Hello List,
I am Peggy Geissler of Burbank, IL, a small suburb on the southwest border of the city of Chicago and have been trying for too, too long
to break through my brick wall which is locating my great-grandfather's home town.
Ferdinand Friedrich Geissler was born on June 3. However, the year of birth varies from 1826 to 1832 depending on which U. S. record you're looking at at the time. All the info I have comes from U. S. sources and none of it has helped to place him in Germany.
Ferdinand arrived in New York at Castle Garden on February 13, 1857 via Liverpool on the Ship Great Western. The passenger list shows his family as: Ferdnet Geisler, storekeeper, age 33, 2nd cabin; Mina Geisler, wife, age 26; Richard Geisler, son, age 7; Martha Geisler, daughter, age 9/12th.
I have not been able to locate any records for Ferdinand but I do know that all of his families ( he had three of them here in Chicago; Mina
died in 1865; his second wife Mariette Boesch died in 1882; and his third wife Christina Rilling of Gomaringen is my great-grandmother)
were all German Lutheran.
I have located a marriage record for Martha Geisler to Friedrich Lebrecht Zinke in 1878 which lists her age as 22 which equates to 1856 as
her year of birth and lists her birthplace as Aschersleben. Unfortunately the church records do not mention anything about parents or any
other family members.
I have rented the different LDS films for the churches there in Aschersleben but haven't hadany luck locating anything that might even
remotely be close. I have also gone through the LDS films for the Hamburg Passenger List and all the different indexes hoping to come
up with something but again, no luck.
Any help or suggestion would be very greatly appreciated.
Peggy Geissler
PGeissler wrote:
Hello List,
I am Peggy Geissler of Burbank, IL, a small suburb on the southwest border of the city of Chicago and have been trying for too, too long to break through my brick wall which is locating my great-grandfather's home town.
Ferdinand Friedrich Geissler was born on June 3. However, the year of birth varies from 1826 to 1832 depending on which U. S. record you're looking at at the time. All the info I have comes from U. S. sources and none of it has helped to place him in Germany.
As his age on the passenger manifest was 33 years and it is the closest
record to his birth, I think his birth year is more likely 1823.
Ferdinand arrived in New York at Castle Garden on February 13, 1857 via Liverpool on the Ship Great Western. The passenger list shows his family as: Ferdnet Geisler, storekeeper, age 33, 2nd cabin; Mina
Geisler, wife, age 26; Richard Geisler, son, age 7; Martha Geisler, daughter, age 9/12th.
Have you looked at the original manifest to see if there is any indication
at what port the family embarked. They could have take one ship to
Liverpool and boarded the Great Western there. AIR the Great Western
was a British vessel
I have not been able to locate any records for Ferdinand but I do know that all of his families ( he had three of them here in Chicago;
Mina died in 1865; his second wife Mariette Boesch died in 1882; and
his third wife Christina Rilling of Gomaringen is my great-grandmother) were all German Lutheran.
In the IGI there is a submitted record for a Ferdinand Geisler born 1865 in
Buechenau, Karlsruhe, Baden. While this is not your family the name
Ferdinand is not too common so he may be of a related family.
Search the FHL Catalog and shteltseeker for Buechneau or Buchen.
I have located a marriage record for [A] Martha Geisler to Friedrich
Lebrecht Zinke in 1878 which lists her age as 22 which equates to 1856 as her year of birth and lists her birthplace as Aschersleben. Unfortunately the church records do not mention anything about parents or any other family members.
Where did you find this marriage record? It is not on familysearch.org,
searching for Martha Geisler with spouse surname Zinke.
I have rented the different LDS films for the churches there in Aschersleben but haven't hadany luck locating anything that might even remotely be close. I have also gone through the LDS films for the Hamburg Passenger List and all the different indexes hoping to come up with something but again, no luck.
There are several other ports that the family could have left Germany
bob gillis