Jacob and Frederick Gießenregen / Gisriel get a new big sister

 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 1860 Census showing 40 year old Ferdinand Horn from Baden Westphalia, 30 year old "Magdaline" from France and young William G. Horn, only 1 months old. as well as two boarders.

The 1870 Census showing the recently widowed "Magdaline", 11 year old William and 5 year old Charles as well as a domestic servant.  Magdalen was working as a "dyer and scourer" to make ends meet.

The 1880 census showing "Magdelan" as a store keeper with her two sons, William and Charles, who appear to be working as store clerks for their mother.  More interesting though is the Disney family that is boarding with the Horns.  Seven years after this census was taken, Sarah Charlotte "Lottie" Disney married William George Horn!!

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, Sr. showing his wife as Lottie Disney.  The funeral was from the home of his daughter, Sarah Ann who was married to Karl Wilton Harman at the time.

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:

A further review of my Ancestry DNA relatives shows one more descendant of Magdalen and Ferdinand whose lineage I can confirm (through the line of Muriel Kovalcheck mentioned in William Jr's obituary).  

In summary, I am confident that this Magdalen Gießenregen Horn was the sister of Jacob and Ferdinand Gisriel who I long suspected but never knew for sure.  Now, the only question left is: Was she Catholic or Protestant?

William Daniel Gentry's 1915 story of his early life and telegraphing exploits

 

The children and early descendants of Georg Gießenregen and Sophia Jacobina Brechenmacher

Walter Claude Cridlin - Escapee

Walter Claude Cridlin – he may be tough to track down but it turns out he had a good reason to hide. 

Walter (b. 1/11/1900 Md. – d. 2/12/1995 NC) was the son of Thomas Clifton Cridlin, the grandson of Mary Regina Giesrehn (her spelling) Cridlin and the great-grandson of Frederick Gisriel (Gießenregen).  Other than his vital dates, I knew little about him until today.  His 1930 census record said he was divorced and the NC death index said that he was a widower but I had not found who he married.  With some more digging, I found a little about his tough life and a fortunate divorce.

Walter was born in Baltimore, had moved with the family to Richmond by 1910 and by 1920, he was serving in the military as a fireman, stationed in San Diego.  When he moved back to Richmond after being discharged, he ended up boarding in the home of Stella Collier.  Stella’s husband was disabled so the Colliers took in boarders in order to keep food on the table for their children.  One of those children was Mozelle Collier and here is a timeline of her story.

17 Jun 1911 – Mozelle was born in North Carolina, the third of four children of Claude and Stella Collier.  By 1920, the family had moved to Bibb, Georgia and shortly after that they moved again to Richmond.

Late 1926 – when Mozelle was 15 years old, a 28-year-old travelling salesman named Harry E. Bordenstein “committed a statutory offense against” Mozelle.  When he was caught, he promised to take her to Washington DC to marry her.  He did take her there but never married her.  She made her way back home and her mother was not happy.  She pressed the police to prosecute Harry but she also arranged for her daughter to respectable.

15 Jan 1927 – Mozelle, at 15 years and 7 months old, married Walter Claude Cridlin who was 27 years old at the time and a salesman living with the family.

25 Oct 1928 – Mozelle and Walter divorced without any children.  Let’s call that #1.

4 May 1929 – Mozelle finally finds true love and married Charles L. Mansini in Richmond.

11 Feb 1933 – in anticipation of Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Mozelle was granted a divorce against the adulterous Charles.  #2

8 Jan 1935 – Mozelle met and married the man she could not live without.  Or “with” either.  Troy Webster Ringer, a 40-year-old widower and father of a 12-year-old daughter, became the third husband of 23-year-old Moselle.  This could finally be THE one for Mozelle.  Troy was a farmer and part-time coal miner living in Terra Alta, West Virginia.  Mozelle was working there as a nurse at the time but the new family soon decided to move to Richmond and the lights of the big city.  Troy was able to land a job selling insurance.  In the middle of the Great Depression, it was good to be married to a hardworking man with a job.

11 Apr 1935 – this divorce set a record.  Barely three months after the wedding, Troy Ringer’s bell tolls that he is #3.  He should have taken the hint.

17 Aug 1935 – Mozelle tried a new tactic to break her bad luck.  She married in Washington DC instead of Virginia and she married an even older man.  46-year-old Joseph Lawrence Hill became the fourth husband of 24-year-old Mozelle and he would certainly have the maturity and patience for a long, happy marriage.

