MAY 1993 NEWSLETTER
We had spring break up here between third and fourth terms and with a week's time on our hands, we loaded the old blue Ford and headed for the Family History Library in Salt Lake. Tedi Jeen, Daniel, Matt, Chris and I spent about 4 days--about 12 hours per day--viewing microfilms, books, and records. The kids were darn good help and made it 3 days, but spent the fourth day cleaning their Grandma MOWER's flower beds. She must think spring is here.
I met on the second day with Trudy SCHENK who is working on our German GEISSINGER line. Trudy, a native of Baden, Germany, immigrated to the U.S. following WWII at the age of 8 years old. She is a very fine woman and is using her expertise to our advantage. She has located one Carl GEISSINGER not far from where she grew up, who COULD BE, the father of our Carl, but as of this writing more work is needed. I will publish her report in this newsletter. She is a worker and I think we will get our money's worth from her. I also have written James BOOR, our Bedford Co., Pa genealogist to research records in Bedford County that are not available at the FHL in Salt Lake.
I am wrapping up the work on the BRILLs and related families of Hampshire Co., West Va and Frederick Co., Va. I sent off a submission to Salt Lake of 206 names. I have located 24 separate marriages between the BRILL families of Va and W. Va and the ORNDORFF families. 24 marriages! Consequently, as you go to the temple and get an ORNDORFF name don't be surprised---many of them too are descendants of Martin BRILL.
Here are some items I learned at the FHL: I have located the will of John KISSINGER in Adams Co., Pa (1806). He may be a brother to our Charles GEISSINGER. I reported some time ago that a John GEISSIN baptized a child in the Catholic of Conewago Church, Adams Co., Pa in which we found that a Charles GEISSIN had also baptized a child. Upon investigating land deeds I found that John KISSINGER's son, David, who was the executor of the will, sold the KISSINGER property in 1811. Some of the family appears to have stayed in Adams Co., but a son Jacob appears to have left. In the 1810 census a Jacob appears in Washington Co., MD. The deed also stated that John KISSINGER originally received his land in 1805 from the State of Pennsylvania. I assume from service in the Revolutionary War. We located a John GEISSINGER serving in the same unit as Charles GEISSINGER in the Revolutionary War. In fact they joined about the same time. These are important clues:
1. Both Charles and John served in the same unit in the Revolutionary War. 2. Both appeared to have received land from the state because of that service. 3. Catholic church records for both have been located in the same area (Adams Co., Pa) 4. A Jacob shows up in Washington Co., MD just following the death of John, his father, near the family of Charles GEISSINGER and also Michael and Catherine (GEISSINGER) MOWER.
These things may be coincidental, but there are a lot of pieces of this puzzle that fit together. We'll keep working on this one. Speaking of GEISSINGER, I lately received a very nice 10 page letter from a John GEISINGER of Bechtelsville, Pa. He is an amateur genealogist who has studied the GEISSINGER families of Montgomery, Bucks, Lehigh, and surrounding counties in Pennsylvania for 30 years. He wants to correspond and work together in hopes of tying families together. The material he sent me hooked up quite a few GEISSINGER families that were isolated families for me on my records. We are getting quite a large GEISSINGER genealogy put together here. We are both hopeful that the GEISSINGER family originated from the same general area of Germany. There is a town in Germany incidentally named GEISINGEN. John went there last summer and sent me a map of the town. He is not a member of the Church, but uses the Family History Branch library in his area to do research. I hope we can get a lot of information from him.
REPORT FROM JIM PETTY ON GEISSINGER LINE 1 APRIL 1993 "Dear Jerry: I am still pursuing the EDMONDS connection, but it is getting more and more confusing. At this point I don't know why Ella G. EDMONDS requested the GEISINGER file. And I don't know if she was a GEISINGER. Or if she was, that she was one of the descendants of Charles GEISINGER. That would seem the logical reason for her to be writing for his file, but...? I have written to Pittsburgh to see if I could find a death date for Ella after 1920. I have also written for the death records and marriage record for James EDMONDS, and the death record and probate file of Richard E. EDMONDS.
