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For the person bearing the name Goethals--or related to a Goethals--this book gets you in touch with your roots. You may not be able to trace and document your own connection to a particular member of the historic branches of Ghent and Kortrijk in Belgium, but you may marvel at the remarkable story of the Goethals family to which your DNA may be connected. Today, there are about 6,900 people bearing the name Goethals, of which ca 5,000 live in Belgium and more than 300 in the U.S. and Canada.

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).

A notable series of publications in the 19th century focused on the Goethals history. Subsequently, commentaries, expansions and corrections have been added. These genealogical sources, available only in French, Dutch, and Latin, are scattered over the span of more than 200 years.

This new book not only describes the genealogical literature of the 19th century but publishes, for the first time in the English language, 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.

"This review of a millennium filled with Goethals stories brings us in touch with the evolution of early medieval Western Europe into the world of twentieth century. It brings to life individual family members and communities. It is a grand procession of humanity: scholars of everlasting reputation, grandees who served their masters and country, traders and craftsmen, entrepreneurs and adventurers, persecutors and persecuted, fervent religious men and women, and opportunists. The proud and humble, the successful and not so fortunate are all bound by their common ancestry, by a simultaneous presence of ambition and sense of service." (Foreword to the book by Dr. Marc vanderHeyden).