Sometime in 1936 – old Joe Hill went over the hill and became Mozelle’s #4 ex-husband.  Oh well… (stay with me; it gets much more interesting)

15 Oct 1936 – guess who is back?  Mozelle rolled the dice and married Troy Ringer once again.  It was magic this time.  This marriage lasted almost ten years.  Sure, there were the times that the police were called to the house when Mozelle was stabbing Troy with a knife but what is a passionate relationship without a few hiccups? 

1 May 1946 – Troy and Mozelle finally threw in the towel.  The marriage was beyond repair and the two just couldn’t be together anymore.  The only question was whether I call this #5 or #4½ or #3a.  I’ll let you decide.

3 Sept 1946 – after a respectable period of courtship, Mozelle married John McGuire Trice.  By now, you know what is going to happen.  John was 64 years old at the time they were married.  Mozelle was 35.  The problem was that every time Mozelle heard her new last name “Trice”, she though she heard “Thrice” and thought “yes, why not marry Troy a third time”.

30 Dec 1947 – John got the hint and divorced Mozelle on the grounds of abandonment.  He was #5 or #6.  I don’t know; I’ve lost count.  Mozelle had moved in with Troy about six months earlier and was later described in the newspapers as “a housekeeper and fiancée”.  The next entry still might surprise you.

1 May 1948 – on the second anniversary of the end of their second marriage, Troy and Mozelle had a “family squabble”.  It must have been a doozie.  Mozelle shot Troy at point blank range in the face with a rifle.  Troy died immediately, aged 52.  They had been expecting to be married quite soon.  They had even already taken their pre-marital blood-tests and as soon as Troy got his syphilis treated, they were going to get the marriage license.

23 Nov 1948 – This was a good day for Mozelle; she was acquitted of murder.  She had claimed self-defense and with no fancy CSI, NCIS, CSI: Miami or CSI: NY evidence, she was cleared of all charges.

24 Nov 1948 – Mozelle celebrated her victory in the only way she know how.  She married Eddie Nelson Sharpe, a divorcee who was only ten years her senior.  Other than another stabbing incident in 1950 and a subsequent observation period in a mental hospital, I don’t know how the marriage went. 

13 Feb 1973 – Mozelle passed away from natural causes in Glen Allen, Virginia.  Her death certificate says that she was a widow of Eddie Sharpe who had passed away in 1969. 

I hope Mozelle has found peace. 

I am glad though that cousin Walter escaped early but was his brief marriage to Mozzelle the reason that he was listed as a widower when he died in 1995?  I guess I have more work to do.

The children and grandchildren of James McGovern and Catherine Dixon

This tree, showing the children and grandchildren of James McGovern and Catherine Dixon also shows the number of children that were born to each of the grandchildren.  After an impressive start of ten children and 36 grandchildren, the following generation produced only 55 children.  As of May 2020, only four of that generation of direct descendants survive.

Things picked back up by the time of James and Catherine's great-great-grandchildren as there were 137 in that generation, as well as 262 in the next generation.  So far, there are 265 great-great-great-great-grandchildren and 44 more children born to them.  That is a lot of direct descendants and these are just the ones that I could find.
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This is a photo of the original parish registry for St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church, Philadelphia showing the entry for the 1 January 1849 wedding of James McGovern and Catherine Dixon.  As you may expect, it is in Latin.  The witnesses were John and Joan Devlin and the priest was Fr. William Loughran.
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The gravestone of James and Catherine McGovern in Baltimore's New Cathedral Cemetery, also know as Bonnie Brae Cemetery.

The initials after the death date in the tree above tells where the person was buried.
NCC = New Cathedral Cemetery, Baltimore (followed by plot number)
LPC = Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore
SPC = St. Peter's Cemetery, Baltimore
BNC = Baltimore National Cemetery
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Cheltenham, Pa.
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The Dixon Family in Ireland....

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A letter from Emma L. Smith, a granddaughter of James McGovern and Catherine Dixon, to her niece which was written in 1975.  In it, she writes about the McGovern and Dixon families in Ireland.  Note that she had incorrectly identified Archbishop Dixon as a cousin of her grandmother, rather than a brother.  The biography of the Archbishop contradicts this.

Who was Margaret C. O'Neill Brennan?

I started this post as somewhat of an electronic worksheet.  A DNA relative on Ancestry.com had a tree that showed some ancestors Nicholas T. Brennan and "Margaret Ella".  There was little information about them but one thing was clear, they lived in Baltimore.  Although I could not know for sure which branch of the Ancestry member's family I was related to, I thought this was the best place to look as my family goes back five generations in Baltimore.

