Surname Saturday - Gesizler Family

My family is a little branch of Geiszlers that lived in Columbus, Ohio. Most of them have died so getting past Joseph Geißler (1836-1863) is extremely difficult. Joseph was born in Baden, Germany and moved to the United States before 1850. He married his wife Caroline Mack in 1856 in Franklin county, Ohio. I'm thankful for him, but man is it hard to figure out his family relations across the ocean, or even in the US.

There are numerous Geiszlers who settled in North Dakota and Oregon that are very connected, at least in terms of genealogy. In the Geiszlers of America book, there are many listings of the ND and OR descendants but few from Ohio. Ugh. What makes matters worse is the name Geißler has so many different spellings throughout America (GEISS, GEISEL, GEISEN, GEISINGER and GEISSLER to name a few).

I came across Geiszler Coat of Arms / Geiszler Family Crest website. I don't really know if my family actually has a Family Crest. It's rumored they were apart of aristocracy when the former country of Prussia crumbled and fled. It's possible, but I can't figure it out.

What I did find on this website was more information about the fact that Geißler was a Scottish and German name. It referred to the occupation of goat-herding and a location. Plus, there's a famous Geißler...

Heinrich GEISSLER (1814-79) the German inventor, born in Saxony. He became a glass-blower and settled in Bonn in 1854. The GEISSLER tube, by which the passage of electricity through rarefied gases can be seen, and the GEISSLER mercury pump are among his inventions.

Pretty cool. Can't prove I'm related to him but I do have a Heinrich Geißler in my family line. So today, I sit wishing that my Geiszlers had more documentation about who they were.

Surname Saturday is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers, the genealogy community's resource for blogging. It is used by many genealogy bloggers to help them tell stories of their ancestors.