Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

George Brown Goode. Papers, 1776-1903. Accession 24813, Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Kenneth Mackerness Goode and Philip Burwell Goode, through the National Academy of Science, 16 March 1945.

Biographical/Historical Information

George Browne Goode, naturalist, author, and administrator, was born in New Albany, Indiana on 13 February 1851. In 1857, he and his parents moved to Dutchess County, New York. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1870, and also attended Harvard. He married Sarah Lamson Ford Judd on 29 November 1877. He was employed at Wesleyan and the National Museum, and later at the Smithsonian Institution, serving as United States Fish Commissioner. He died on 6 September 1896.

Scope and Content Information

Includes correspondence of George Brown Goode concerning research and publication of his book VIRGINIA COUSINS in 1887, and its planned revision. The revision was never published due to his death in 1895, but an annotated manuscript of it is contained in this collection. Also included are genealogical notes and correspondence of Francis N. Watkins (1813-1885) relating to research, publication, and revision of his pamphlet A CATALOGUE OF THE DESCENDANTS OF THOMAS WATKINS OF CHICKAHOMONY, VA., first published in 1852.

The GENEALOGICAL NOTES series contains family data, genealogical charts, registers, and transcriptions of Bible records of families mainly related to various lines of the Watkins family of Charlotte, Chesterfield, Cumberland, Goochland, Henrico, Powhatan, and Prince Edward Counties, and Arkansas, Georgia and Missouri. Some of this information is recorded on private circulars which Watkins mailed out in September, 1859 for a more comprehensive second edition to his CATALOGUE OF THE DESCENDANTS OF THOMAS WATKINS. There are also some folders containing information relating to the Goode family. An oversize folder of genealogical charts is filed in Personal Papers Oversize.

The WATKINS FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE covers the years 1776 to 1861, but the majority is after 1850. The correspondence is from various family members concerning Watkins' research. There is also a considerable amount of family data contained in the correspondence, such as transcriptions of family Bible records.

The GEORGE BROWN GOODE CORRESPONDENCE covers the years 1868 to 1903 and concerns the research for his book VIRGINIA COUSINS published in 1887, as well as a planned revision. There is also a large amount of genealogical data contained in the letters.

The MANUSCRIPT REVISON OF VIRGINIA COUSINS is an annotated copy, preserved in four volumes, of Goode's work published in 1887. He died in 1895, before a revised edition could be published. The manuscript copy contained in this collection contains a vast amount of rewritten, updated, and additional information on the descendants of John Goode (ca. 1625-1709) of Whitby, Henrico County, Virginia.

Organization

Organized into the following four series: I. Genealogical Notes. II. Watkins Family Correspondence. III. George Brown Goode Correspondence. IV. Manuscript Revision of VIRGINIA COUSINS.