Author: Jozef  J. Goethals

Pages: 275 – Hardcover

Language: English

The Goethals are one of a handful of families that can trace their documented ancestry back to the 9th century. The Goethals family reportedly originated in Italy ca 880, a tale of fact and legend consistently retold throughout the centuries. From the beginning of the 12th century the Goethals flourished in Ghent in Flanders (Belgium).

This book not only describes the genealogical literature of the 19th century but publishes three classical branches of the Goethals of Ghent, capital of East-Flanders in Belgium.  Corrections of erroneous data and incorrect links, resulting from the discovery of new sources, are incorporated in the history.  For anyone interested in the Goethals family, or wanting to know how this family lived through a thousand years of Flemish history, this book becomes a primary source of information on both sides of the Atlantic.

In addition, the saga of three “forgotten” Goethals branches are part of the book: the family of General George Washington Goethals, “builder of the Panama Canal,” his relative Geeraert Goethals, accepted in the nobility in 1652, and the Goethals of Kortrijk.

Inserts throughout the text, 77 illustrations and the histories of Flanders and Ghent, provide the reader with a cultural and historical background. A chronological list of 718 Goethals households and 1,150 baptisms (including the godparents), in eight parishes of Ghent and three neighboring churches from 1584 to 1796, will be a rich source for Goethals researchers. The 296-page book ends with an extensive bibliography and an index of names and their spouses for each chapter.