This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/kIZ.2ACEB/1098.1 Message Board Post: By 1920, there wewre perhaps 50,000 Goad families in the United States and maybe several thjousand in Texas. No one can maintain files on that many. So usually you must work back a couple more generations to hook up with the Goads of early America. This can usually be done through ther Federal census records. First check the 1920 census for the county where your father was born. You likely will find the grandfather listed there, You need his name if you do not know it. Do you ?? Any idea WHERE in Tenn. they came from ?? Tennessee was the prime destination when many Goads left Virginia in ca 1800. By 1850, there were about fifty Goad families residing in Tenn. in about twenty-five different counties. After the Civil War (and even before) many spread west o Ark,Texas and Okla . Census records can be ordered on microfilm by any good-sized library. You could get lucky but the chances are slim without more information.. --- Ken