"I proceeded with the census searches in Pennsylvania and New York. I didn't find any GEISINGER, KISSINGER, or variation of the name in the 1880 soundex in New York with a daughter Ella at about the right age. In Pennsylvania I found two possibilities. One was an Ella GEISINGER, age 10, who appears in the home of William GROSS age 36, a carpenter, with his wife Amelia age 30, a son Jacob GROSS age 4, a daughter Anna GROSS age 1, and adopted daughter Ella GEISINGER age 10. All were natives of Pennsylvania. This account certainly is appealing because it puts Ella with a sister Anna who is the right age. And Ella's age and name also fit. It just puts us back into that area of Pennsylvania where we would expect Ella to fit with a GEISINGER family not directly connected with Charles GEISINGER's family.
"The other family that I found was a George B. GEISINGER and his family in Allegheny City, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He was 36 years old, and his wife Anna E. was 30, and he had children Margaret 11, Sarah S. 10, Lida K. 8, George B. 6, Anna M. 5, Jessie E. 4, and Harriet B. 1. The presence of a daughter Anna, and a daughter who was born in 1869, added to the fact that Ella had named her daughter Margaret, might suggest that Ella was Margaret Ella in this family. Possible? It puts them in the Pittsburgh area. However, it doesn't explain the New York connections.
"I searched for Richard EDMONDS in the 1880 Census of New York. He would have been about 12 based on the 1900 census listing of him, which showed him as born in July 1867. I search through the soundex for a son Richard in an EDMONDS family, and found the family of a Richard EDMONDS Sr. in Whitehall, Washington County, New York. Richard Sr. was 45, and his wife Anneliza was 44. Their children were Mary 18, William 16, Richard 13, John 9, and Edward 7. Richard EDMONDS Jr. age 13, puts his birthdate in 1867, close enough to fit almost perfectly. I searched for this man in the 1900 census but didn't find him in New York. I searched the 1892 State Census of Whitehall, New York, and found the family of Richard EDMONDS Sr. age 58, wife Annie 57, and children Mary J. 30, W.J. 28, R. G. 26, John T. 21, and E.S. EDMONDS 19. Richard G. EDMONDS isn't quite the same as Richard E., but that could be an error. Another difference is that in 1880 and 1892, the parents gave their birthplaces as Ireland, and in 1900 and 1910 Richard E. EDMONDS gave his parents birthplaces as New York. Who knows. Richard and Ella supposedly were married in 1892, but New York didn't keep marriage records that early so we can't verify it through county records. With all of this information I still am not certain we have the right persons. I figure I'll have to wait to get the vital records and probate records from Pittsburgh before I can confirm it.
"Another job on my list is to contact the cemeteries in Pittsburgh to see if I can locate where Ella G. EDMONDS and her family were buried. If I can determine that I can get her death dates and then obtain records on her.
"I was pleased to see the information about the KISSINGER family of Adams County. That fits in quite well. I found some other clues pertaining to the Catholic connection. A book entitled Catholic Trails West, by Edmund ADAMS, gives an account and membership list of the early six Catholic Missions of Pennsylvania. Volume one, which the library here has, pertains to St. Joseph's Parish in Philadelphia, but volume two, which pertains to the other five missions, is not at the FHL, or at BYU either, and it seems to be the one that is important to us. The six missions are spread out across southern Pennsylvania, and probably have ties to Maryland families as well. The six are: Philadelphia, Goshenhoppen (Berks County), Lancaster (Lancaster County), Conewago (York County where we found the GEISSEN name), Loretto (Cambria County), and Latrobe (Westmoreland County). Another client with similar interests sent me some excerpts from the second volume that described how some of the Catholic community moved across from Lancaster and Conewago to Loretto in the 1780's and 1790's. It noted that the Priest at Loretto maintained a chapel in Bedford as well, thus showing a connections for the Catholics in the area. The family history library has ordered the second volume, but I am going to see if it might be available at the U or at Wesminster College or elsewhere in the area (it was published four years ago).
"In volume one, that pertains to the Philadelphia Mission I found a few names that might or might not have any bearing. A George KITZINGER married Judith VANIE in 1772. And in the 1770's, a Philip KITZINGER and his wife Ottilia or Matilda had several children: Phillipina b. 10 April 1773, Anna b. 15 Dec 1774, Margaret b. 24 June 1777; and Catherina b. 13 May 1780. As soon as I have some further information on this second volume I will let you know.
