Keller Family Tree
The Keller family is the multi-generational family formed by Jacob Nathaniel Keller—concert pianist, jazz pianist, and music educator—across the wreckage of his early childhood and the family he built in adulthood with Dr. Ava Elise Harlow-Keller. The Keller line of origin traces to working-class Essex, a Baltimore suburb, where Jacob’s father Benjamin “Ben” Keller was raised as the youngest of three brothers in the Wayne and Kathleen “Katie” Keller household. Jacob’s mother Chloe Keller was murdered by Ben in 2010 when Jacob was three years old, severing the original household and sending Jacob into the Maryland foster care system. He remained a ward of the state from ages 3 to 17—moving across multiple non-relative placements until age 14, then to kinship placement with his Uncle Robert and Aunt Shirley until age 17, and finally to the Weston household for senior year after Robert kicked him out. The family Jacob built in adulthood—with his daughter Clara Keller (born 2035 to Jacob and his earlier partner Camille DuPont), his wife Ava (married August 17, 2053), and Ava’s daughter Emily Harlow-Keller (born 2035)—is the answer to the question of whether someone with Jacob’s beginning could build a household where children would be safe.
The Harlow side of the family enters the lineage through Ava, whose Afro-Caribbean (Jamaican/Trinidadian) and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage joins the Keller line in a multi-cultural household whose Jewish traditions, patois, and Yiddish are Ava’s contribution and not the Keller side’s. Ava’s mother Lorna Harlow and grandmother Miriam “Nana” Harlow anchor the Brooklyn-rooted maternal line; her brother Micah and sister Talia complete the Harlow generation alongside her.
Quick Reference¶
Keller Family Tree¶
The Keller family across four generations — from the Essex, Maryland working-class origins of Wayne and Kathleen Keller's three sons through Jacob's foster care wreckage, the family he built with Ava Harlow, and into the next generation with Clara, Emily, and Clara's son Leo. The Harlow side joins via Ava's marriage to Jacob in 2053.
graph TD
wayne["Wayne Keller<br/>Essex, Maryland (working-class background)"]
kathleen["Kathleen "Katie" Keller<br/>Killed by Wayne (Ben never learned the truth)"]
miriam["Miriam "Nana" Harlow"]
ava_father["Ava's father (name TBD)"]
keith["Keith Keller"]
robert["Robert Keller"]
shirley["Shirley Keller"]
ben["Benjamin "Ben" Keller<br/>b. 1990-10-03<br/>Construction worker, day laborer (pre-incarceration); incarcerated 2010 (35-year sentence, second-degree murder)"]
chloe["Chloe Christine Keller (née Wright)<br/>1992-04-07-2010<br/>Murdered by Ben Keller, age 18"]
lorna["Lorna Harlow"]
jacob["Dr. Jacob Nathaniel Keller<br/>2007-06-10-2083<br/>Natural causes, late life"]
camille["Camille DuPont"]
ava["Dr. Ava Elise Harlow-Keller<br/>b. 2011-10-12<br/>Years after Jacob (exact date TBD); died peacefully"]
micah_harlow["Micah Harlow"]
talia["Talia Harlow"]
clara["Clara Keller<br/>b. 2035-06-21<br/>Cellist, cello teacher"]
emily["Emily Harlow-Keller<br/>b. ~2035"]
sean["Sean Wu"]
leo["Leo"]
wayne --> keith
kathleen --> keith
wayne --> robert
kathleen --> robert
wayne --> ben
kathleen --> ben
miriam --> lorna
ben --> jacob
chloe --> jacob
lorna --> ava
ava_father --> ava
lorna --> micah_harlow
ava_father --> micah_harlow
lorna --> talia
ava_father --> talia
jacob --> clara
camille --> clara
ava --> emily
clara --> leo
sean --> leo
kathleen -.spouse.-> wayne
robert -.spouse.-> shirley
ben -.spouse.-> chloe
lorna -.spouse.-> ava_father
jacob -.spouse.-> ava
clara -.spouse.-> seanText equivalent of the family tree (structured nested list)
- Wayne Keller
- Ben Keller’s father; Jacob’s paternal grandfather. A violently abusive man whose fists set the household hierarchy. Killed his wife Kathleen when Ben was a teenager and let his sons believe she had abandoned them.
- Keith Keller
- Ben Keller’s eldest brother; Jacob’s paternal uncle. Followed Wayne’s lead as a junior enforcer of the household’s violence; aligned with the source of power rather than its targets.
- Robert Keller
- Ben Keller’s middle brother; Jacob’s paternal uncle. Took Jacob in as kinship foster placement ages 14-17, though Jacob remained a ward of the state throughout. Emotionally distant and often cruel. Kicked Jacob out during senior year, after which the Westons took him in.
- Married to Shirley Keller
- Benjamin “Ben” Keller (b. 1990-10-03, Construction worker, day laborer (pre-incarceration); incarcerated 2010 (35-year sentence, second-degree murder))
- Youngest of the three Keller brothers. Pansexual. Murdered Jacob’s mother Chloe in 2010 when Jacob was three. Born and raised in Essex, Maryland.
