August Gesch

The above picture appears to be August Gesch, Jr with his first wife and children.  In the picture on the left I am assuming the gentleman on the left holding the child to be August Gesch, Sr.

This picture is of August Gesch while he was working as a engineer for the University of Nebraska, Lincoln and probably married to Mary E. Rebensdorf Debus (Marie).


At this point little is known about the Gesch Family. It is said that they originated in the Gruenberg area of Germany which is high in the Black Forest area. The family later moved to the East Berlin area before the country was divided.

Found in the Ship's Passenger's List, January 8, 1893 "Weimar" Coming into Baltimore, Md. 9034 page 128. August says they are going to Bancroft, Nebraska. This same ship landed at New York on January 5, 1893. It departed from Bremerhaven in Germany. One publication lists the ship's name as "Stein" but all original records list it as "Weimar."

August and Auguste Gesch arrived in 1893 with their son 17 year old son, August along with his siblings Marie, Gustav, William and Emme. Little is known about their life in Germany which is now of great interest for me since a friend recently told me that she found Gesch on the German Holocast Records. This person told me that she was pretty sure that this Gesch family was actually Jewish.

***We now have DNA results from a grandson of August, Jr that indicates a very close Halo match to German Jewish people who were Levites. I have also been diagnosed with a Mediteranian Blood disorder that shows I have small red blood cells which could indicate I am border-line anemic but I really am not anemic.