As I was growing up in Baltimore, we always had sauerkraut as a side dish at Thanksgiving. It was normal for us and it turns out to be fairly normal for most families in Baltimore. But only Baltimore. It turns out this is because most people in Baltimore were either German-born (25%) or had German-born parents or grandparents who were alive when Abraham Lincoln first started the holiday. In our family, this family was the Gisriels, my Grandma Smith's paternal line.
I was often told the story of two brothers named Gießenregen, Jacob and Frederick, who came to America in the 1840's from the Alsace region near Strasbourg. This region was always a German-speaking area but it depended on who won the latest war as to whether it was in France or Germany / Prussia or some German principality. The brothers suffered through several versions of anglicized names before settling on Gisriel. As the name was completely fictional and unique, every Gisriel now in America is a descendant of one of the two brothers.
Jacob sold vegetables in Baltimore's old markets. Frederick was a baker. Many descendants told me that the brothers were estranged due to religion. I do see that many of Jacob's family were Catholic and many of Frederick's family were Protestant but that division was not complete at all. Although I do not see any other proof of an estrangement, I also don't see any intermingling of the family in newspaper articles about funerals or weddings either.
But what about the family that Jacob and Frederick came from? Who were their parents? Were there other siblings? Some people who looked into this family suggested that the parents were Georg Gießenregen and Sophia Jacobina Brechenmacher who lived and died near Strasbourg but I could not find evidence. No one I could find seemed to know about any siblings. That said, I found an 1850 census entry that interested me.
As best I can read this, the family at the bottom of the census record included:
- J. Geisenrick, a 23 year old male (b. ~1827) who was a "paper stainer" from Germany
- Sophie Geisenrick, a 59 year old (b. ~1791) female that owned a $400 property and was also born in Germany
- Sarah Geisenrick, a 20 year old (b. ~1830) female from Germany
- Madelene Geisenrick, a 28 year old (b. ~1822) female from Germany
- Mary Geisenrick, a four or nine month old child (b. ~1849) born in Maryland
Could this entry include Jacob Gisriel (b. 11/11/1927), his wife Sarah (Berger, b. 2/8/1830 in Germany) and their first child, Mary (b. 3/1850)? Was Geisenrick a version of the Gießenregen name or a misspelling or misunderstanding by the census clerk? If so, was the Sophie who was listed Jacob's mother? Could Madelene be a sister of Jacob? I wasn't sure so I just put the details in my "keep in mind" book because, as I said, it looked interesting.
Quite some time later, I was looking at DNA relatives on Ancestry.com. One particular woman named Dorothy was predicted to be a fourth cousin and six of our shared DNA relatives were known descendants of either Jacob or Frederick Gisriel. Looking at the Dorothy's Ancestry tree, I did not recognize any names but she "only" had her great-grandparents names shown and most of these without vital dates or locations. I say "only" in quotes because many people on Ancestry don't have nearly that much information listed. I got in touch with Dorothy to see if she could tell from our shared relatives which side of her family I was related to. She graciously replied saying that she could not tell but she suspected our connection was through her great-grandfather's family, William George Horn. Without more information, at first, I was not hopeful of this lead but it turned out to be golden.
Dorothy knew that her grandfather was William George Horn Jr. (b. 1/6/1889 Md. - d. 9/3/1968 Ca). I found another Ancestry member who recorded William Jr. as the son of William George Horn (b. 6/15/1859 Md. - d. 7/17/1928 Md). This wasn't proof I had the right father but it was well worth looking into.
I then found two other Ancestry members that said William Sr.'s parents were Carl Ferdinand Horn, b. 2/16/1820 Minden, Germany - d. 4/13/1870 Baltimore) and "Magdalen Griswold (b. 1820 France - d. 1/10/1888 Baltimore)".
Winner! Winner! Chicken dinner!! I immediately recognized "Griswold" as one of the many misspellings of Gisriel that I had previously seen. Magdalen was likely the same person on the 1850 census identified as "Madelene Geisenrick". Assuming that Ferdinand and Magdalen married in Baltimore in the 1850's, I checked the Maryland State Archives to see if I could find the index card that gave the details of a wedding. The Archive records are in alphabetical order by the groom's name so it was now possible to find Magdalen's documentation. Here is what I found that shows a marriage license issued in Maryland on 27 April 1857:
That has to be our Magdalen!! After that, I just had to work backwards to document Ferd and Magdalen's children and grandchildren, which should lead back to Dorothy's family. Following are some of the documents that proved the line.
Magdalen's death notice
Ferd's death notice (although I need a German translator to confirm. Note: in 1870 a quarter of Baltimore's residents were either German born or children of German natives. It's little wonder that there were daily German language newspapers there until 1919 and weekly papers until 1976!)
The 1900 census shows the family of William George Horn and Sarah Charlotte Disney, along with their son, William Jr.
The obituary for William George Horn, Jr. which appears to incorrectly identify him as "Sr." and his son as "Jr." instead of "III".
Finally, here are the first couple of generations of Magdalen's family:
