Keesing Family

Surnames are a link with the past, generally reflecting people's cultural heritage. Research of the Keesing name has identified in Amsterdam municipal records has found spellings such as Caizy, Cashy, Caysha, Kayse, Kaysha, Kazshe, Keese, or Keesje. There was no standard spelling. Any offical who needed to to write it would write our name as it sounded to him, in his language. Being Jewish it should be realised that the traditional  Jewish form of identification used the father's first name rather than the standard European surname.

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The Keesing name and it's variations of spelling whether Keesing, Keezing, Kesin, dates from approxiamately 1811 as a result of Napolean Bonaparte's edict that Jews under French rule take European surnames. There varying explanations for the origin family's name. Keesje for Little Kees or the son of Kees (Cornelis), and Cheeseman or little cheese. We find no Kees in the records to support the idea of Cornelis.

 

We can trace modern roots to Tobiah Kaysha who married Sara Simons at the near end of the seventeenth century.

 

Currently the oldest recorded of a Kaysha family birth is that of Shimon Ben Tobiah - Simon son of Tobias in Amsterdam in 1694, as recorded in the circumcision records of the Ashkenazi synagogue.