JULY 1993 NEWSLETTER
Received a research report from Trudy SCHENK in late May regarding the GEISSINGER line of Goetzis, Austria. She had made marvelous progress on the ancestors and relatives of Charles GEISSINGER. His name, which was recorded on 5 November 1740 (the day on which he was christened) in the Catholic church in Goetzis was Josephus Carolus GISINGER. Josephus was his christening name. It is the Latin form of Joseph. Carolus is the Latin form of Carl or the name we would call, Charles. The pastors of this church spelled the last name several different ways such as GISINGER, GISIGER, GEISSINGER.
Trudy has identified the family of our Charles, his parents and 5 of his brothers. No sisters have been identified to date. The father of our Charles was Mathaeus GISINGER, which is Latin for Matthew. Charles' mother was Maria WALSER. There are 7 Maria WALSERs in the Goetzis Church book who might be our Maria and we are going to do the temple work for all 7 of those families because right now we aren't sure which one is the correct one for us. We are extracting all of the WALSER information in the Goetzis Church book and doing the work for everyone. There are a lot of different families here and we might as well do everyone.
Mathaeus' family, showing him as a child, has also been identified--- 4 boys and 2 girls. The father of Mathaeus was--- Johannes GISINGER born 2 Feb 1662. Mathaeus' mother was Anna Maria GEIGER (also spelled by the priest as GEIHER and GIGGER. This priest was some speller.
The father of Johannes has also been identified. He was also Johannes, but the priest spelled his last name: GEISSINGER. His wife was Anna Eva BUSCHAUER. He was born in 1632 and she in 1636. They also had 6 children--- 2 boys and 4 girls. Some of the children's names were spelled GISIGER by the priest. I will include these 3 new generations in this newsletter so that you can update your genealogical records. Work can now proceed on the GEIGER, BUSCHAUER, as well as the WALSER lines, and of course we will continue out all work on the GEISSINGER line in Goetzis. Trudy sent me 78 family group sheets of GEISSINGERs and WALSERs in Goetzis. These I am putting on the computer. See you all at the reunion.
Remember the MOWER FAMILY REUNION for everyone related to the Fairview, Utah MOWER lines. Saturday, 10 July 1993 at the Lion's Park by the city offices in Fairview, Utah. We are planning on eating lunch at 12:00 noon. Bring your own food, etc. The park has things for the kids---also tennis courts. After visiting for a while and lunch, a trip will be made out to the Fairview cemetery and Jed MOWER will point out some of the pioneer MOWER graves. For those interested, a tour of the original home sites in Oak Creek can be arranged. That evening the Manti Miracle Pageant will be performed on the temple grounds at Manti. We are planning on attending and invite you all to see this marvelous production. You should plan on setting out your blanket on the temple lawn about 6:00 PM to reserve a space. Turkey dinners are available near the temple grounds. Letter from Trudy SCHENK 21 May 1993: "Dear Jerry, This past week I have been working on extracting all GEISINGER/GISINGER and WALSER names from the Goetzis church records. As you will see there are many families.
The births and christenings begin in 1649 right after the end of the 30 year war. The marriages and deaths begin in 1691.
The Catholic priests gave very little information in their vital record entries. Marriages show no parents names the first forty years and deaths give no age. There is a list of infant deaths of male children, no parents given. I extracted all GEISINGER and WALSERs on separate paper. Some with not so common given names can be placed.
In most death entries the priest noted that the deceased received last rites, this indicates that the person was at least eight years old. One other statement he made when a girl died was thatshe was a "virgo", a young unmarried girl. I wrote out these remarks in hopes they may help in putting a death date with the correct person...
I have given about marriage dates when the couple was married before 1691 and about birth dates for people who would have been born before the chr. records begin. Other births will show as a child with parents. I tried at first to match up children to parents who appear as husband and wife a next generation. Then I realized that this is not necessary on non-direct relations because it can't be proven.
There seems to be a pattern in the given names of boys in this parish, as the parents name their first boy after the paternal grandfather. Also, other given names run in families and with the more uncommon names like Caspar, Laurentius, Fidelis and Carolus it is possible to make some connections. For now I'm sending you the first group of names extracted from 1649-1700.
All information at this point came from the Catholic parish FHL microfilm #1729781. The designation for locality is Goetzis, Vorarlberg, Austria. I did not write this on all sheets to save time.
There are small Hamlets in Goetzis according to the priests remarks. He lists families living in Altach, Bauren, Schwend, and Tobel/Tobl. They are all part of Goetzis. On your direct GEISINGER line, there is no problem making the correct connection.
One more explanation. The Catholics write the names in Latin and sometimes not. You will see that the spellings of the given as well as surnames are not always the same. For instance in Latin a "C" is used instead of a "K", a Johannes is Joannes, Joseph or Josef. I really don't think it matters which spelling is used. The original is in Latin and several years have transcripts which are in the formal German.
You can make the choice as you enter the names on the computer. Now I hope I haven't confused you. All I can tell you is, these people are waiting. I feel I'm driven to get the names extracted. Sincerely yours, Trudy SCHENK.