Our Gonce Ancestors

In about 1759, a ship carrying Justice Gonce and his family sailed up the Delaware River toward Philadelphia. When the ship (likely British) made its normal stop at the Fort in Newcastle (modern day Delaware), the family disembarked and soon traveled overland to Cecil County, Maryland. Within fifty years, descendants of Justice and Magdalen Gonce and their three sons Rudolph, Abraham and Daniel had not only settled in both Maryland and Delaware, but had spread as far south as the frontier areas of Tennessee and Alabama. Justice, Magdalen and their sons are the ancestors of virtually all the Gonces now living in the U.S. This book discusses the family’s early days before and during the American Revolution, and traces the line from Justice Gonce’s youngest son Daniel to his descendants in mid-twentieth century Baltimore, Maryland. Details about the early migration of the “Southern Branch” of the family to Tennessee and Alabama are documented, and Gonce family members (including a female POW) known to have taken part in both sides of the American Civil War are introduced. Various publications or postings have suggested at least twenty-one different countries as possible origins of the original Gonce settlers; an appendix debunks many of these theories, while providing commentaries on and references for the other proposals in the hopes of aiding those who wish to undertake further research into the Gonce family.