Thread: William Goodall and Elizabeth

Hi all,

Another brick wall but may be some others on the other side if only I can link them in.

I have Isaac Goodall's parents; James Goodall (Goodell) b. 1801 Littleton, Wilts.
Married in 1819 to Sarah Dark, b. 1794. 99% sure on that one.

I have William Goodall, (James's father) married to an Elizabeth
Problem... He was Baptised 1789 26 Apr in Potterne and Cannings, Wilts. Would it be possible to assume he was older when baptised, otherwise he would have been too young to marry if born around 1789?
His children were James b.1801 (as above) and Eliza b.1804. I cannot find a Birth record to get the date; if it was around 1779 then it could be the right person.

I did find a record of a marriage between William Goodall of Worton married to Elizabeth Yates of Potterne in 1788 but that William would have been too young to marry Elizabeth in 1788 and have James in 1801 if this is the William who was born in 1779 of James Goodall (Goodale) Christened 1756 Potterne, and Sarah Hobbs b.1756 who were married 24th Apr 1777.

If that sounds confusing apologies; I'm flummoxed too.

Any ideas on different William Goodalls or any other explanations/

Thanks in advance.

Mike.

It is possible that he was baptised later.We assume that people were baptied as small babies - and they often were - but not always. there are quite a few reasons - perhaps they couldn't afford to have one child baptised and waited until they had a few and baptised them together. How sure are you about James's father? did he definitely marry an Elizabeth? did he come from Potterne? It is easy to get carried away - and you must be careful you have the right family. It is oh so easy to chase anothe family. We often seem to find these anomilies re dates and they do not always seem to fit. Problem is the further back we go the harder it can become.

Thanks Pejay; The only thing I am sure about is Isaac Goodall's parents; James Goodall (Goodell) b. 1801 Littleton, Wilts.
Married in 1819 to Sarah Dark, b. 1794. About 99% sure on that one.

After that it's very hard. Littleton is less than a mile from W.Lavington where I believe the registration office is, and Potterne is just a couple of miles up the road so I can's dismiss anyone coming from there.

The hard bit is that I have Pope's list of Banns, Marriages, Christenings at Potterne and there are around 70 children christened in the years 1700 and 1815! Many can be paired up to parents as they show parents names. I have no records from Littleton and W.Lavington other than a few on IGI. I was hoping to go back a couple of generations and then link into the Pope's list but at the moment it's proving difficult. If William was Christened later in life and is James's father then the James before him can't be. correct as the dates won't work. There are just too many Goodalls in that area in those years.

Not sure where I go from here unless I can get some help with more parish records around 1800 from that area.

Mike.

Mike have you tried Hugh Wallis's site - it may have something. Do you know if anyone else happens to researching the same family? How about Local archives/records offices . Do you think he was born in Potterne or perhaps he moved into the area - not much help I know. Any chance he might be on the 1841 census? it will state whether he was born in the county or not a long shot

Hi Pejay,

Thanks for the Hugh Wallis link; it wasn't of help in this instance but may be in the future. It's not linking with IGI at the moment but he is working on modifying it to work.

I have looked through a lot of family trees but not come up with any with the details I need at present but there are a lot to go through; I will keep trying.

James Goodall did live in the same town as Isaac and he was married to a Sarah and the dates more or less match. No 1841 census results for Isaac so can't see him in James's family unfortunately. Isaac moved to London and married Elizabeth Tubbs in 1856 and turns up for the first time in the 1861 census.

This is Isaac's IGI record...

Isaac Goodall, Male
Christening 25 April 1830, West Lavington, Wiltshire, England
Father James Goodall
Mother Sarah

(West Lavington is about half a mile from Littleton and probably the nearest church of their faith.

(Apologies for the blocks above; you can't copy and paste from IGI.)

I'm not sure that ordering Isaac's birth certificate will tell me any more that that; not sure how much there is on them around that date; not like modern ones I suspect.
Could just be a record in the Parish register perhaps? Have you any experience of old birth certificates?

Thanks,

Mike.

Hi Polita,

Isaac was born in 1830 (known) not 1791 but I'm working on the other links.

I've now found the complete 1841 census for Littleton (11 pages) and found Isaac with his father James; mother Sarah Dark died in 1836 (so is not shown with the family) and James married Sarah Baish in 1837 (not sure why she doesn't show; perhaps in service somewhere else; will try and track her down).

Census reads...
James Godall b. 1799 (mispelt - should be Goodall)
John 1827
Isaac 1829
Jacob 1832
Sarah 1835
Elizabeth 1839
Edward 1840

Also a Sarah Goodall b.1871 (not sure where she fits in but she's old enough to be James's Grandmother)
and an Ann Goodall 1840 (not sure where she fits in)

As well as all this we have William and Mary Dark, James's first wife Sarah Dark's mother and father, several Darks and a Sarah Baish, part of the Baish family of which one was James's second wife.

My Isaac is the only one in Littleton around that date and James comes from the same village.

I think I have enough to more of less confirm James as Isaacs father; what do you think?

Mike.

P.S. I'll try and piece together you info above tommorow as my heads hurting now, LOL.

I need to find James's father amongst them all now; rather think that's going to be difficult are records are very patchy in that area around that time.

Thanks again for your help,

Mike.

Originally Posted by poleta

The birth certs are very similar to what they are these days. It would give you his mother's maiden name but if you're already confident it's Dark you wouldn't learn much!

We cross posted Polita.

I'm pretty certain of the Dark maiden name.

Mike.