Robert E. Gee, a researcher on the Gee family branch in New York, believed that during the 1600’s there were four separate migrations of the Gee family from England to America ("The Gee Family: The Line from Peter the Fisherman (1614-1682)", The American Genealogist, 55, No. 2, April 1979, pp. 100-107). He identifies them as:

(1) Peter Gee, the first of the Boston family line. This branch contains some fascinating characters. Peter--Isles of Shoals. Possibly related to the early New Hampshire Gee's. His son Joshua was kidnapped by the Barbary pirates and held for six years until ransomed. Back in Boston he used his shipbuilding knowledge to open a shipyard.

Joshua Gee's shipyard appears on the first printed map of Boston the Bonner Map. It was located on the southwest side of Prince Street, and his mansion stood on the corner of Salem and Prince streets, known then as ‘Gee's Corner.’ The adjoining lands were also in possession of the Gees. Here is a link mapping the Bonner Map to today's Boston: http://www.xefer.com/2006/11/bonner.

He owned one of the first plots in and is buried in the Copp's Hill Burying Ground. His son, also named Joshua, was Cotton Mather's co-pastor at the Second Church. (There is some confusion between this and the Old North Church.)

Joshua Gee's portrait and that of his wife hang today at the headquarters of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Descendents of Peter’s son John have been documented by Robert E. Gee.

(2) Henry and Charles Gee were the first of the Virginia line. The beginnings of this line were extensively documented by W.J. Fletcher in his excellent work, The Gee Family, Descendants of Charles Gee (d. 1709) and Hannah Gee (d. 1728) of Virginia, with a Chapter on the English Background, 1937. This branch includes… (famous Gee's)

A story passed down through the Virginia family has the founding Charles as the son of one Thomas Gee of Boston. Speculation has been that this Thomas was the son of Peter "the Fisherman" Gee of Boston. However DNA results done as part of this study prove that the two families are not related.

a. The descendents of Charles and Hannah's son Charles are covered by Garnette S. Teass and Marian Kessler in The Gee Family Tree, Charles and Hannah, to the Year 2000 (2001), which extends the earlier family history book, The Kin of Dr. Ned Gee, Lunenburg County, Virginia.

b. Fletcher's John3 of Cumberland, NC, son of Charles and Hannah's son Henry and brother of James Gee, a signer of the Liberty Point Resolves, thirteen months before the Declaration of Independence. John3 went on to found the Tennessee branch. The Tennessee branch has been documented by A Family Chronicle of S. Bradford Rymer, by Zola Rymer Graf, McClenathan Printery, Inc., Dunkirk, NY (1960).

c. The descendents of Eason Gee m. Abigail Davis were documented by Lon Gee in Samuel Gee and His Descendents, self-published, 1964. In personal correspondence with Lon Gee, he postulates that this Eason was the son of John3 of Cumberland, NC and founder of the Tennessee branch. DNA results show this branch is not related to the Boston branch.

d. The Texas descendants of Eason Gee (d. 1835) are now documented for the first time, as the result of work by Deedee Williams. Lon Gee's theory is that this Eason was the son of the elder Eason's brother, John Henry Gee, and grandson of Fletcher's John3 of Cumberland, NC. The connection is one of many mysteries this DNA study hopes to solve.

(3) Solomon Gee, the first of the Connecticut line, was born in Devonshire in 1698 and settled in Lyme, CT. Extensive data exists on this branch since one of Solomon's descendants married a third cousin of the Prophet Joseph Smith and several family members became leaders in the Mormon Church. This DNA study has shown for the first time that this line is a 25 for 25 match with the Eason Gee descendents.

(4) John Gee, the first of the New York family line, who was born in England about 1635 and died in Eastchester in 1702. This line has been documented in a series of four articles by Robert E. Gee.

Even earlier than these four was Ralph Gee, who was in New Hampshire by 1623. Before the Mayflower? Confusions over Virginia Company. Sir Wm an investor--tie to Hull? Importance of Plymouth, England--mention Sealeys. Isles of Shoals & Peter?

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