In the USA today only a couple of hundred people carry the surname Gase. The American Gases mentioned on this web site are descendants of two German brothers, Johann and Mat(t)hias GASE (originally GÖS), who settled in Seneca County, Ohio in the early 1830's.
The GASE brothers traveled separately to the United States from Baden, now part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, in SW Germany.

Not until 1871, under the rule of Otto Bismarck, was Germany unified. Before that time it was nothing more than a loose confederation of kingdoms, duchies, lordships, palatinates etc. Boundaries were constantly changing and many names on maps of the first half of the 19th century have a different spelling now. Baden is located along the Rhine river with Alsace-Lorrain (now France) to the West, Württemberg to the East, Switzerland to the South and Hessen to the North. In Baden, in southwestern Germany we find the Black Forest (Schwarzwald in German). In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, immigrants came from Baden as well as parts of Switzerland and Alsace-Lorraine. In the 1810’s and 1820’s it was customary for people from Switzerland, Alsace-Lorraine and West and South-West Germany to travel down the Rhine river to Rotterdam or Amsterdam, where they usually boarded ships that sailed under British flag.

The written report on the trip of the frigate Hope from Amsterdam to Philadelphia mentions two groups of passengers on board the ship, a group from Canton Aarau in northwestern Switzerland and the so-called Schwarzwald Gruppe from Baden. There’s also a list of the people who died during the terrible trip to the New World or shortly after arriving in Philadelphia. Among them we find a Johann Götz from Sasbach, Baden.

We have more proof for the exact location where the German Gase family lived in Baden. In a book describing the history of the St. Boniface Parish in New Riegel, Big Spring Township, Seneca County, Ohio there’s a paragraph called “From Whence They Came”. As background of the members of the Gös (Gase) family who were among the earliest pioneers in Seneca County Sarspach ad Rhenum, Latin for Sasbach am Rhein, is mentioned. Furthermore, in the Record of Burials for St. Boniface Catholic Church in New Riegel for 1839 – 1920 we find an entry on page 18 for a Maria GOESS who died on Sep 15th, 1848 at the age of 19 who also was “from Sarspach ad Rhenum”.

Finally, the following announcement was published several times in the local papers in Baden in January 1817:

Schulden Liquidation

Alle diejenigen, welche etwas an folgende aus dem Orte Sasbach nach Nord Amerika auswandern wollende Personen, als: Johann Bub, Dominik Mutter, Martin Göß, Johann Amann, Johann Zipfel, Joseph Wanner, Jung Joseph Vogelbach und Schreiner Anton Leri zu fordern haben, werden aufgefordert, ihre Forderungen an die 4 ersten den 25., und an die 4 letzten, den 26. Februar d. J. dem zur Erhebung der Schulden dieser Bürger beauftragten Komminsar Drißler in Saspach im Engel gehörig einzureichen,als sie sonst nicht mehr mit Nachforderungen berücksichtigt werden können.

Endingen, den 23. Jänner 1817, Großherzogl. BezirksAmt, Dr. Kapferer

Translation:

Debts Liquidation

All of those, who have something to collect from the following persons of the village of Sasbach, who are planning to emigrate to North America being:
Johann Bub, Dominik Mutter, Martin Göß, Johann Amann, Johann Zipfel, Joseph Wanner, young Joseph Vogelbach und carpenter Anton Leri, are invited, to present their outstanding debts against the first 4, on the 25th and the last 4 on the 26th of February of this year, at the Engel (a local pub in Sasbach, RAG) to the commissioner Drißler responsible for the raising of the debts of these citizens in Sasbach, as they otherwise will not be allowed to put in additional demands later on.

Endingen, den 23. January 1817, Grand Ducal District Authority, Dr. Kapferer

Matthias arrived in Philadelphia, PA, USA, on September 9th, 1817, listed as Mathias GOEZ, with his family on the ship Hope which had left Amsterdam, the Netherlands, four months earlier. Johann followed them some fifteen years later, first traveling on foot with his family from SW Germany to Le Havre on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in France. From there he traveled on board the ship la Melonie to New York where he arrived on June 12th, 1832.

In the 1830 U.S. Federal Census he’s registered in Reading Township, Perry County, Ohio as Mathas GACE. In the 1840 census he lives in Seneca County, Ohio as Matthias GASS. In the 1850 and 1860 census we find him in Seneca Township, Seneca County, Ohio. In 1850 he’s Matthew GASE, born in Germany, in 1860 Matthias GASE born in Baden.

The first time we find John is in the 1840 census for Seneca County. He’s listed as John GASS. In the 1850 census John’s living in Seneca Township, Seneca County, Ohio living next door to his brother Matthew as John GASE from Germany. At the time of the 1860 and 1870 census he’s still living in Seneca Township as John GASE from Baden.

Many of their descendants are still living in Seneca County today.

By clicking here you can start exploring the Internet Family Tree starting with Johann and Matthias GASE (or GOES).
By clicking here you get access to all surnames of individuals mentioned in this Internet Family Tree.
Click on any individual for more details. Click on any parent or child to climb up or down the tree.

In May of 2000 Ronald GASE, superintendent of public high schools in the northwestern part of North-Holland in the Netherlands, a member of the Dutch GASE family, met Daniel E. GASE, a representative of the American GASE family, real estate broker and president of Coldwell Banker's Port Angeles, WA, affiliate in the U.S.A.

click on the photo to enlarge it

Daniel E. Gase and Ronald A. Gase (left) in Port Angeles, WA, U.S.A., on May 10th, 2000.
If you want to visit the web site of Daniel E. Gase, click here!