about the late 1700's with Sebastian Kassela..
The name is similar to the town of Kassel located in Germany....is that where the name originated?
Any information I would greatly appreciate.

[jimpres]

bluehills,

I looked up Kassela in the book "Polish Surnames origins and meaning" by Fred Hoffman and it is not listed.
I would guess your theory that is originated in Germany is correct.

Jim

[Jaga]

Bluehill,

welcome!

Kassel is definitively German word but the change to "Kassela" may indicated a possible polonization. But, I never met a person with a similar last name in Poland.

[geofite]

I don't know if these books are good, or not. But there is one for then name Kassel.

www.target.com/dp/B000W1B5N8/sr=1-1/qid=1221401253/ref=sr_1_1/602-2447585-8793424?ie=UTF8&index=target&rh=k%3AThe%20Kassel%20name%20in%20history&page=1

[jimpres]

Ancestry has some good sources so there may be some good information in the book.
You might try reading a few pages of it to see if it is worth purchasing.
They sell the book on Amazon as well.

Good luck........ Jim

[kaima]

Since I am one of the resident non-Poles, I can take an unorthodox view now and then: There are Paul Goldschmid's pages of "Russian Surnames" that I feel should properly be titled "Slavic Surnames" with the emphasis on Russian. There are too many similarities to other Slavic names for me to think they are fully isolated from our neighboring heritage.

Check out
heraldry.sca.org/paul/ka.html

and you will find "Kasell (m) -- var of Kozel."

I will leave it up to you to follow Kozel and other variations, as well as to read some of the background that he presents. As for spelling, do not get stopped by sticking only to the present spelling or the spelling from 100 years ago. There is a great tendency for spelling to change with time and dominant culture or politics, and if there is a Russian connection, you will have the transliteration from the Cyrillic alphabet to add to the fun as well.

Just for spice, I always think of the Finns when I hear an "**ella" ending to a name, and the Finns were a very large ethnic group in much of Russia north of Moscow, assimilated over centuries.

Kai