"Thanks for the updates and family groups, it is helping to give me new ideas, and now I can bounce them off of you and see if any of it is what you have or haven't already done. On the family group of John Michael MOWER and Catherine GEISSINGER, I became interested in children 2 and 4, Jacob MOWER, and Susan (MOWER) BUSSARD. They stand the best chance of providing us with clues about the GEISINGERS. From you notes I can see that you have looked into them somewhat, but there must be something more. You noted that Samuel BUSSARD named no children in his will. I searched the 1850 census of Colerain, Bedford, Pennsylvania and found Samuel and Susan ages 50 and 48, living with three other young people, namely John DARSH 17, Hannah GRACE 10, and Samuel WATTERS 1. The 1840 census shows that they had a young male 5/10 years old which fits John DARSH, and also another male 20/30 years old. In 1830 they had a male 15/30 living with them, which corresponds with the older boy in the 1840 census. In 1831, as your notes show they were the administrators for the estate of Michael MOWER. Michael however had no children who would match the people in the BUSSARD home. (note: the name was spelled BUZZARD in both 1830 and 1840).
The thing that interests me about the BUSSARDS is that, if they had no children of their own but they apparently adopted or raised other children, might the other children have been nephews and nieces? Perhaps sisters of Susan were the mothers of John DARSH, Hannah GRACE, or Samuel WATTERS. We need to check the orphan court minutes to find out if there are any connections that we can look into. You have a death date for Susan. Did she die after her husband: If so are there any probate records for her? Often when a person died without offspring, they left their property to nephews and nieces. Who did they leave their property to? When she died was there an obituary? She died right at the time of the centennial (US) and obituaries at that time were becoming quite flowery and informative.
"Do you have any further information on Jacob MOWER? Your notes indicate that the source for his marriage needs to be checked out. Has he been found in the 1840 and 1850 censuses. His temple work wasn't done until 1897. Does this mean that some of the family kept in touch with him until his death? In 1897, what baptisms were done in the temple? Are there any for members of the family that haven't been identified, such as cousins or nephews or nieces that might have a connection to the various children of Michael and Catherine? Some of this information may have been considered several years ago when we got started on this research, but it has been a while for me, and you can refresh me better than me spending time searching through past notes. Along that line, I don't recall if you obtained the original probate file for Michael MOWER in Bedford County in 1829. It seems to me that you did, but I'm not certain. If so was there any further information or clues about these various children. Who were involved in the sale of the estate?
"My next area of concentration while I wait to hear from Pittsburgh, will be to search further in Cambria County, where the Catholic Mission was, and pursue information on the Mower children according to your response or recommendations. I will look forward to your input on this activity. Sincerely, Jim." I have written to Petty and sent the material requested. I am doing a lot of the follow-up research myself in the Bedford County records as he suggested. REPORT FROM TRUDY SCHENK ON CHARLES GEISSINGER
"Dear Mr. Mower: This is a report on the GEISSINGER research after four days of attempting to find the town of birth of your ancestor Charles. A short history of the involvement of the Portuguese in the Seven Years War (1756-63) may explain why a group of young Catholic German boys or Swiss German would end up in Portugal. It is possible that the young men listed as passengers on the ship Cullodian on 15 October 1766 were prisoners of war and therefore were ordered to report to the mayor of Philadelphia. Yet another theory is that because they were Catholics and by law were not allowed to enter Pennsylvania, needed a special audience with the mayor and perhaps they were given permission to stay by serving as slaves (usually a term of 7 years).
"In 1766 Portugal was not involved in a war and Catholic Germans began to emigrate to the southern European states in particular, Spain and Portugal. In an emigration book from the area of Baden, Germany which borders Switzerland, I found several families who left for Spain between 1765-1770.
"The Catholics of this time period emigrated largely to Hungary, Russia and Poland. Very few to Pennsylvania. Why shouldn't a group of Catholic young men have the desire to go to America? Because of their religion they were not welcome at other ports than Lisbon.
"I took the list of GEISSINGERS shown on the IGI and compared the places of birth to the area which borders Switzerland. I checked every church record and found no similarity to given names except for the city of Freiburg, Baden. I found a Carl as a father of two GEISSINGER children as I told you at our short meeting.
