Advertising Company of Goodby, Silverstein & Co. in San Francisco,USA.
"Got Milk?"
My 4th cousin
Assoc Professor of Anthropology at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire, USA
My 4th cousin 1x removed
Lord Mayor Horace E. Goodby
1932-34 Birmingham, England. My 1st cousin 3x removed
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I am a registered member No.4148 with the Guild of One Name Studies in England, researching my single surname of Goodby, with variants of Goodley and Goodbey. I also include Goodley as the name is misspelled and extracted incorrectly numerous times in the census records. A one name study consists of obtaining, collecting and sharing general and historical facts and data of a surname wherever it is found in the world. Under the Genealogy link, you will find my research for the Goodby name. However, I do have a few families of Goodby which I have not yet been able to link to my lines and those I have kept physically in separate folders. |
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Origin of the Surname Goodby Surnames derive from four general roots: patronymic, or relating to a clan and family; topographic, implying where an ancestor lived; names of profession or trade; nicknames. Goodby falls into the latter category. Goodby is an English name, most often found in the West Midlands. It was a nickname for someone who made frequent use of the expression "God be with you" (Middle English - God b'ye), although not necessarily as a farewell. The first syllable altered under the influence of parallel expressions such as "good day" and "good even", hence the names Gooday and Gooden, and yielded the modern English vocabulary word of "goodbye." Information above was researched for me by Sian Ellis, Editor of British Heritage magazine, 1993. Original copy to hand. |
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During the tenure of Horace Edward Goodby, as Lord Mayor of Birmingham from 1932-1934, one of the streets, in the district of Moseley, was named after him.
Goodby Road is still there to this day and I took this photo of it recently. There are a few other markers around the city that include Horace's name. |
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Distribution of the Goodby Surname This map of England and Wales shows the distribution of the Goodby surname in 1891. The majority are located in the midlands and north of England. Today, there are approximately 173 Goodbyfamilies all over the world. Most of them I know and can put them on my tree. My unusual surname stirred my curiosity at a very early age and, at the age of eighteen, I began to do some research in the Reference Library in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. I visited two elderly great uncles who lived not too far away in Aston. It was a Bible, that my Great Uncle Horace Goodby had in his possession, that got me started. There, inside, was a handwritten list of his parents' marriage and his siblings births and where they were born. My Aunt Joan, a sister to my dad, gave me some pages from a Vernon Family Bible that she held. My grandmother was Mabel Jessie Vernon who married George Goodby and these pages linked the Vernon family back to the 1780s. Since then, I have been able to find links with many Goodby relatives in England, Wales, Australia and the USA. In fact, I have about 400 Goodbys on the tree. I have researched in Parish Registers, Register Offices, census records, trade directories and Wills and found many interesting stories of the Goodby Family. I belong to many genealogical societies and mailing lists in order to further my work. There are a number of Goodby ancestors who were Silversmiths, Goldsmiths or Jewellers in Birmingham, and some descendents still continue in that profession to this day. |
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