My last name is Goodwin and I have an Irish and Scottish heritage. How do I determine my correct Tartan?

Question

I have been told by my family that I am Irish, Scottish and Welch. My last name is Goodwin and I am from New Hampshire. My very limited research has not yielded many results. I would like to know if I have a family crest either from Scotland or Ireland and if there is an associated tartan that I can call my own. Thanks for checking this out!

Answer 1

I suspect that your main problem in finding valid information, could be from the idea of researching a SURNAME, and not actual persons.  Stop and visualize that you have 8 gr grandparents.. and since women are a different name by BIRTH, this means you descend equally from 8 different persons.  This is ONLY an analogy.. since the same concept applies to their parents, making it 16.  The accurate way is to find valid records concerning each of those INDIVIDUAL PERSONS, especially since any Irish, Welch or other heritage may come through other lines.  Only one of the 8 (or 16) is named Goodwin.

Once you grasp that idea.. you know that your surname comes through your father's side, but it is still a question of finding the specific person, for example, John Goodwin, who came to the US, and who is in fact your ancestor. ALL GOODWINS do not always come from one place.. the name is found in English records as well.  You have to verify your own ancestor, and his own origin.

It would be pointless to look for a tartan/ crest or anything else, without having accurate information. If you find your Goodwin line is based in England, then you work with the UK College of Arms and their qualifications/ standards. You will find, once you investigate those regulations, that there is no such thing as "family" crests. They are ONLY awarded/ issued to an individual person, not a family.  Think of your brother being given the Medal of Honor for military service. It is his alone. You are not entitled to wear it.  Ireland or Scotland may have different standards.. again.. without factual research, you won't know which may apply to you.

Answer 2

Goodwin is not really a Scottish name.  Sounds like a corruption of Godwin (Godwyn).  

Found this:

"In 1858 the Camden Society in London published "The Domesday Book of St Pauls" in which are listed the names of the peasants living in its various manors in 1222. It is clear that Christian names were beginning to follow the Norman fashion. For example, a man with the old English name of Aethelward (Ailwardus) gives to his three sons the Norman names of Walter, Ralf and Geoffrey. Their neighbour, a bondsman holding five acres, is Ricardus Godwini, Richard the son of Godwin (Godwin having been in the pre-Conquest England of 1066 one of the most popular Christian names in the kingdom). If at this point the surname becomes standardised for future generations as Godwin or Goodwin, a few centuries later some researcher will claim a Saxon origin for the family. But if the standardisation of the surname occurs in the next generation, it will be Richards, not Godwin, and that same researcher will be ready to pronounce the family as Welsh in origin.

        

We can stay with the Godwin name to illustrate the errors further. In 1891 "The Goodwins of Hartford, Connecticut" was published in America. It claimed ~

The family name Goodwin is one which has been, and is, very widely distributed not only over England, but over most of the northern countries of Europe, and instances of its occurrence are to be met with in very early times. As far back as the fifth century we met with it in Germany (Pertz, Monumenta Germanica, ix, 189) in the forms Gudwin and Godwin.

Professor Freeman, one of an eminent group of historians who broke down the myths nurtured and propagated during the last century, explained ~

In many cases the process has been simply this. A man bears as his surname one of the ancient English names which have gone out of use as Christian names. He finds in early English history some one who bears that name as a Christian name. He first mistakes the Christian name for a surname, and fancies that the ancient worthy bore the same surname, perhaps an unusual one, as himself. Having got thus far, it would be almost impossible to keep himself back from the next step, to refrain from claiming the ancient worthy as a forefather."

Doesn't mean there were not or are not people with that surname in Scotland though.  A safer bet I am afraid is that your heritage probably lies in England.  You'd have to start researching it more & getting information like birth certificates etc.

Ben...don't know if it was you thatgave me the Thumbs Down, but I can onky assume it's because I told you there was every chance you might not have a Scottish heritage.  I was just stating facts I found, not trying to insult or upset anyone.

Answer 3

Goodwin is an English name.

Here is the Goodwin crest

http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx...

If you know you have Irish and Scottish ancestors then not very surprising that you might have an English surname given the plantations.

Goodwin isnt Irish and if you had only English ancestors you could say it is an English name but since you have Irish ones its more Anglo-Irish in your case.