Our Family's Early History
The First Settler's
Are we Dutch?
The biggest question for our family, is are we of Dutch or German ancestry? The oldest record we have of our emigrant family, is for George Phillip Geller, born about 1733. We are not sure of the place of his birth, but he he died in 1822, in Londonderry Township, Bedford County, PA. He married Mary Kramer about 1753, who bore him three male children, named Adam, George Geller Sr., and Jesse Geller.
Origin of the name Geller: Habitational name from the North German town of Geldern or from the Dutch province of Gelderland, earlier Geler and Gelre. Both places get their names from what may be an ancient element descriptive of marshland.
German: occupational name for a town crier, Middle High German gellære (from gellen ‘to shout or yell’). German: variant of Gehler. Hungarian variant of Gellert.
Wife-Mary Kramer-The Kramer Name: German (also Krämer), Dutch, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a shopkeeper, peddler, or hawker, from an agent derivative of Middle High German, Middle Low German kram ‘trading post’, ‘tent’, ‘booth’. This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe.
We have no direct records, on how George or Mary came to live in Pennsylvania. Did they emigrate from Europe, along with other colonists, or were they born in America, to an emigrant family? One intriguing clue, says that George Geller came to America as an indentured servant, (Typical of poor, early emigrants), but we can't confirm this.
My Mother's family and her extensive research have always considered the family to be of Dutch origin. Her father in fact was known as Whitey or Dutch.
The First Settlers
The first settlers to arrive in the New World, were the Dutch. In 1609, the Dutch East India Company, hired Englishman Henry Hudson to find a passage to East Asia, aboard the ship Halve Maen. He changed his route to the warmer climate of the West, after his crew nearly mutinied in the cold waters off Norway and Russia. On Sept. 3rd, he reached the mouth of the river that would bear his name, and claimed Staten Island for Holland.
By 1614, the Dutch had established a fur trading post in Albany. They granted a charter to the East India Company in 1621 to develop trade, and to establish a permanent colony along the East coast, named New Netherland. The first settlers, arrived in 1624, and began to put down roots in parts of the present-day states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut. Fort Amsterdam-located on the southern tip of Manhattan, eventually became the capital of New Netherland in 1625. Could it be that George and Mary's families were some of the first settlers in this area? We don't know.
Sources/Credits:Geller Geneology, Copyright © 2004-2011-Virginia Vincent
Surname Origins: Ancestry.com-Surname Search
The Dutch in America-1609-1664-Library of Congress
Replica of Hudson's Halve Maen-1609-New Netherland Museum
New Amsterdam, circa 1664-Wikipedia-New Amsterdam