- Married to Chloe Christine Keller (née Wright) (1992-04-07-2010, Murdered by Ben Keller, age 18)
- Dr. Jacob Nathaniel Keller (2007-06-10-2083, Natural causes, late life)
- Witnessed his mother’s murder at age three. Ward of the state in foster care ages 3-17: non-relative placements ages 3-14, kinship placement with Uncle Robert and Aunt Shirley ages 14-17. Taken in by the Weston family for senior year after Robert kicked him out. Generalized epilepsy, autism, ADHD, BPD, Bipolar I, C-PTSD, selective mutism. Bisexual. “Jake” only to close friends and family.
- Married to Dr. Ava Elise Harlow-Keller (b. 2011-10-12, Years after Jacob (exact date TBD); died peacefully)
- Clara Keller (b. 2035-06-21, Cellist, cello teacher)
- Jacob and Camille’s daughter. French through her mother. Ava became her stepmother in 2053. Moved into the Mount Kisco family home with husband Sean Wu and son Leo in later years.
- Married to Sean Wu
- Leo
- Clara and Sean’s son; Jacob and Camille’s grandson. The first Keller-line grandchild.
- Kathleen “Katie” Keller
- Ben Keller’s mother; Jacob’s paternal grandmother (deceased before Jacob’s birth). A victim of Wayne’s violence; could not protect her sons because she could not protect herself. Wayne killed her when Ben was a teenager and let his sons believe she had abandoned them.
- Married to Wayne Keller
- Miriam “Nana” Harlow
- Ava’s maternal grandmother; the matriarch of the Brooklyn-rooted Harlow line. Ashkenazi Jewish.
- Lorna Harlow
- Ava’s mother; Miriam’s daughter. Brooklyn-rooted Afro-Caribbean and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage.
- Married to Ava’s father (name TBD)
- Dr. Ava Elise Harlow-Keller (b. 2011-10-12, Years after Jacob (exact date TBD); died peacefully)
- Afro-Caribbean (Jamaican/Trinidadian) and Ashkenazi Jewish. Married Jacob August 17, 2053 (she was 41, he was 46). Mother of Emily; stepmother of Clara. Conversational Yiddish and patois from childhood; AAC fluency.
- Emily Harlow-Keller (b. ~2035)
- Ava’s biological daughter; Jacob’s stepdaughter. Same age as her stepsister Clara. Afro-Caribbean and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage through Ava. Studied at Columbia.
- Micah Harlow
- Ava’s brother.
- Talia Harlow
- Ava’s sister.
- Camille DuPont
- Jacob’s partner from age 24-34 (relationship ended). French. Mother of Clara Keller. Did not marry Jacob; partnered with him during the years he was building his early concert career.
Family Patterns¶
The Keller Line of Wreckage and Repair: The Keller side of the family enters the documented timeline as a working-class Essex, Maryland household—Wayne and Kathleen raising three sons in conditions that produced both the violence Ben eventually committed and the absence of mental-health intervention that left Ben’s untreated conditions to escalate into the murder of his wife. Jacob inherited the wreckage of his father’s untreated illness, the early loss of his mother, and the foster care system’s failure to recognize his autism and trauma for what they were. The family he built in adulthood—with Ava, with Clara, with Emily, eventually with Leo—is the structural answer to whether someone with Jacob’s beginning could create a household where children would be safe. The answer, painfully and slowly arrived at across decades, was yes.
The Harlow Side as Cultural Architecture: The Harlow line that joins the Keller family through Ava’s marriage to Jacob in 2053 brings an Afro-Caribbean (Jamaican/Trinidadian) and Ashkenazi Jewish cultural inheritance that reshapes the household. The Yiddish, the patois, the Jewish observance, the Brooklyn-rooted maternal line traced through Lorna and Miriam—all of these are Ava’s contribution. The Keller side carries no Jewish heritage; the Jewish dimensions of the family that Jacob and Ava built belong to Ava’s lineage and are honored as such. The household that Clara and Emily grow up co-existing inside is a multi-cultural household whose cultural depth comes through Ava and her family of origin, not through any invented Keller-side heritage.
Stepfamily as Family: Clara is Jacob’s biological daughter with Camille DuPont; Emily is Ava’s biological daughter from before her marriage to Jacob. The two girls are the same age (both born 2035), which means the family Jacob and Ava built in 2053 inherited two eight-year-olds who became sisters by their parents’ marriage. The Mount Kisco household raised them as sisters, not as stepsisters managed across separate orbits. Clara’s eventual move back into the family home with Sean and Leo in later years extends the household’s identity as a multi-generational, chosen-family-as-family unit.
The Music Through-Line: Chloe filled her son’s first three years with Coltrane, Chopin, and Alicia Keys before her murder. The music she played became the one constant Jacob carried through foster care; the piano became his refuge, his communication, and eventually his career. Clara, raised by Jacob, became a cellist. The music that began with an eighteen-year-old mother’s MP3 player in a Baltimore apartment runs through three generations of the Keller family, surviving the wreckage and the foster care system and the murder, and arrives in the next generation as Clara’s bow on cello strings.
Related Entries¶
Jacob Keller; Ava Keller; Ben Keller; Chloe Keller; Clara Keller; Emily Harlow-Keller; Camille DuPont; Sean Wu; Jacob Keller - Foster Care Journey; Keller Home (Mount Kisco); Keller Condo (Park Laurel); Essex, Maryland