Introduction

Welcome to Issue 2 of The Boßecker Newsletter! As I mentioned in Issue 1, I will be discussing some of the questions that I would like to have answered before I publish a "book" on the Bosecker/Boseker Family History.

But first I am going to answer a question...

ß = ESS-TSET?

Many have asked what that funny looking symbol in the middle of BOßECKER is. That funny looking symbol is an "ess-tset". Boßecker is found spelled with the "ess-tset" in many old German publications. As far as I know, only the German alphabet uses this symbol.

The World of Boseckers

Perhaps some of you have received a solicitation from a company by the name of HALBERT'S, Inc. of Bath, OH. This company markets various books in such a way as to lead potential customers to assume that they contain material about their own family histories. Indeed, this past summer I received just such a solicitation offering me the opportunity to purchase a volume entitled The World of Boseckers. In the past I have examined books by this company and found them to consist mainly of general information on how to do family history research. The only section that was specifically about the Bosecker family was a list of addresses for various Bosecker families. I can only assume that these names and addresses are taken from various commercial and public sources and inserted into the book.

Is the book worth the asking price? I believe most purchasers would be disappointed if they were expecting the book to describe the Bosecker family history in detail.

Who are these 3 fellows by George V. Kirsch?

As is usually the case, there was nothing on this photo to identify any of these individuals. All identification has been done by comparing this photo to others in the possession of various family members.

On Thanksgiving Day 1990, Adela (Kirsch) Wessel and I were talking about the Kirsch/Bosecker Family. Aunt Della, as we called her, produced a box of photographs and proceeded to flip through them one by one. As each was examined, Aunt Della would mention the names of the individuals in the pictures.

I noticed that none of the photos had names on them and I mentioned this to my 85 year old Aunt. She quickly replied, "Oh, I know who they are!".

One of the pictures was a picture of George Valentine Kirsch (1837-1917) & his second wife Christina (Fink) Kirsch. [That is the identification source for the adjacent caption.] George Valentine Kirsch's first wife was Caroline (Bosecker) Kirsch [1841-1884], oldest sibling of the Bosecker men in this picture. Perhaps these unknown men are some of George & Caroline Kirsch's children; anybody know?

Who are they really?

There is some debate regarding the identities of the second gentleman and third lady (from the left) in this picture. One source has this couple as Louis & Mina (Norwold) Bosecker; another has identified them as John & Ida (Bosecker) Graesch. Do any of my readers possess a photo with this couple's image on it? If so please contact me at 103 Meadowlark Trace, Peachtree City, GA 30269-2312.
Phone: (770) 631-4855.