Visitor Stories, Family Trees & Searches
My grandmother's name was Fannie Davidson, and she was (I think) the granddaughter of Grandpa James Geddie. Three Davidsons drifted from around Stephenville to West Texas (Fisher and Scurrie Counties) around the turn of the century.By the way...about "Grandpa Geddie"...did he fight at, and escape from, Fort Moultrie, SC? Or was that another ancestor? Aunt Lillie (Davidson) Talley was about 80 when I was about 8 or 9, and she used to tell me Grandpa Geddie stories. (I was the only one who would listen to them.) She died about that time Did you know that Grandpa Geddie helped capture a Yankee carrying a Union payroll? According to Aunt Lillie, the roll of greenbacks they captured"would have choked a mule." But they burned the money, over a Confederate campfire.
I have a print made from the tintype of Grandpa Geddie just before he left for the War Between the States. I'm sure you do, too. With the full, black beard?
TOM HARGROVE, Galveston Texas
[Reply from Paulette]
According to my files, If your Grandmother "Fannie's" name was Frances Rebecca Davidson b. 1890, sister of Lillian Elizabeth Davidson Talley b. 1888, the children of William Maxfield Davidson and Mary Ellen Geddie, her grandfather is James Allen Geddie who was married to Rebecca Jane White. This is probably the Grandpa Geddie to whom she was referring. He served in the civil war. I have a really neat picture of him that was sent to me by Pat Davidson James and I have a copy of his Pension Records also if you are interested. If you like, I can also put you in contact with Pat in regard to your Davidson line. She was very nice to share her information with me.
...I too am a Geddie Descendant. I was born in Colfax on Mar. 31, 1946 to Leta Asilene Geddie and Herron Leon Chaney. My grandfather was Oscar Kenneth Geddie and his father was William Hiram Geddie. I have a lot of information on this line of Geddie's if you ever need any.
PAULETTE CHANEY FLYM, Arp Texas
I am descended from a Geddie! My ancestor was John Geddie the missionary, after whom Camp Geddie is named. I didn't know Camp Geddie existed until I looked at the Geddie Web page. John Geddie was born in Banff, Scotland in 1815 and emigrated to Nova Scotia with his parents in 1816. His father John Geddie Snr. was a clockmaker who died in Pictou, Nova Scotia in 1843. John Geddie sailed as a missionary to the New Hebrides in 1846, where he stayed till the 1870's. Many of his children were born there. He died in Victoria, Australia in 1872, where many descendants of his now live.
My grandmother was also born in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) to Elizabeth, a daughter of John Geddie, who married another missionary Daniel McDonald. I reside in Albury/Wodonga, AUSTRALIA, and am proud to be connected with the GEDDIE family.
...I. have a lot of information - and my 90 year old aunt in Melbourne has even more - about the Australian and Nova Scotian Geddie clan. I also have in my possession copies of letters written to my grandmother in 1962,63, by Henry L. (Jack) Geddie from Fort Worth Texas who at that time was writing a second volume of Geddie history and genealogy. Did that book ever become published? If so I would be most interested to obtain a copy / photocopy or any information whatever. In Australia I don't know personally anyone with the Geddie surname - my line became McDonalds, McLennans, Tompsons - but there are sure to be some somewhere! Great to meet other family members...
JOAN PETERS, Wodonga Australia
Can the Geddie name be spelt as Geddes? We have a line of Geddes, from Scotland to Australia.
SANDRA LINCOLN, Kingaroy Australia
My dad was William Alexander Geddie and his father was John Jay Geddie. John Jay farmed near the little community shown on your map and Dad grew up there as did his sister Aunt Blanche Geddie Thompson of Texarkana who is still alive (the last of that generation).
IVAN D. GEDDIE, Georgetown Texas
I am the son of Lemuel Gray Geddie born 1901 in Stedman, North Carolina. His father's name was James Daniel Geddie also of Stedman (the general area of Fayetteville, N.C.). James father was John Jack Geddie whose father was John (Big John) Geddie. Big John's father was James Daniel Geddie who was the son of Alexander Geddie of Scotland ( around 1772). My ancestors remained in the vicinity of Fayetteville, N.C. from their arrival in the New World until 1921 when my father moved his fortunes to a small town in North Carolina called Mount Olive. Both my brother, L.Gray Geddie, and myself have decided to live your adult lives in Greenville, South Carolina. My brother has two children L.G. (Lee) Geddie, Jr. and Katherine McCall. I have two boys still in the home, Jonathan Sams Geddie and Christopher Harrison Geddie.