From the list of DNA relatives that we shared, I knew that the member was connected through my McGovern / Dixon branch and she was estimated to be my 4th to 6th cousin.

It took three hard days of work but eventually, I was able to build this tree around Margaret and Nicholas:

nc - no children

nm - never married

c - had children but not named here for confidentiality reasons

SMG - St. Mary's Govans Cemetery

NCC - New Cathedral Cemetery

BNC - Baltimore National Cemetery

SAE - Saint Augustine's Elkridge Cemetery

Some of the pieces of evidence to prove the family, with notes from when I found them)  include:

This is the index card from the Maryland State Archives where wedding licenses and weddings were recorded.

This is the 1900 census form showing Margaret O'Neill and Nicholas Thomas Brennan family.  Note the last name in the home: Jane O'Neil, born in August 1823 in Ireland.  She was listed as "mother" but it is most likely Margaret's mother, rather than Nicholas'.

This is the obituary for Margaret C. O'Neill Brennan who died on 29 September 1911 in Baltimore.  Note that she has a sister named Ella O'Neill.

Nicholas Thomas Brennan appears to have died in Baltimore around early August, 1939.

Interestingly, Nicholas appears to have married again after Margaret died.  I am willing to bet you a dollar to a hole in a donut that his second wife was Margaret's sister, Ella, based on the following obituary:

The sister shown as "Mrs. Christopher Maddox" in Margaret's obituary was Catherine Alice O'Neill (12/1862 Md. - 9/26/1934 Md.).  Christopher died on 2/22/1907 in Baltimore and is buried with his wife in New Cathedral Cemetery.  They had three sons, only one of whom appeared to have married.

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The obituary of the mother of the three girls leads me to believe that she is the link to my family.  My great-great-grandmother was Catherine Dixon, the sister of Joseph Dixon, the prelate of Ireland.  I knew from Joseph's biography that their mother's name was Jane Casey and that they also had a sister named Jane.  This sister though was born about 1815 and she had married James Magill and stayed in County Tyrone, Ireland when her sister Catherine came to the US.  Based on the name and date of birth, I suspect that Jane Dixon O'Neill  is most likely a cousin of my great-great-grand mother Catherine Dixon.  That would make the Ancestry member my fifth cousin.

The obituary of the father of the three girls was easier to find after finding Jane's.

One surprise popped up while I was looking for the father though.  Margaret, Catherine and Ella had an older brother that died, unmarried, many years before the girls did.

Is this John Galvin "our John Galvin?

I think I found another Galvin family member, a brother for William, Patrick and Honoria (as well as Mary, Michael and Ellen).  I was 100% sure until today but now I am down a few percentage points because I do not have any DNA relatives in Ancestry that match any of John Galvin Jr’s descendants.  It’s possible that none of them have done the Ancestry test but I sure would prefer to have that confirmation. [edited to add: I have since confirmed some DNA matches to this branch.  It IS "our" John.]

From Uncle Herbert O'Conor’s biography, I knew there was a brother named John but I could never find anyone who knew even an estimated birth year for him, much less any spouse or offspring.

I was looking through the Irish Civil records (https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/civil-search.jsp) for any Galvins in the Loughrea district when I stumbled on a “John Galvin” married to Margaret Heavey who were having a bunch of babies in the village of Attymon during the 1870’s.  I checked google maps and Attymon is in the Kiltullagh parish, less that 4km away from the cottage where John Galvin and Honoria Connaughton raised their family.

That looked like something interesting to investigate further but while searching for John and Margaret’s children, I found another “John Galvin” who was married to Anne Hurley.  They had five children around the 1860’s and their village, according to the handwritten civil records, was Gortakeeran.  I checked where that was and after I got back up off the floor, I smiled a lot.  Gortakeeran was the very small cluster of farms exactly where John and Honoria raised their family.  According to the Griffith’s Valuation records (http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/), John Galvin Sr. AND John Galvin Jr. were tenant farmers on several plots of land in that village.  Irish relatives have also confirmed the cottage on one of those plots as their ancestral home.

I have shown below the documentation for this branch of the family.  Let me know if you see any error or hiccups in my thinking.

Incidentally, while I was putting this together, I noticed that the land next to the Galvin cottage was farmed by Patrick Hurley.  I wonder if he had a daughter named “Anne”? 

Fingers crossed, I will try to contact some of John Galvin Jr’s descendants on Ancestry to ask if they have done the DNA test.  I sure hope John wasn’t adopted.

This shows the nearby Thomas Connor lands mentioned in the O'Conor biography