GEER

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mail us: geer_family@yahoo.co.uk

Books on name origins interpret Geer as a Middle-English descriptive name meaning Gerish ie: quick to temper etc but I disagree. The evidence uncovered so far seems to point to a place-name origin...view the evidence below.

According to my Dutch contact GEER is a common Dutch name but the Van der Geer family traces its history back to a piece of marshy wetland near the river Drecht 25k south of Amsterdam. The name GEER also refers to land &/or woods etc. My thanks to Leo Van der Geer for this info and the map

CORNWALL: 2 sites are in St.Martin in Menage, on the south side of the Helford river. GEAR is a very large univallate hill slope enclosure (Iron-Age), the largest single-banked enclosure in Cornwall. The field name GEAR is found all over the county and the origin of the name is the Cornish place-name element KER meaning a fort or round, usually a univallate enclosed settlement dating back to the Iron Age/Romano-British period. The Cornish "KER" can be found in place names such as CAER, GARE, CAR etc, and as a field name GEAR when it usually refers to a field near or containing  a round.                                                                                                                                                                                                         1791, Near Penhale & Bosparva, land known as GEER.                                                                                                                         HAMPSHIRE/DORSET: Known in 1750 in the area of Preston Candover: 2 fields on the Mansion House estate known as CONEY GEER.   'Coney' is an old name with Latin origins meaning Rabbit or place of Rabbits,                                                                                                  INDIA in the state of GUJARAT, on the western, central coast, is a forest and conservation area known as GIR FOREST.

HOLLAND: There is a town called GEER in Holland near enough at the point of a triangle, south from Amsterdam and east of the Hague. You will see it on the map in yellow.

BELGIUM:   about About 20k west of Liege, in Belgium, there is a small township named GEER.