JUNE A-7
'ROOTS'
THE 'GEELHOED' NAME ON THREE CONTINENTS
Thank you!
Yes, I would be happy to help. I had also spoken to another of our family
working in geneology Donald Geelhoed, and saw him recently to give him some
information.
I have not answered you quickly, because I cannot attach any files to this
email account and therefore monitor another at msdgwg@gwumc.edu I will send
this forward to Don and Betty for their response.
I can also tell you a wall was broken throgh in a house formerlyowned by my
grandmother at a place called Downing Street in Grand Rapids, and buried in
the wall was a large box of photographs from the earliest part of this century.
Instead of tossing it out, the builder saw the name "Geelhoed" and
called the first person in the phone directory with that name. It turned out
that this individual was no relation, but directed the builder to the right
people, and then at the Geelhoed reunion picnic of my family (I was abroad)
the box was opened and the pictures distributed‑‑including early
days of my parents, and their families, wedding pictures and even baby pictures
of me! Duplicates were made in some instances, and others may be available.
This nearly miraculous archaeologic resurrection was as if a "time capsule"
had been deliberately buried! I am delighted that the box was found, and the
house did not burn nor was it bulldozed because of its age. My earliest memories
include a view of my grandmother sitting on a couch in front of the wall in
which this was discovered, with a pillow at her side with a silk cover emblazoned
"Hawaii" given here by one of her serviceman grandsons. This fellow
"died in the service of his country" in WW II in the pacific in circumstances
that were quite heroic. A strapping far lad, he had made it back to the beach
after an amphibious asault against Japanese fortifications on a Pacific Island.
When told that his wounded commander was still left, wounded and abandoned in
the interior of the island, he went back to pick him up and carried him down
to the landing craft at the beach‑‑‑where he was shot from
under his wounded superior. The captain was later a pall bearer at his rescuer's
(and my cousin's) funeral. I learned a bit of this when I had toured the memorial
cemetary at the Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu for the war dead of the pacific
theater in World War II.
I had referred you to my father sometime back and had given you the data I had which was basd in the geneology I had assembled with him. He died at age 98. I also saw some of the pictures at the home of Ruth Westrate, who lives in Green Valley Arizona, from the era you had mentioned. I had once told her of your interest from our decade of
correspondence. Each time I will repeat the request that you use the email address I have corrected that allows me to forward and attach files to help in your search. It has now been a decade since I had learned from you that you had found me through a computer search of the name Geelhoed, which directed you to my Home Page you see listed below. One other name comes up on tha search, and that is Tom Geelhoed, who is an attorney in Grand Rapids, son of Don and Betty Geelhoed‑‑and all of whom I had just seen again for the second time we had run the Grand River Bank Run in May of 2001.
I had once been a visitng professor at the University of Utrecht, and my host was so intrigued with my name and origin, that he had done a geneology search in the Netherlands that I believe I had forwarded to you, going back to 1638 and including a number of early immigrants who had gone to South AFrica. There was once a Reader's Digest article about forty years ago, on the South Africans trying to improve their image, and brought down to them two sceptical Dutchmen to look over the situation in the southern African contintent‑‑and one of them was named Geelhoed. I have made repeated and long term visits to South Africa, and I have found a number of people with the name in that area also, even thought the Geelhoed name was not one of the first of the two dozen Trekboers and Voertrekker (pioneers) that peopled the land and left it only with a few dozen names (which I have recorded from the originals) such as Du Plessis, Myburgh, Botha, etc.
I had also referred you to Dr. Gary Geelhoed, who had found me in the same way you had by clicking on "Geelhoed" for an internet search, reporting that he was delighted to see his bibliography under the name "Dr. G. Geelhoed" explode to ten times its original number! He is a pediatrician in Perth Australia. He vistied me on his first trip to the USA, when I took him to lunch in the old Smithsonian Castle. At that time, I called my father and had him tell of our family history, as he had told me his somewhat simpler one. His father had been sent in WW II from the Netherlands to Australia, where, after the war, he married an Australian woman and settled in Perth, from which their offspring, now Dr. Gary Geelhoed, went through a pediatric residency, and found me. I had called on an occasion when I was once in Perth, but we did not connect then, but we have made postal contact once in the intervening decade.
I have made my own "roots" tour of Middleburg and its county seat in Zeeland, and found a number of people there, filling over a page of the phone directory. Several of them, including at least two doctors (who hosted me on a visit, along with a Rotterdam Erasmus University Profesoor of Surgery and good colleague friend of mine Dr. Keije Bruining) and a few nurses in the Middleburg hospital have the name. But, as I inquired at the Middleburg Rathaus, I was looked at kindly and asked: "My dear young man, have you not heard of the Blitz?" So, I fear, the Nazis, and perhaps a few of our own Allied bombers had destroyed a great deal of the records I was looing for at that time. Consequently what I had from much earlier is what I have already sent to you; however, we are vigorosuly accruing new Geelhed material here in Washington DC,(where I live in Derwood, Maryland, and may try to recruit some one else to carry the name along with me!) in Gainesville, Florida (where Donald lives) and San Antonio Texas (where Michael lives)! As you have already been informed, although I am the only male in my family at this generation, there are three males in the coming generation, two of whom do not yet have first or middle names!
I have also copied each of my sons (Donald William and Michael Alan) since Donald now has two children with the names Andrew William Geelhoed and Kacie Elizabeth Geelhoed and Michael and his wife Judy are expecting twin sons‑‑for which I am going to see them next week in San Antonio. I will forward your request to Don and Betty Geelhoed and would be hapy to help you before the fnal check on your publication
Cheers!
GWG
On Sat, 19 May 2001, marien geelhoed wrote:
> Dear Glenn,
> Since more than 3 years my brother Kees and I am working on a Geelhoed‑genealogy.
> Therefore we had contact with you as well.
>
> We are trying to make a first publication of the results (first in Dutch
unfortunately).
> We wonder if you have gained any new information since we had our last
> contact. I can of course send the information of your part of the family,
if
> you are interested. You might be able to help with a last check.
>
> We are also interested in pictures of other illustrations from the past.
Do
> you have any photos or ads from the years 1900‑1920 or somewhere
like that?
> We would like to give them a place in our book.
>
> I hope you will give me a reaction whether you have new information, or
will
> check the information till now or have illustrations!
> Best wishes,
> Marien Geelhoed,