Geiszler Genealogy

Going from an index to an original source often takes a little detective work and a lot of patience. And sometimes, it takes learning the right combination of search terms for the record to finally float to the surface. That's the case for Ludwig Puescker son of Karl Puesecker who was a traveling companion to my 3rd great-grandmother Caroline Mack Geiszler Billman. I had tracked Ludwig, who became Louis in many records in Franklin County, Ohio, until the 1880 US Census. Then, I discovered a death date of 14 May 1905  in the  Ohio Deaths and Burials, 1854-1997 death index collection on FamilySearch.  The index was derived from many sources, but I needed something more than a small clue to determine where his record was hiding. I turned once again to the  Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001 index image collection.  Searching for Puesecker and the death year and death county returned no results. Searching for Louis who died in 1905 in Franklin County, Ohio had too many resu

While searching the  Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001  with the search terms "Martha" "Brown", "Franklin County, Ohio" for the death place and "1901" for the death year, I got a hit. I wanted to start doing a genealogy happy dance saying I finally found her death record. But did I? Can I really prove it? How did I know to search for Martha Brown in Franklin County, Ohio for a death in 1901 and a possible maiden name of Gordon? Well, much of the information comes from these two Bible entries kept by her daughter-in-law Emma Virginia Townsend. Emma Townsend Brown Bible, recording her in-law's births Emma Townsend Brown Bible, recording the deaths of her in-laws These bits of information led me to census records, a marriage record, records for children, and records for who I believe are Martha's parents "Charles Gordon and Jane Fickle". So, with that information I went looking for Martha's elusive death r