G is for Geisler
I found this wedding invitation back in 1984 when we were cleaning out Grandpa's (John Benert #3) house after his death. No one in the family knew who Mr and Mrs Joseph Geisler were. At the time I wasn't involved in genealogy but I'm not one to throw away something that had been saved for so long. So, into the file of neat stuff it went.
Fast forward about twenty years later. I was hot on the trail of anyone who could be remotely connected to OUR FAMILY. And I started searching for John Benert #2. He was a bit difficult. I had my handy dandy index of the 1880 census and I knew exactly where to find him. There was only one problem. The index linked to the wrong page. Every single index I found linked to the wrong page. But, the index said he was living with Mr and Mrs Joseph Geisler. Happy day. And I still didn't know who they were. So, I put him back into the "I'll look again another day" pile.
And then I discovered Internet Archives. And their census images. Using the indexed location I slogged through the pages and finally found him. The brother-in-law of Joseph Geisler. Happy, happy day.
Mystery solved. Well, after a lot more digging it was. I discovered that Dora Geisler and John Benert # 3 were 1st cousins. Now John #3 was only 6 years old at the time of the wedding. I think it must have been John's mother, Margaret Bender Benert, that saved the invitation.
A few years ago, I "met" a Krikawa cousin on line. Her family had a copy of the wedding invitation as well. Small world.
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