FG #1

 There are only two matches in family group:  Jon and Colby.  Jon's family tree connects him to Yelles Kassel.  Many of us have looked at this family:  

Johannes Cassel came to America with his wife Mary in the ship Jefries.  They landed in Philadelphia Nov 20, 1686 from  with his children..He was a weaver by trade. He settled in Germantown in Lancaster County, PA in the vicinity of Columbia.  There were three brothers who were grandsons of Yelles, the Preacher at Kriesheim.  They all came from Kriesheim.  As far as the author knows they were Mennonite

We need more participants who claim connection to Yelles of Kriesheim in order to sort out the yDNA.  

Colby's family history has a very interesting story that he shared with me recently:  

The first person I could find in my family with the last name Cassell (they also spelt it Castle, Kastle, Kassell) was some time around the 1800's. He was originally from Germany and His Father had an Illegitimate marriage with the woman who is my relative. He then sent his son to America to start a new life, and to also keep his son a secret. He was born in Kassel Germany, which I believe is where my last name comes from, as his family name would have been Charles, but when he came to America it was Cassell. It seems there is a possibility that we come from the same family tree, but from the sounds of your story we might come from different Cassell/Cassel families! There isn't much documentation of this on my side, as someone on my other side of my family unfortunately burned all the documents about the history of the Cassells, so I am only left with what has been written and told to me about my family.

- Colby Cassell

More participants perhaps will illuminate the early connections to Germany for family group #1.