Before I move on with today’s story, let me say that I started my research thinking that one of its main characters was born on January 29th. However, I will give evidence that this woman was not born on that day. However, I will also point out that January 29th is still a significant special day in her life.

Maria Louise Giesel was born on January 14, 1837. Maria was the daughter of Conrad and Christine (Ross) Giesel. Maria’s parents came to America in 1834 aboard the ship, Koophandol. The passenger list showing the Giesel family is displayed here.

Because Maria’s Findagrave.com entry says that she was born on January 29, 1836, her entry in the German Family Tree gives that day as her birthday. However, I am able to display her baptism record. The Giesel’s had settled in New York City after their arrival in America, and that is where Maria was born and baptized. Her baptism record is found in the books of the German Evangelical Mission Church. It gives her a January 14, 1837 date of birth, and it also gives her baptismal date of January 29, 1837. So, today would be Maria’s baptismal birthday.

In 1839, the Giesel family joined the New York Group that made the decision to join the Stephanites in Missouri. The Zion on the Mississippi book lists the members of the New York Group, which includes the Giesel’s. Conrad, called a weaver, along with a wife and 3 children, one of them Maria, came to Missouri. Although they may have spent a short time in Perry County, after all, they are found living in Perry Count in the 1840 census, the Giesel’s were living in St. Louis shortly after that.

Maria is found in the 1850 census at the age of 13. Her father was a laborer in a foundry in St. Louis.

Maria would get married during the next decade, so we will now look at the man who would become her husband. His name was Casper Umbach, who was born on June 28, 1829 in Guxhagen, Germany. According to his entry on Family Search, Casper was the son of Nicolaus and Marie (Ambrosius) Umbach. It was not until the year he got married, 1857, that Casper made the voyage to the United States aboard the ship, Bark. We find him on that ship’s passenger list below.

Casper Umbach married Maria Giesel on June 28, 1857 at Trinity Luthran Church in St. Louis. This couple’s church marriage record (in an Excel spreadsheet) is shown here.

We can also take a look at a St. Louis marriage record for this pair. They were married by Rev. Schaller, the pastor at Trinity, St. Louis.

There are 12 baptism records in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis for this couple. Some of those children did not live beyond childhood. We find the Umbach’s with 2 young children in the 1860 census. Casper was a cabinet maker in St. Louis.

We find a rather interesting census entry when the 1870 enumeration was made. First of all, there were 4 children in the Umbach family by this time. But right below the Umbach’s, you will see the entry for Maria’s Giesel family. Her mother had died in 1861, and her father had then married Henrietta Bretscher in 1862. Included in the Giesel household was Henrietta’s 16 year-old son, Charles, who was the main character in the post, Rev. Carl Bretscher – Wausau, Wisconsin Pastor, which was published on this blog two days ago. The Giesel portion of this census page was included in that post.

Next, we find the Umbach’s in the 1880 census. There were 10 children in their household, the youngest one being just a baby.

Maria Umbach died in 1881 at the age of 44. There is a death record for her in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis. It says she died of consumption, which is another term for tuberculosis.

I also located a St. Louis death record for Maria that has to be displayed in two images.

In an 1899 St. Louis city directory, we find Casper Umbach listed as president of the C. Umbach Furniture Company, which was located on 2341 S. Broadway. That was not far from where we find Trinity Lutheran Church in the Soulard neighborhood.

Casper is found in one more census entry in 1900. He was living with 2 single daughters and called retired at the age of 70.

Casper Umbach died in 1905 at the age of 76. We also find a death record for him in the Trinity, St. Louis church books.

Casper and Maria Umbach, along with a few other members of this Umbach/Giesel family, are buried together in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in St. Louis. You can see that Maria is given the birthday of January 29, 1836 on this gravestone.

As it turns out, if you trust the baptism record from the New York City Lutheran church books, Maria is not today’s birthday girl, even if her gravestone indicates that she is. In fact, not only is January 29th not her birthday according to that baptism record, but she was also not born in the year, 1836. However, if she was baptized on January 29, 1837, then today would be her 189th baptismal birthday.