This web site is devoted to the descendants of George Elsinger and Maria Barbara Rensch, who left Bavaria in 1847 to come to the United States, eventually settling in Washington Co, Wisconsin. To date, the Elsinger family has been traced back to the early 1700s in Bruck, Bavaria where the name was originally Ölsinger.

George was born in the village of Hansenried, Bavaria and Maria Barbara was born in the village of Fronau.  Hansenried and Fronau are small villages located near present day Stamsried in the county of Cham which is in the administrative district or “state” of Upper Palatinate (or Oberpfalz in German).  Map

By the time that George and Maria Barbara married, they were both living in Giesing which was a small town located just outside of Munich.  Two children (Katharina and Wolfgang) were born to George and Maria Barbara before they decided to emigrate to the United States. In 1847, George and Maria Barbara and their two children left from Giesing to sail to America. George is listed on the passenger list as being a “zimmermann” or carpenter.

It is uncertain at this point at which port they landed. However, their 3rd child, George, was baptised at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Broadway and Pine, in Buffalo, New York on 7 Aug 1847, just 3 weeks after he was born at sea on 16 Jul 1847, which would lead one to believe that they may have come through Quebec, down the St. Lawrence River, into Lake Ontario, and then on to Buffalo. By 1850 when their fourth child was born, the family was living in Washington County, WI.

There is also information on this site regarding another Öelsinger family from Oberpfalz, Bavaria. One of them moved to the Hartford, Connecticut area. Although he carried the Elsinger name, he was not genetically an Elsinger. It is not known at this time whether or not his grandfather was related to the Bruck, Bavaria Elsingers.