Help with image deciphering

Question

Going through my suggestion list I find this unique last name at birth to check, and a quick search yields these image records, but I can not figure out what it says, maybe someone with more experience reading these can take a look and tell me what Mahala's last name should be? 

http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_view2.aspx?FilmNumber=1845600&ImageNumber=1024

http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_view2.aspx?FilmNumber=818558&ImageNumber=30

Comments

At first I thought Kipsie, but not sure.

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I agree, its difficult, it looks like there should be maybe a p or f. I'm just not sure either

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That thing that looks like it might be a "p", though spread out, I think is actually a double-s, with the first "s" the long "s" that looks like an "f" without the cross bar (this comes from just looking at a lot of German church book records, where I come across this letter combination a lot).

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That is a 'double s' (one long s and one ordinary s).  Not just German records.  Early English as well.

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See, I knew there was something I didn't know here. Thank you both.

Answer 1

This is only my personal suggestion, opinion, input, etc...

I first examined those 2 pages and then I had performed a little Ancestry search.

It looks like there's 2 separate women
With the "Mahala" in their names that are both tied to Virginia approximately the same time period.

The pages you had provided had the name "Anna Mahala Keyser" and the last name on the WikiTree profile page doesn't come close to that Surname.

I did locate a separate individual with the name "Mahala Kassels" who married "John Huffman" and it looks like a match to the WikiTree Profile.

Here's some information from Ancestry for you.

West Virginia Marriages, 1853–1970:
Name:     Mahala Kassels
Gender:     Female
Spouse's name:     John Huffman
Spouse Gender:     Male
Marriage Date:     2 Oct 1846
Marriage Place:     Pendleton, West Virginia

With that stated...

It also looks (to me) like her birth information may be...
7 Oct 1824 - Randolph, Charlotte, Virginia, USA

... and her parents may be.
Father:    Henry Kassels
Mother:    Sarah Curry

Anyways, I had a bit of a challenge as to which of the two Mahala Kassels were the one, as I previously mentioned, I had found 2 different ones that had similar locations and dates, but I do know they're not the same ones.

I hope this was helpful for you in some way and I also hope that I had explained this okay via text.

Good Luck!

~Brian Kerr

Answer 2

It looks as though the clerk (or whoever) wrote it as Kessel, while Adam signed it Cesel.

Comments

To me it seems like the index has the name Kessel, the document near the top has the name Kessell, and the signature has it spelled Kesel (on that initial letter, I believe the lower loop is curling down rather than curling up, making it a K rather than a C, though it is difficult to tell with the quality of imaging).

Kessel is a good present-day German spelling (the word means "kettle")