- Comments are on so you can yell at me about how absurdly long this post is. I’m taking you through a rabbit hole I went down.
- I don’t know why I thought about my grandmother after church yesterday. She died in 1987 after living with family in California for several years. Before that, she lived with us, my dad converted the garage into an apartment. I have these two distinct memories of her getting out of the car after Dad drove them to go vote. I asked her, “Who did you vote for, Grandma?” And enthusiastically would reply to her pre-k grandson, “You! I voted for you!” That annoyed me because I wanted to know who she voted for and all about the voting process. But now, it doesn’t annoy me and makes me smile.
- As you know, my last name is Geeding. Yesterday afternoon I was a guest of the Gooding family. For the heck of it, I asked ChatGPT if there was any relation regarding our names.
- Sometimes when I get the genealogical itch, I’ll use FindAGrave.com to scratch that itch. I’ll start with my dad’s grave and then work backwards. Someone, long ago, began to connect all the branches of the family tree, and it’s a fun rabbit hole to go down. It’s a neat way of seeing all the siblings of a grandparent and seeing who else you are connected to. And, sometimes it gets updated with new and interesting information. For instance, I was told my great-great grandfather was a drummer in the Civil War. But there’s now documentation stating he was a Navy quartermaster during the Civil War. I always wondered why my father enlisted in the Navy at the start of World War II instead of going into the Army, from which he retired. Maybe that’s the connection, he was influenced by his grandfather. Having no clue what a quartermaster was or did, this is what ChatGPT told me.
That led me to another website I wasn’t familiar with Ancestors.FamilySearch.org. And that gave me this neat little writeup on Simon, who lived 76 years. And, possibly the origin of my last name.
Not only that, but it also provided me with different options for viewing the Family Time Line. I’m shocked I can find all this information for free, and all because I asked ChatGPT about the Gooding and Geeding family. This is what I mean by going down a rabbit hole. Heck, I even found a 1891 marriage license and discovered he had two sisters, Anna and Carry.
I don’t think I’ve ever discovered anything about Simon’s parents before, but now I know his father was William Rockingham Rinehart Geeding, who was born in 1842. Wow, I’ve just traced my last name all the way back to 1842.
Why stop now? I might as well dig deeper. Wow, WRR Geeding died at the age of 29. I wonder why he died so young? One day, I’ll make time to try to find his death certificate. Bummer I don’t have any photos of these men.
WRR Geeding’s father, Moses, also died young, just living 40 years.
And that’s where it dries up. Other than a Census record for Moses, there’s nothing else free online, his parents’ names are not available, but this is much more than I expected.
This is where it gets a little tricky. I also found an old Cincinnati Inquirer obituary that said a Simon Geeding died at the age of 91.
If this Simon Geeding died in 1935 at the age of 91, that means he was born in 1844, right? The other Simon Geeding, the one I first mentioned, was born in 1867 in Cleves, OH. I guess there are two different Simon Geedings. However, the top photo of this post is a Bible a distant cousin sent me that I think belonged to my grandfather, and is dated 1905 and mentions Cleves. I don’t know why there is an M after Cleves. Methodist? Maybe this old church?
To make it even more confusing, I found a third Simon Geeding. So, there was 1867-Simon of Cleves OH, and 1844-Simon. Now, I found a Simon Geeding born in 1846 in Illinois on another genealogy website, WikiTree.com. That website leads me to believe that somehow Geeding came from the name Gidding, but I’m not so sure I’m buying that.
I need to start mapping this out because I’m all sorts of confused, because that page also lists a Samuel Geeding of Illinois. This is information overload and I need to take some time to sort it all out.
Alright, so far I have found the following Simon Geedings:
– 1867-Simon Geeding of Cleves, OH
– 1844-Simon Geeding
– 1846-Simon Geeding of IllinoisTo make it even more confusing, I found a fourth Simon Geeding born in 1849 on Geni.com.
Well, 1849-Simon has a father named John Geeding, so I might as well check him out to go back another generation. John was the father of EIGHT Geedings!
There’s no more information on John Geeding, so the trail of that succession of Geedings ends there. So, to backtrack, we have FOUR Simon Geedings:
– 1867-Simon Geeding of Cleves, OH
– 1844-Simon Geeding
– 1846-Simon Geeding of Illinois
– 1849-Simon GeedingTo make it even more confusing, I found a fourth Simon Geeding born in 1849 on Geni.com.
An obscure search led me to a FIFTH Simon Geeding. Actually, he’s a Simon Geeding Jr. So I guess that means there’s a SIXTH Simon Geeding?! Also, Jr. had a son named Josephus! What a GREAT name! We have a JOSEPHUS!
So, there should obviously be a Simon Geeding Sr, right? NO! Instead, 1813-Simon Geeding’s father isn’t even a Geeding or has the first name Simon. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the end of the line, I can’t find anything that goes back further than L. Simon Geeting born in 1788. Cool, I may have just traced my family tree to the 16th Century, and discovered I’m probably not a Geeding but a Geeting.
If I want more information on L. Simon Geeting, I have to sign up for a free account. Well, I probably should, or, I can do a search on “L. Simon Geeting” and see what I can find. And, now I’m back at FindAGrave.com. But get this, there’s even a photo! It turns out L. Simon and Simon Jr were both preachers. And, I think I may have posted about one of these guys before.
converted PNM file Let’s just make it a little more confusing. L. Simon Geeding may not even be correct because WikiTree has him listed as Simon L Geeding.
It looks like this Rev. Simon Geeting had a father named George Adam Geeting. Well, let’s see what we have on him. It turns out, a lot. Now, I may have discovered my European ancestors and German name, and I may have to visit this marker and do a little research on the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.
Oh, and you thought I was done. Well, I’m darn close. I’m tired and going to bed. But, here’s the tail end of my family trail. I have no idea how many generations I’ve gone back. But I have now researched it to the 15th Century, and all for free. Wow, what a time to be alive to have all this information at my fingertips or pants pocket. I think some of this is a bit of a retread, so my apologies. I’m almost 50, I can’t remember everything.
- Saving Private Ryan was on when I got home from church. When I watched the scene where James Frederick Ryan of Minnesota is mistaken for James Francis Ryan of Iowa, I thought the actor looked much like Rob Gronkowski. Obviously, it wasn’t him, but I was surprised I didn’t recognize it was Nathan Fillion. I always thought it was cool that Ted Dansen was his commanding officer.
I also have an unusual last name. I used the websites you listed to do some research on myself.
I’ve been looking for a car update from you and how is the new job going?
Me too about your car. Probably too soon about the job though.
Super cool and has inspired me to perhaps look up what I can find on my own family. Hope you are doing well.
Yep, that’s a rabbit hole! I’m glad you had a good time researching, and I do think the possible origins of your last name are interesting. 🙂