AL GEDDIE, Greenville South Carolina
I have just moved back to Texas from Washington State and I am seeking information on Family Tree. My father was William Allen Durward Geddie married to Frances Etoile Geddie(Riddle. His father was James Norton Geddie and I have traced that back to James Allen Geddie and Becky Geddie(White). I have also managed to go back one more generation to James Alexander Geddie and Mary McPhail. IF ANYONE CAN GIVE ME ANY MORE INFORMATION OR WOULD LIKE INFORMATION FROM ME PLEASE FEEL FREE TO E-MAIL.
MARCUS GEDDIE
My father was William Alexander Geddie, his father was John Jay, I believe. My grandfather died young, and is buried at Geddie [Louisiana].
ANNE GEDDIE NUNNALLY
All of the Geddies have left the [Geddie, Louisiana] area but there are still several Cains (also original farmers in the area). We are kin to the Cains as several Cains guys married Geddie girls and several Geddie guys (like my grandfather John J. Geddie who was married to Mattie Wayne Cain) married Cain girls. The last time I was there with my father, we stopped at a house in the area just to see if any kinfolk were around and as luck would have it, the decendants of my grandmothers family lived there and were thrilled to see us. They knew of Aunt Mattie through stories told by their parents.
IVAN GEDDIE, Georgetown Texas
My grandmother was a McPhail. Her family settled in Covington Co.MS., USA in the mid 1800's. Her father Allen McPhail (also his father) also lived there. Do you have anything on this family? Thanks.
SHERRY
I had not come across any Geddies before. There were many Getty families in Antrim in Northern Ireland in the 19th century and one possible derivation is the Geddes line, another is Dalgetty or Delgatty, concentrated mainly in the Scottish county of Fife. Getty was anglizised to Gatty in England ( the pronunciation of a's and e's seem,s to be transposed between the two regions). My family is documented back to Edward Gatty in Lancashire in the early 19th century. I would be very interested to hear from anyone with possible links to the Gatty or Getty names, and particularly of any evidence of Geddes links...
TREVOR GATTY,
born UK, resident in North Carolina
My [GEDDES] surname's spelling has been remarkably consistent. The only variation has been Geddas, which was a proven error in a census. The origin of the name is authoritively said (and I tend to believe it) to be Ged - a norse word for pike (the fish). Having wandered over from Norway via Ireland, one sept of the incoming tribes took the name Ged and settled in Galloway, and they were a fierce lot - real reivers!! They finally got sorted out around 800-900 AD (give or take a century or two here and there....) and many but not all changed their names to escape detection: to Luce or Lucy (from lucitus - latin name for pike) - hence Glen Luce in Galloway today - or anglicised it to Pike itself in northern England. Many more shoved off elsewhere - it was called "The Dispersal." The plural of Ged is obviously Geds but also Geddes, Geddie, Geddy and so on seem valid. Clearly our respective surnames come from the same source.
...I personally haven't come across any variation away from Geddes. I suggest that [one] consult Black's Surnames Of Scotland which is the best authority available as far as I know. I am a bit nonplussed at... reference to the 'Geddes Clan'. There is no Geddes Clan! At best, families of that name were septs of other clans. I suspect someone is being a little over romantic - a bit too much tartan-and-shortbread and misty-eyed! There is no Geddes tartan either - or at least any example with that name is purely fanciful and not to be taken seriously from an historical point of view. (I could arrange for a Geddes tartan to be designed tomorrow, but it wouldn't be authentic! Similarly, I could get a proper heraldic coat of arms too [takes a lot longer, but would still be approved by the Lord Lyon of Scotland] but even so it is still only a personal indulgence with no historical significance - well at least for a couple of hundred years....
