General Notes

The Goodale_Goodell_Goodall Family
especially the Artemus Kimball Goodale Family

There are two theories as to the origination of the family name, GOODALE, GOODELL, GOODALL. One is reported by a research bureau in Washington,
D.C. and supported by Dr. Robert L. Goodale of Ipswich, Mass.:

      The name is of Norse origin. There was a Goodel de Brixi who came from Normandy with Edward the Confessor before 1066. The Goodalls were a very early family in the British Isles, stemming from members living in Goldale, now Gowdall, a town in the parish of Snaith, Yorkshire. They were of the landed gentry and yeomanry.

      Among the earliest definite records are those of Villa de Goldale, Johannes or John Godhale, Recardus or Richard de Goldall, and Johannes or John Godhall of Yorkshire, in the year 1379. In the class of 1470 at Oxford was a Richard Goodale (recorded in the library of Merton College). Listed at the head of his class, the name was `Godyle.'

It is true that in early times very little attention was given to the spelling of names, and during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there was no fixed authority for the spelling of either `proper' names or surnames.1

The other theory is advanced by Professor Isaac Goodell of Ft. Worth, Texas, after much study:

      Robert Goodell is claimed to be of French Hugenot descent. `Goodelle' is the French origin of our family name and this spelling is yet found in Paris and a number of smaller towns in France. Later, one of our ancestors emigrated to Scotland, and about 1580, as tradition goes, a Goodelle family (Robert's grandfather) moved from Scotland to London. The name of Goodelle was Anglicized to Goodell, then Goodale and later Goodall in the coastal counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, England. Baptiste Goodell, supposed to be a son of that family and uncle to Robert, made his first appearance as an actor with William Shakespeare in Henry VI before Queen Elizabeth in 1589.

The name is significant of family occupation as may be inferred from the coat-of-arms of the Scottish families, described as follows:

      `Arms: On 3 caps and in the middle fesse point as many ears of barley, two in saltire, and one in pale of the last.

      Crest: A silver cup PPR, motto Good God increase'

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