n172 Old Judge Pretzels "Getzien/Cetzein" Joke Card

[cyseymour]

I had thought that it was perhaps a corruption of the word gesehen. Maybe not, but either way there is no one named Cetzein and that is what Pretzel Getzein was being called, so it doesn't undermine the point that it could have been a joke.

[cyseymour]

There doesn't seem to be anyone on the internet or facebook named Getzien, other the Pretzel Getzien himself. Where are all these people you are talking about? Hiding in a cave?

[sb1]

I don't use the internet or facebook to do factual research, that is very random. I used immigration and federal census data.

[MW1]

Originally Posted by cyseymour

There doesn't seem to be anyone on the internet or facebook named Getzien, other the Pretzel Getzien himself. Where are all these people you are talking about? Hiding in a cave?

From ancestry.com:

406 Historical Documents & Family Trees with Getzien

119 Census and Voter Lists; 5 Immigration Records; 149 Birth, Marriage, and Deaths; 124 Member Family Trees; 9 Military Records

http://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?...urname=getzien

[sb1]

Mike,

Please be real, these people simply do not exist!

[felada]

Originally Posted by cyseymour

I had thought that it was perhaps a corruption of the word gesehen. Maybe not, but either way there is no one named Cetzein and that is what Pretzel Getzein was being called, so it doesn't undermine the point that it could have been a joke.

Or it could, like numerous other examples in the set, be nothing more than a misspelling. Either one I suppose.

[cyseymour]

The Getziens living in America today must be Amish. It is the only logical explanation for why they can't be found on facebook or the internet.

What I meant when I said it wasn't a German name was that it was a corruption of German. Very common coming off the boat for spellings to be wrong. I originally thought it was from the German "gesehen', but it must have been derived from "Gottsein", which translates to, "to be of God."

Gottsein makes sense because the Amish are obviously very religious, and German-speaking, as well. Also, I believe that "gott" in German is pronounced "get". Just like the name Goethe is pronounced more like "Gerte".

[MW1]

Cy,

I like your enthusiasm but that was totally random.

[cyseymour]

Originally Posted by MW1

Cy,

I like your enthusiasm but that was totally random.

Not random at all. Think about it.

[cyseymour]

Just an offhand observation -

Jerry Seinfeld

Sein - to be
Feld - Field

Roughly translations to, "to be of the fields". Likely, Jerry Seinfeld's ancestors were fieldworkers.

[Joe_G.]

Cyseymour, I’m 99% sure you are just trying to yank my chain but many others on the forum probably don’t realize you are kidding. For their benefit, I’ll correct you. Very few cards, scorecards, and newspapers seemed to be able to spell Getzien’s name correctly, but none of them spelled it with a “C” (at least not his baseball cards). The following is a sampling of the errors:

N172 , N173, N284, N338-2, N403/E223 => Getzein

N29 & N43 => Getzin

Police Gazette => Gatzein

Scrapps => Getzen

It seems only the Detroit Free Press (on occasion) and a handful of scorecards managed to keep it straight. Reason for all the errors may be linked to the way it was pronounced. From the June 13th, 1886 Detroit Free Press:

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Getzien says his name is spelled Getzien and pronounced Getzeen.

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If you feel his N172 cards spell out “Cetzein”, then the cards are apparently issued by “Coodwin and Go.”

I agree that the “C” and “G” can be difficult to decipher on many Old Judge cards and this is why there is debate as to whether the Deacon White portrait is spelled McCREACHERY or McGREACHERY. Lew Lipset, who once owned the card, believed it was/is McGREACHERY. But Cetzein??, and by extension Cibson, Cilks, Cillespie, Cilligan, . . .

The N173 belongs to the Met.

[Joe_G.]

I should probably post a clear scan of N172 as well (from LOC)