The German Gelius line
The Chelius spelling gives way to Gelius with Johann Philipp Martin Gelius, born at Schwarzenbach an der Saale on 8 January 1808 and schoolteacher at Rehau, where he died on 11 June 1886. Everything on this page belongs to the Gelius era that follows. For the two centuries before it, in Hesse, see the main ancestry page.
The family kept a second painted panel for this period — Stammbaum der Familie Gelius aus Rehau — which carries the same box numbering as the large Chelius stammbaum and joins it at August Ludwig Karl Chelius. Its scroll dates the preceding Chelius period as 1528–1808: the family’s own reckoning began with Pankratius in Hesse, not with the physician at Strasbourg. Almost everything below comes from that panel.
For three generations the family stays inside a very small piece of Upper Franconia — Rehau, Schwarzenbach an der Saale and Hof an der Saale lie within about fifteen kilometres of one another. Then, in the generation born from the 1870s, it scatters: to the Rhineland, to the Netherlands, and in one line out of Germany altogether.
Where the family turns up
Red marks the Gelius era after 1808 — the Upper Franconian heartland, the moves outward, and the line that leaves for Sweden. Grey marks other German places named on the large Chelius stammbaum, mostly from the earlier Hessian generations: university towns, parishes and the offices the family held.
Philipp’s children, born 1828–1853
Philipp Gelius and Katharina Wolfrum had eight children. Three of the sons founded families of their own, and the Gelius name in Germany descends from those three.
| Name | Dates | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Margarethe Anna | 1828–1883 | Married Lorenz Deeg, master weaver |
| Johann Friedrich August | 1831–1865 | |
| Johann Georg Christof | 1832–1902 | Factory owner at Hof an der Saale; married Sofie Fredricke Albertina Adler (1839–1909). Ten children |
| Friedrich | b. 1838 | No dates recorded |
| Georg Peter | 1841–1883 | Three children |
| Johann Christian | 1848–1917 | Seven children |
| Katharina | d. 1869 | Married Angermann |
| Margaretha | 1853–1936 | Married Händel |
Two further members of this generation are recorded without names at all, one of them noted only as having gone to America. Whoever compiled the record knew the emigration had happened but could not establish who left, and marked his own uncertainty about where they belonged in the family. That branch has never been traced.
The Rehau household, born 1861–1880
Johann Georg Christof and Sofie had ten children. Four reached adulthood. This is the part of the record the large Chelius panel leaves out entirely, because it listed only the survivors.
| Name | Dates | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Mathilde | 1861–1885 | Died at 24 |
| Adolf | 1863–1945 | Senior building official and captain in the reserve; married Marie Roth |
| Wilhelmine | 1865–1873 | Died at 8 |
| Johann (Hans) | 1867–1888 | Died at 21 |
| Christian Albrecht | 1869 | Died at eleven months |
| Johann Georg Christian | 1870–1960 | Manufacturer and engineer; born Rehau, died at Dachau in Bavaria, aged 90 |
| Carl Johann Georg | 1873–1914 | Painter (Kunstmaler); worked in the Netherlands, died at Bonn |
| Philipp | 1875–1941 | Architect and engineer |
| Ida | 1878–1902 | Died at 24 |
| Emilie | 1880–1881 | Died at one |
Georg Peter’s children
| Name | Dates | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Hans | 1865–1906 | Master locksmith |
| Eduard | 1868–1928 | |
| Christian | 1874–1916 |
Johann Christian’s children
| Name | Dates | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Adolf | 1875–1953 | Not to be confused with his cousin Adolf, 1863–1945 |
| Marie Babette | 1878–1939 | Married Schwarz |
| Anna-Marie | 1883–1962 | |
| Anna-Katharina | 1886–1972 | Married Rothemund |
| Maria | 1889–1977 | Married Hertel |
| Christine | 1891–1974 | Married Käfer |
| Johann Christian | 1894–1968 |
The generation born 1890–1930
This is where the page stops. The panel continues for three further rows, but those generations have many living descendants in Germany and tracing them is not the purpose of this archive.
| Name | Dates | Parent |
|---|---|---|
| Luise | 1892–1975 | Adolf (1863). Married Kilian |
| Karl | 1896–1915 | Adolf (1863). Lieutenant, killed in France, 8 October 1915 |
| Heinz | 1901–1989 | Carl the painter. Engineer; born Utrecht, settled in Sweden |
| Hans | b. 1910 | Carl the painter. Engineer; born Bonn |
| Otto | b. 1903 | Johann Georg Christian (1870) |
| Eva | b. 1901 | Johann Georg Christian (1870) |
| Mathilde | 1905–1961 | Johann Georg Christian (1870) |
| Luise | b. 1906 | Johann Georg Christian (1870). Married Arfelt |
| Siegfried | b. 1906 | Philipp the architect (1875). Engineer |
| Lisa | b. 1909 | Philipp the architect (1875) |
| Rosa | b. 1923 | Philipp the architect (1875) |
| Mathilde | 1924–1979 | Philipp the architect (1875). Married Kingerl |
| Eduard | 1890–1970 | Hans (1865) |
| Ludwig | 1891–1954 | Hans (1865) |
| Frieda | 1900–1971 | Hans (1865) |
| Hans | 1891–1892 | Eduard (1868) |
| Anna | 1893–1962 | Eduard (1868). Married Weber |
| Wilhelm | 1895–1911 | Eduard (1868) |
| Babette | b. 1897 | Eduard (1868). Married Domsch |
| Bertha | 1901–1976 | Eduard (1868). Married Richter |
| Hans | 1900–1945 | Adolf (1875) |
| Alma | b. 1901 | Adolf (1875) |
| Max | 1910–1913 | Adolf (1875) |
| Alfons | b. 1904 | Johann Christian (1894) |
Occupations
The occupations are the clearest signal. The Hesse generations were pastors and then magistrates — church and municipal office, held in the same villages for a century at a time. The Gelius generations are a schoolteacher, then a factory owner, then a run of engineers, an architect, a manufacturer, a master locksmith and a senior building official. Within about seventy years the family moves from the parish and the town hall into industry, and industry is what disperses it.
Carl the painter is the exception, and as it turned out the hinge. He worked in the Netherlands and died at Bonn in 1914, aged 41. One of the lines descending from this generation left Germany for Sweden — that branch is followed on the main ancestry page.
Transcribed from Stammbaum der Familie Gelius aus Rehau, read together with the large 1973 Chelius stammbaum and a separate family chart. Some dates in the most recent generations are written very small and a few readings remain provisional. Living members of the German branches are deliberately not listed, and no attempt is made here to trace them: descent may continue from any number of the men above. If you descend from one of them and would like to correct or extend what is here, you are welcome to get in touch.