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                         THE GOETHALS CREST  

The Crest

Gerem I Goethals, 1078-1158, was the first Goethals in Flanders who had his name BONNICOLLI translated from Italien (Italian) into Flemisch (Flemish).  "Bonni" is roman for Goet (= good) and "Colli" is roman for Hals (= neck).  

Gerem I Goethals was a knight who served on the court of Robert II, Count of Flanders.  He was also a "Baanderheer", which means he was allowed to fly his own banner (= baander) even though he was in charge of a group of soldiers belonging to the Count. 

In 1099, he joined Count Robert II on a crusade to Jerusalem.  He performed rather well whereupon Robert made him a knight.

In this period he rescued three Christian maidens from the hands of a fanatic Saracen who was going to sacrifice them to his false prophet Mahomet.  For this act of bravery he was allowed to decorate the red field of his coat of arms with the busts of three maidens with golden hair.  It became, up to this very day, the official crest of the Goethals-family.

The subscription is the family motto and war cry :

This war cry literally means " In Everything Good ", but in fact is a play between the words "Goet" and "(H)als".  Gerem I died in 1158 and he was buried in the chapel "Sainte Languide" of the church "Eglise Récollects" in Doornik, Belgium. 

The Dynasty

The Goethals-Dynasty starts with Honorius, who was born somewhere about the year 855.  Honorius was a senator under the regime of Pope John VIII  (872-882) and he was a captain of a  "cohorte " (a roman unit of 100 men).

At one day one of the Scaracens tried to chop the head of Honorius off with his sword, but thanks to an iron neck-band, he did not succeed.  From that day Honorius was called "Bonnicolli" , in which Bonni means "Good" and Colli means "Neck".

During the year of 965, the grandson of Honorius Goethals who was named Pietro I Bonnicolli (927 - 980). moved to Flanders Belgium, where Pietro became a knight at the court of Count Arnold II of Flanders.  At that time he gained the title of "Ambachtsheer" (Lord of a manor) of "De Mude", which is a piece of property near the city of Gent (Ghent).

The great-great grandson of Pietro I, Gerem I, was the first to translate his name Bonnicolli into the Flemish word Goethals (flamisch). (Bonni is "goet" and colli is "hals")

During the year 1095, Gerem I (1078 - 1158), went on a crusade to Jerusalem with his master, Count Robert II of Flanders .        

All through those years the Goethals - Dynasty ( from now on referred to as the "main branche") produced men of honor, knights, clergyman, and scientists, etc.  Many of them were buried in marble tombs of well-known churches in Belgium. (Doornik, Kortrijk, Gent etc.)

They therefore have a more or less well documented genealogy .

Sometimes one of the boys married the odd housemaid or sired a girl in the village and thereby became the shame of the family.  These offspring produced the more humble branches of the Goethals family - in a manner of speaking, of course !!

Because documentation in those days was very poor, it is very hard to trace them beyond the mid-17th century.

Today, there are as many Goethals´ in Belgium as there are stars in the sky.  Some of them came over to Holland, especially Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and  a very few emigrated to the USA .

Middelburg , 1-6-2001,  Jan van de Putte .