TELLER FAMILY

by

Colette Hook Grower

ROMANUS TELLER and WILLEM TELLER

The following was taken from the following reference: "Teller and Related Families" by Lillis Teller Van Antwerp (1855 - 1837) and her daughter Katherine V. A. Tenable.
It was published in 1936 and is found on a Library of Congress microfilm 86/6773 (C)

INTRODUCTION

After twenty five years. Teller and Related Families. This book is the result of the interest and labor of Lillis Teller Van Antwerp of Syracuse, N.Y. and daughter Katherine V.A/Venable, Detroit, Michigan. Many thanks due to George Teller of Kingston, N.Y. for records he found and gave me as welll as interest and encouragement. Alexander Ross of Detroit, genealogist, also found many records of count which are interesting, showing the habits etc. of people 300 years ago.
Many Tellers fought in the Revolution (See"N.Y., in Revolution" Records New York, to Albany and Schenectady for Thomas to guide- our line:-

To guide- our line:-

Rev. Romanus Teller Rev and wife ---?
Johannes Teller and Altje Vermilye
Luke Teller and Deborah Waring
Solomon Teller and Cynthia Groo
Thomas Curry Teller and Catherine Maria Coddington
Lillis Teller and husband, Henry Rightmyer Van Antwerp.
  Katherine Irene V.A. Venable married (1) Elbert Beard Curtis
Children:
Merle V.A. Curtis, died young
Spencer Beard Curtis
Married (2) James Anderson Venable. No children.

KEMPTEN

Kempten was the Cambodunum of the Romans. On the nearby Lindenburg Hill many important Roman antiquities have been found. The Altstadt (of Old town) is located in the valley, beside the Iller river.

The Neustadt ( or Newton) of Kempton grew up about the Abbey of Kempten, built on the higher ground near the Old-town by the Empress Hildegard, wife of Charlemagne, in 773, who endowed it with all the property that she had inherited from her mother.
Kempten Altstadt became in 1289 an Imperial city. In 1331 it became a member of the Swabian League of cities.

In 1360 the Abbots of Kempten received the rank of Princes of the Empire, and ruled the city as a semi-independent principality, loosely connected with the Empire.
In 1527 the burghers of Kempten Altstadt accepted the Reformation, to which they adhered until the Protestants were twice captured and sacked (1633 and 1634) by the Imperialists.

In 1703 it was captured by the French, and in 1796 it was the scene of an Austrian victory of the French Revolutionary army.
In 1803 the ecclesiastical principality of Kempten was given by Napoleon to the King of Bavaria, as a reward for the latter’s assistance. Since that date it has been a part of Bavaria.

ANCESTRY

Romanus Teller was a distinguished clergyman and author of religious books. He was born in Bavaria in 1588. He was probably one of the Calvanists who was expelled from Germany during persecutions following the Thirty Years War in 1618. The armorial bearings claimed for the family are those of Teller of the house of Kempton in Bavaria. This is the crest on the stained glass window donated by the family to the First Church in Albany which was established in 1642.(research by Marion and Arnold Hook)

The father of Willem Teller was Romanus Teller, who is said to have been a distinguished clergyman in Holland, and the author of several religious books. The Rev. Romanus Teller is said to have come from one of the German states; therefore, he was probaly one of the many Calvinists who had been expeled from Bavaria and other states of southern Germany, where Roman Catholicism was the established religion, especially during the persecutions following the outbreak of the Thirty Years War in 1618. The armorial bearings claimed for the family are those of Teller of Kempton in Bavaria. (The stained glass window donated by the Teller family to the Reformed Dutch Church is the crest of the Kempten family. [research by Arnold and Marion Hook]

William Teller’s year of birth is variously given in genealogical publications; some say it was 1616, others 1620. The latter date is derived from the preamble to the deposition given below; the former from a court record July, 1655 at Albany, where he stated that his age was thrity-nine.

Romanus Teller married in Holland in 1619 to Mrs. Romanus Teller who was born in 1592. (LDS anestrial file research)