Until September 1st, 2002, the Gemeny Family’s universal assumption was that the first member of the family in America was Anthony Gemeny, married in Salem, Mass., to Catherine Richards. The family had always assumed Anthony Gemini came from Italy.
On that date, information came to light which may cast some doubt on that assumption.
Thomas Gemini of Blackfriars, London
A page photocopied from the Dictionary of National Biography (Volume XXI, 1890) contains a biographical sketch of Thomas Gemini (also spelled Geminie, Geminus, or Gemyne) — an engraver who may have introduced the first copperplate engravings known in England, as early as 1540.
Thomas Gemini is noted for:
- Engravings in an early anatomic work of a French surgeon, reproduced in his shop in Blackfriars, London
- Artistry with an Italian and French flair
- Drafting and reproduction of early maps
- Development of the Astrolabe, critical to British maritime navigation
- Presenting astrolabes to King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I (which survive today)
The Louvain Connection
Thomas Gemini reportedly came to England from Louvain, Belgium, where he had worked as a journeyman in the shop of Gualterus Arsenius, alongside Gemma Frisius and Gerard Mercator. He was a Protestant who may have been banished for heresy.
He died about 1562.
The Gap
There is a period of nearly 200 years between Thomas Gemini’s death (c. 1562) and Anthony Gemini’s first appearance in Salem (1756). This is a tremendous gap. But as Gordon Gemeny noted, those 200 years are less than the 250-year gap already crossed from Anthony’s arrival to the present day, and much less than the 360 years from the Tewksbury ancestors’ arrival.
Significance
At minimum, the presence of Thomas Gemini in England in 1550 establishes the possibility that Anthony Gemini could have been of English, as well as Italian, ancestry — and that the surname may have traveled through England rather than directly from Italy.