Muhlenberg County Kentucky

Old Muhlenberg Map

Family Group Records C

The Cessna Family in Muhlenberg and McLean Counties

There are three known lines of Cessna's and descendants living in Muhlenberg and McLean County.

The family of Stephen Cessna/Cisney/Sisney originally came into the area in the 1790s/early 1800s. Stephen was originally in Christian County and either he or his son, Robert, moved and settled into the Rosemont/Cisney area. This family has been listed on the census as Cessna, Cesna, Cisna, Cisney, Sisney. The Carver family intermarried into this line. Stephen Cessna/Cisney was originally from North Carolina.

Christian County Will written September 9, 1823, probated November 3, 1823 for Stephen Cisney lists his widow, Dolly, son Robert Cisney, grandson, George Washington Cisney, (son of Robert and Mary Cisney), daughters Mary, Grace, and Rachel Taylor. Executors, son Robert Cisney and widow Dolly Cisney, Witnesses, Alex Vinson, James McKinney

There are at least two Robert Cisney's in this line. Stephen's son, Robert, born in North Carolina in 1788 or 1792, depending on which source one goes with, who was married to Mary, and their son, Robert A. Cisney who was married to a Nancy J. Sullivan. Robert and Mary bought land on Pond Creek in 1836 and sold this land 1856.

1850 Muhlenberg County Census, shows two Robert Cessna families:

There is one other Cessna-connected family in the Muhlenberg County area and that is the William Grundy/Ruth Cessna family. They are listed in the 1850 census and based on the other families listed near them (and also family lore) it is presumed that they lived in the Bremen area near the Muhlenberg/McLean border:

Nearby are

Most likely these are more sons of William and Ruth.

William Grundy Sr. was married to Ruth Cessna. The census lists her place of birth as Virginia but it has also been listed as North Carolina, same as Stephen Cisney. William and Ruth Grundy had a son named Robert Cessna Grundy.

What is the connection for these 3 Cessna lines ending up in Muhlenberg County at the same time? How are they related? As a researcher for the Cessna's of Powderly, I have found no direct family connection to the Cisney's of Rosemont, and Gayle Carver, former President of the Muhlenberg Co. Genealogy Society and avid researcher, could also find no connection.

What is the connection between the Grundy's and these two Cessna families? We do not know. While it is purely speculative on my part, I would tend to see a closer connection to the Grundy's and the Rosemont Cisney/Cessna's only because of the North Carolina places of birth. As Fannie Cessna Strain remarked in her 90s while living in a rest home in Owensboro in 1982, “Families lost touch because it took all day to travel 10 miles on a dirt road in a wagon and there were no phones and a lot of people couldn't or wouldn't write.” And who would watch the farm?

There was a man named John Cessna who died in 1751 in Newberry, Pennsylvania. His wife was named Priscilla Foulke and after his death, she remarried a man named Abraham Elliott and this family moved to Guildford Co., North Carolina. They were Quakers and on a meeting roster in around 1765, the family of Abraham and Priscilla were listed, including her three children from her marriage to Cessna, John, Stephen and Ruth. Could this be them? Ruth does not show up in many other Cessna family lines in this generation nor does the name Stephen.

Any information regarding these families and how they are connected would be welcome; any stories passed down regarding relationships would be a find indeed.

Written and contributed by Cheryl Cessna

Updated July 24, 2017