n172 Old Judge Pretzels "Getzien/Cetzein" Joke Card

[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:

-----------------------------------------------------------

Getzien says his name is spelled Getzien and pronounced Getzeen.

-----------------------------------------------------------

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)

[Jay Wolt]

Joe, here's his N284

[Matthew H]

That Police Gazette is a beauty Joe.

[cyseymour]

I get it, the card is not a joke. If you google "cetzein", the newspaper articles show up, but more recently, whoever put the newspaper online obviously was the one who misspelled the name, not the writer in the newspaper. I'm kind of on limited technology with my chromebook and couldn't really see it in person, but I can see that in the actual newspaper article that it is spelled Getzein.

I still personally found it interesting to learn the etymology behind the name Getzien and what their name most likely was in Germany. As far as the n172 card you posted, is seems like they corrected the similarities between C and G for 1889 in their typeface. The G's have a much clearer dogleg that the 1888 cards do.

I don't expect to be correct about everything, but it is fun to post certain theories, even if not all of them turn out to be true. And I still definitely believe that the Getziens living today must be Amish. This seems the only plausible reason they are not found on the internet, and they must have been highly religious considering the name "Gottsein."

[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.

[novakjr]

Last names were gotten wrong all the time wile immigrating. Sometimes names were shortened, added to or simply mis-spelled. Try Getzen, Getzendiner, Getzendanner, Getzendaner, Getzenberg. There's a good number of each all over facebook..

[Joe_G.]

Originally Posted by cyseymour

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.

Interesting research, thanks for sharing.

[Joe_G.]

I was able to take a scan today, thought I'd bump this back to the top.

Originally Posted by cyseymour

The G's have a much clearer dogleg that the 1888 cards do.

It can be difficult to distinguish between a "C" and "G" every year of issue, the cards are small and the block text names even smaller. Just look at the 1887 "Ceiss"(sic) currently on eBay. It often takes either a high resolution scan, magnifying glass, or knowledge of who is in the set (a checklist) to keep it straight. And if the card is faded, forget about distinguishing between the two. I took a higher resolution scan of my 1888 Getzien for comparison to the 1889 example. Both are clearly a "G", but the 1888 name is slightly smaller making it a bit tougher to make out. The similarities between the two letters can also be studied while looking at Goodwin's advertising at the bottom of the card.

[Joe_G.]

Are you reading the paper as "Cetzein" because that is what you want to see? The resolution is poor, but if I had to pick between a C & G, I'd go with G. Look at "Cuban Giants" and "Clarkson" just above the circled Getzeins.

[Joe_G.]

nm, enough is enough.