Connecting with the past: this is the tomb of my 4th Great Grandparents Joseph Gooda (1772-1845) and his wife Sarah (née Pead) (1787 -1865) in Darsham in Suffolk. They lived at Mill Farm (now an unlovely caravan site) and faced a fair amount of tragedy: near the entrance to the churchyard is the grave for all their children who died in infancy: Elizabeth (aged 1 year); Philip Nathaniel (aged 18 months); Catherine (‘an infant’ aged 3 years); Laetitia (aged 5 years); Georgiana (aged 10 months) and Joseph (aged 20 years). Only my 3rd Great Grandfather Thomas Pead Gooda survived into adulthood to procreate and carry forth the line with his wife Eliza Dix. Also buried here are my 5th Great Grandparents Joseph Gooda and Ann. I always wondered if the name Gooda came from Flemish or Dutch immigrants, but actually this unusual surname (present only in Norfolk and Suffolk) is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and supposedly derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century male given name "Godhere" (Middle English "Godere"), a compound of the elements "god", good, and "here". Pre 7th Century Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse personal names were usually distinct compounds whose elements were often associated with the Gods of Fire, Water and War, or composed of disparate elements. "Godere" (without surname) is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 for Essex and Suffolk. The surname apparently first appears on record in the 14th century. Dix is a Medieval name of Old German origin. According to an ancestry test, my DNA is 17% Germanic. #ancestry #geneology #dix #gooda #suffolk #darsham #familyhistory (at Darsham) https://www.instagram.com/p/CD9H846FBrR/?igshid=191x0shd44x7b