"I checked all church records in the area (all Catholic church records of the suburbs) and found no other GEISSINGER. The interesting part about this search is, that I found all the surnames of the ship list in the Freiburg area. There were SCHLAGELS, SCHNELLER, ENDERS, FREY, MAYER, and RECH. It would seem logical that Carl GEISSINGER came from a larger town because he is one of the few who could write. Only he and Erhard SCHLEGEL were able to sign their names on the ship list.
"I checked also Swiss sources and Alsace Lorraine, France. A Swiss name book showed no GEISSINGERS. I have gone over and over the entries found in the Freiburg Dom Kirche, in order to glean more information from them. I do feel good about this Carl GEISSINGER family. Please view the copies I made and tell me what you think.
"The marriage entry translated give the following information: On 4 Nov 1737 is married Josephus Carolus GISSINGER from Geziss a tailor by profession with Euphrosina MAYER a daughter of the late Michaelis MAYER a tailor and citizen here. Witnesses: Antony SPIETH and Maria Anna HARSTRIECK.
"The place of birth "Geziss" is obviously a Latin version, and not at all what it should be. I have inquired with two Latin specialists at the Family History Library and no book or logical thinking has helped to locate the above place.
"No German gazetteer shows such a place. But I found a town Goetzis in Austria and this makes sense. As I looked for it on the map I found it close to the Swiss and German border near the Bodensee. I have an ancestor coming from a nearby village who also came to this point. We have not had any microfilmed records from this area, yet from a new operators report I saw some records from Vorarlberg the district to which Goetzis belongs. The films are not available yet. I have had to go to the town where my ancestor comes from to do research.
"It seems that the above J.C. GISSINGER came to Freiburg as a tailor/journeyman and perhaps even found work in the MAYER tailor shop. Could there be a connection between the bride's maiden name and the John MAYER passenger on the ship with Carl GEISSINGER? Who knows!!
"Josephus Carolus GISSINGER only has two children in Freiburg. 1. Anna Maria Agnes GEISINGER christened 19 Apr 1739, a daughter of Caroli Josephi GEISINGER and Ephrosinae MAYER. This girls is married on 20 Sep 1769 to Petrus RAPP from Dautmergen, she being the widow of Martini LACHABELL who is also a tailor.
"There is not mention where she married the first time. The name LACHABELL only shows one time in Switzerland. I looked into this because it may help determine where she went between 1760-1769. Obviously away from home because there is no record of her until her 2nd marriage.
"2. Josephus Felicianus GEISINGER christened 14 Dec 1740, a son of Caroli Josephi GEISINGER a citizen and tailor and Maria Euphrosina, nee MAYER.
"The above two children are the only children of Caroli and Euphrosina. This is not the usual pattern. Did the young couple go elsewhere to have children, perhaps to Goetzis? It is also surprising that the boy wasn't named after the father, or did the priest make a mistake and wrote the same second name as the child listed above in the record book? We'll never know.
"Euphrosina (MAYER) GEISSINGER died on 14 Apr 1777 age 61 years in Freiburg. Caroli Joseph GEISSINGER died 3 Apr 1781, 81 years old. Now I am excited to look into the Austria possibility. It would make sense. I have enough money to work with. Have not touched the $400 yet. The original $500 has been worked off. Thank you. Sincerely yours, Trudy Schenk.
Comments: I am very pleased with the work Mrs. SCHENK has done for us. This is an extremely difficult assignment I am sure.
She also sent me an interesting entry from The History of Portugal, by A. H. MARQUES, Vol. 1 page 423. I would like to share that with you: "Portugal had a poor army (in 1762) and was ill-prepared for war. Pombal hired a German prince, Count Wilhelm von Schaumburg-Lippe, as commander-in-chief in charge of reorganizing the troops. English army corps and Swiss volunteers came too..."
It is a theory of ours that Carl GEISSINGER may have gone as a Catholic youth to Portugal with friends to fight in the Seven Years War. The above entry documents that Germans were involved in Portugal. Perhaps that is how he came to America. Also it is important that when he came to America he had to report to the Mayor of Philadelphia. Most immigrants did not have to do this. Either he had to report because he was a Catholic or a prisoner of some type. Interesting. Please continue to support us in this work as you can. Your help makes this research possible. I expect a report soon on Michael MAURER from Susan KOELBLE in Pa.