Tag: SD

The pioneering Ginsbach family in White Lake, SD

The oldest child of Frank Ginsbach and Catherine Walter Ginsbach Termes was Nicholas Ginsbach (1848-1926), the grandfather of Mary Ginsbach Klein, the great-grandfather of Margaret.  In 1873, Nicholas married Mary Zeimet, while his sister Mary Ginsbach would marry John Zeimet in 1876, the brother of Mary Zeimet.  These Zeimet siblings were also born in Luxembourg.  Nine children were born to Nicholas Ginsbach and Mary Zeimet Ginsbach before she died in childbirth in 1889 with her infant baby May.  Nicholas then married Bertha Dittman in 1890, but she died 4 years later in 1894.  Then one year later, in 1895, he took a train with his 3 youngest children, Kate (13), Nicholas (11), Margaret’s grandfather, and Clara (8) to White Lake, SD.  This older Nicholas Ginsbach had seven children.  Frank Ginsbach (1874-1973), died in Dell Rapids, SD at the age of 99.  He married Susan Frantzen (1875-1947) in Alton, Iowa, in 1900.  They had 4 children, Peter, Francis, Coletta, and Prema (Elsinger).  He was the oldest in the family and got the farm after his father left for White Lake, SD, in 1895.  Michael Ginsbach (1875-1958) died in Dell Rapids at the age of 83.  He married Addie Steffen (1881-1964).  They had 7 children, Bernard, Clara (Profesi), Lawrence, Charles, Anthony, Mary Agnes (Geraets), and Martin.  Mathias Ginsbach (1877-1950) died near the Alamo, Texas, at the age of 73.  He married Elizabeth Luken.  They had 2 sons. John and Glen.  They moved to Texas in 1920.  John Ginsbach (1878-1929)died near White Lake, SD, at the age of 51, in 1929, of a lightning strike with 2 horses.  He never married, but moved to White Lake, SD, to be with his father in 1906.  Kate Ginsbach Krell (1882-1979) died in Plankinton, SD, at the age of 97.  She married Peter Krell (1882-1944) in 1904.  They had 5 children, Harry, Clarence, Caroline (Hoffman), Agnes (Lenocher), and Margaret (Doran).  Nicholas Ginsbach (1884-1933) (father of Frank and Mary Ginsbach Klein) died in White Lake, SD, at the age of 47.  He was one of the younger ones in this family.  He moved with his father and two sisters Kate and Clara to White Lake, SD, in 1895, when he was 11 years old.  There he grew up and married Barbara Strauss (1892-1966) in White Lake, in 1914, in the same Church as his sister Clara, St. Peters.  They had 6 children, Mary, Margaret’s mother, Mark, Raymond, Robert, Frank, and Mildred.  Clara Ginsbach (1886-1973) died in White Lake, SD, at the age of 88.  She married Ed Moeller (1886-1949) in 1914, at St. Peter’s Church in White Lake, SD.  They had 5 boys, Sylvester, Edward, Cecil, John, and Albert.  May (1889-1889) died at childbirth with her mother.  Do you know anyone named Ginsbach?

Margaret’s mother, Mary Ginsbach (1915-1999) from White Lake, SD

With all the attention on the Klein family, Margaret’s father’s family with a book about the Kleins, Good Soil, Black Earth, in 1981, I felt bad about her mother, Mary Ginsbach.  Thus, I spent the summer of 1982 in Dell Rapids looking up the Ginsbach family, Margaret’s mother’s family.  I got most of the information from Mary Ginsbach Klein (1915-1999).  She had a lot of letters from her brother Frank Ginsbach, who had done some work on their genealogy.  With a little help from this brother-sister combination, I was able to put together a little packet about the Ginsbach family.  Guess what!  The Ginsbach family was from Luxembourg also.  I thought that they were from Dell Rapids, but they were from White Lake, South Dakota.  White Lake is a city in western Aurora County, South Dakota, that had a population of 394 at the 2020 census.  It does have a Catholic Church, St. Peters, within this half square mile town with 88 families.  The median income for a family was $38,611.  Dell Rapids is a metropolis compared to White Lake, with a population of 3,996 at the 2020 census within this two square mile area with 973 families, and the median family income at $49,536.  White Lake Public Schools belong to White Lake School District with all three schools in the same building, the Elementary, the Junior High, and the High School.  The city of White Lake was founded in 1882.  Thus, there have been members of the Ginsbach family living there since 1895.  Have you ever heard about White Lake, SD?