n172 Old Judge Pretzels "Getzien/Cetzein" Joke Card

[cyseymour]

Okay, everyone, I actually did a little legwork on this and called both the bureau of census management as well as the Amish Historical Museum. Here is the real story of Pretzels Getzien.

According to the US Census records, there is only one family with the name Getzien/Getzein. Charles was mentioned under two names in the census, once with the spelling Getzien, once with Getzein, but the remainder of the family was only recorded under the name Getzein. They were not Amish, they were Prussian. The Father was also named Charles, as was his son, Charles H., the famous baseball player, who was born in Germany and came to the US at a young age.

Charles H. married and after eleven years, had not had children. Seeing that there was no birth control in those days, it is safe to assume that if they couldn't have children after 11 years, then they never had children. Charles H. also had two sisters, Amina and Sophia.

Being that there were no descendants of Charles H., and Amina and Sophia would have taken on the surnames of their spouses, there were no descendants to carry on the name, Getzien/Getzein.

I called the US bureau of census and they said that census records aren't released until 72 years after they are taken. So the records you see on Ancestry.com are the records of this one particular family.

Ironically, the bureau of census suggested that I google the name to see whether anyone came up. There are services like peoplefinder that record everyone's names. Since there is no mention of anyone with the Getzien/Getzein, I was correct in my original assessment that there is no one alive today with the surname Getzien/Getzein.