...[I cannot recall seeing a crest in Auckland Geddes's book - as a member of the Privy Council in the UK, he must have had something, but maybe it was to do with his position not his familial pedigree.] Gordon Troup sent me this...: "A pike or jack is more often termed a 'lucy' in English heraldry and a 'GED' in Scottish. Under its various names it occurs in the arms of Lucy, Lucas, Geddes and Pyke." A Complete Guide to Heraldry A. C. Fox-Davies c.1978 Crown Publishers, p.255. [There: Lucas is a variation I had never thought of.] I shall be including this in my own material. I've now had a look at your web-site. Good, eh? It does look smart.
HOWARD GEDDES, Rowlands Castle, Hampshire, England
Greetings from Victoria, B.C. Thanks for your note re "Geddie" to mine of Geddes...I do not have enough information to say if there is a link.. I am aware that my Gr.Grandfather and Grandfather were both "GEDDES" and from Port Gordon and Buckie, Banffshire areas. Both were "boat builders". I have my grandfather's birth certificate and know my gr.grandfather's Christian name and at this point that is all I have. We hope to visit the library at Salt Lake City soon for a couple of days to do some serious looking.
RON MARSTON, Victoria B.C., Canada
I have a Gaddy connection in Cumberland Co. for you. Israel D. Gaddy, was with the 2nd Engineers Regiment, CSA. His wife, Sarah Ann Munroe Gaddy, was born Nov. 17, 1826, died May 1, 1892. She is buried, with her brother Charles, in the Monroe Cemetery, on Gaddy Mountain, in Hoke (originally Cumberland) Co., NC. The site is now within Ft Bragg. The Army erected a memorial monument to Israel in the cemetery last year. I don't know where he is actually buried, his birth or death dates.
I'm interested in this family as they were the Monroes on whose farm the Civil War Battle of Monroe's Crossroads took place. I've been researching the battle recently. My primary interest is to learn who these Monroes were and if/how they were connected to the other Monroes in the area. I know that Sarah and Charles' father was Malcolm Munroe and that he died about 1836. Anything you can tell me about Israel, this family, or the Gaddy family in this area will be appreciated. [Rick's website on the Monroe Family: www.MonroeGen.org
RICK MONROE
My name is John Geddie (I am Jack Geddie's son). I live in Houston. I liked visiting your website. You can see some things about me at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jgeddie/
JOHN B. GEDDIE, Houston Texas
My name is Jennifer Geddie Ainsworth. I live in Clinton, SC -- my sister (Amy) found your site the other day -- I own a sorority and fraternity shop near Presbyterian College -- (I graduated from PC in 1994) -- my husband and I are expecting our first child next month-William Alexander... My family resides in McColl, SC -- my grandfather James Davis Geddie was born around the Cumberland County area of North Carolina (1913-1987). My great aunt Virginia Rose is still living in Tuscon, Arizona (no humidity!!). I hope another reunion will be planned for next year --my sister, my husband, and cousin Jonathan Geddie (Raleigh, NC - recent graduate of NC State) and I visited Texas last summer--we would definitely not mind going back for a visit.
JENNIFER GEDDIE AINSWORTH, Clinton South Carolina
My name is Anna Barley Geddie Stanley, daughter of the late Jack Geddie who wrote and published "The Families Geddie & McPhail." I'm sorry to say I haven't always shared my dad's enthusiasm for our family's genealogy -- with raising three children and just being busy with life, there just hasn't been the time... I have always wondered what my dad would have done had he lived during the age of computers and the Internet. Now I know, he would never be off it!
My dad's book has been out of print for many years, but my mom still gets inquiries about it. . . There is just a wealth of information that my dad collected over the years, he began compiling information for his book when he was only 12 years old. Everything has been stored by my mom just waiting for one of us to go through and try to catalog it and put some sort of rhyme or reason to it. I can remember my dad drawing the family tree and great, long lengths of butcher paper -- it would stretch almost the entire length of our house! Wouldn't he be amazed at what he could do today with a computer? .. I hope someday soon to go through my dad's work and get a good idea of what's there and try to do something with it...
ANNA BARLEY GEDDIE STANLEY, Haltom City Texas
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