Kester Name Study

Profile managers: Virgil Kester [send private message] and One Name Studies WikiTree [send private message]

Welcome to the Kester Name Study

This is for the One Name Study to collect together in one place everything about the Kester surname and the variant spellings. The surname Kester is the study focus. The spelling is found all around the globe.

The main focus started with the Kuster's from Germany, which my line is from. On the East Coast of the United States, Kuster turned into Kester, and the generations went from the East to West Coast. The many Kuster siblings and their Descendants had many other variants of the name, besides Kester. The Kester surname did not just begin with all Kester's this way, there are other Kester lines before this time period in other world areas.

If you have a Kester family tree, and have found that your line is one of the variants, please continue reading. Look down this page, to "Further Kester Information", as it may have some information helpful to you.

It was my main goal, to work on just Kester line. With the Kuster line as my secondary goal. If your a Kester, I would like to hear from you if you have questions or if you have information on any Kester's within these areas. I have found that just keeping up on the Kester line seems to be a full time thing, so if your a Kuster, with time on your hands, please let me know if you wish to take charge and manage the Kuster One Name Study.

If your Kester lines are in other locations, I may not have further information for you at this time, but please contact me and lets get them connected. If you have any of the other major variants (which there are many), with the more common one being Custer, help WikiTree, and use one of the already created One Name Studies for your name, and if there is not one made already, please create it and become the manager of your study.

The hope is that other researchers like you will join our study to help make it a valuable reference point for people studying our lines that cross or intersect. Please contact me Virgil M. Kester III, add categories to your profiles, add your questions to the WikiTree G2G Forum (G2G), add details of your name research, etc.

Name History

In Germany, the official in charge of the church sacristy was the Kuster. (Kester, Kuester, Kiester and Koester are variations of that occupational name.) The English equivalent was Sexton, and in the United States most commonly called the Church Caretaker.

The Dictionary has "Sexton", Sex·ton, a noun: sexton; plural noun: sextons; a person who looks after a church, a church-yard, sometimes doing the bell-ringing and formerly did the grave digging (a grave-digger).

My Kester Family Line History

We all have our own surname line history, mine started as Kuster, and came from Germany to the United States. In the 1600's, when William Penn was bringing the folks over to help him out in Pennsylvania, my Kuster line came over. At first three brothers, and then their parents. They came to Germantown, Pennsylvania. The name started changing with the brothers and their families, mine went from Kuster to Kester and stayed the course from Pennsylvania west ward. Slowly over the years, county to the next county, then to the next state. State to state and into the central United States.

In the early 1800's just a few came all the way to California, they all were into farming, some in Napa County and others in San Luis Obispo County. Then in the 1850's with the finding of Gold, many of their relatives headed west to the gold fields, I do not know of any that found that gold ... some returned back eastward, returning to places like Indiana and surrounding states.

In the early 1900's my line had been farming on the central coast in Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties, These years were dry, no rain, they packed up the wagon trains and moved into the central valley of California, mostly Fresno County. A few remained in San Luis Obispo County, switching from farming to ranching, and the raising of cattle. The folks in the central valley continued to farm.

Around 1910 to 1914 my direct line of Kester's moved from Fresno County to Santa Cruz County, back to the coastal area. Most remained farmers. When the flu hit in 1916 through 1918, I lost way to many of my line. The remaining Kester's moved from farming to road construction, which three generations have done. When my father retired, that ended that trade, and also for our direct Kester line, just my brother and I to continue it. I also went from working road construction and truck driving, into the military service, wanting law enforcement, but guess what... all those tests they have you take ... said I would make a great heavy vehicle operator. I could operate and repair almost everything the military had. My unit was at the range, a grass fire broke out, I used a "Cat" key in my pocket and started up a grader nearby at a construction site and made a fire break around the fire. The military never trained me to use that grader... but my father had. After the service, I went to work in California Public Safety as a Deputy Sheriff, which I retired from a few years back. In the early 1980's when I was injured on the job and healing up, my mother gave me a big box of files of her genealogy work of many, many years. She said it would keep me busy. It has, I was hooked. And have been doing it since.

Further Kester Information

The book, The Descendants of Paulus and Gertrude Kusters, covers a main Kuster family of the line, who came from Germany to the United States. The book covers the genealogy of Paulus Kuster and Gertrude Doors, and their descendants. The book is no longer in print by the CAOA, as the association closed its doors at the end of the year 2022. I put further details on the free space page for the book. Please use this link The Descendants of Paulus and Gertrude Kusters to see further about this book.

When the Kuster family left Germany and came to America (USA), the spelling and the way it was said changed, the more common versions being Kester and Custer. The "Castor Association Of America" (CAOA). was an association which was founded in 1983. An association of genealogy family members in the surname lines of Caster, Castor, Custard, Custer, Gerster, Kaster, Kastor, Keister, Kester, Kiester, Kistard, Kister, Koester, Koster, Kuester, Kuster, Kustard and Kusterd. The Castor Association of America (CAOA) applied part of its efforts to searching for our foreign origins in order to better understand the earlier cultures abroad. This provides a deeper appreciation of the struggles and accomplishments of our ancestors. The Association published the results of its findings so that more people may share in its knowledge. CAOA also encouraged informal regional and local gatherings of members to meet one another and learn more about their common history and the CAOA. Due to many reasons, like the internet, costs of travel, lodging, and the pandemic, the association closed its doors at the end of the year 2022. All of the associations books and files have been donated to an east coast university that had always assisted the association.

In 1904, after years of research John Hunt put out a great genealogy book which includes the Kester line. Follow this free space page link to his book; "Pound and Kester Families", Compiled by John E. Hunt, Pound and Kester Families, containing an account of the ancestry of John Pound (Born in 1735) and William Kester (Born in 1733) and a genealogical record of all their descendants and other family historical matter.; Regan Printing House, Chicago, 1904, 628 Pages, Indexed.