Goodner Family Book Web Page Introduction

This web page is an online copy of the Goodner Family Book researched, written, and published by Mr. Herbert W. Lacey. I take no credit whatsoever for his efforts in any way, and I am proud to claim relation to such a man as Mr. Lacey. The only credit I take for myself is the rather pedestrian efforts involved in scanning the book into Word 2000, proofing my work, and publishing this page. All credit goes to Mr. Lacey for his efforts in researching our family, and every Goodner owes him a debt of gratitude. This web page is my attempt to pay him back for his work.

I can remember when my parents first showed me the Goodner Family Book. I was amazed first, that there were so many Goodners, and second, that I was actually included in it. I felt like I was something special, being part of such a large and quite interesting lineage. I also remember being disappointed that they got my birthday wrong, something I have corrected in this edition. But even as I child, I remember thinking what a marvelous achievement this genealogy was, and I am even more impressed with it now.

My parents' copy of the book sat about the living room, and we would use it to find people named Goodner and try to establish our relationship to them. Several family members who did not get copies asked to borrow it, and rather than part with it, Dad made a Xerox copy of the entire book and would then loan them that, but he never let the original out of the house for fear he'd never see it again. Fortunately, he always got the Xerox copy back, and that was the genesis of this web page.

This web page is an attempt to bring the Goodner Family Book back to life and make it a living, breathing document again. The Book hasn't been updated, to the best of my knowledge, since Mr. Lacey published it in the early 1960's, when my parents acquired an original copy. I have taken the aforementioned Xerox's and scanned in each page, then corrected the mistakes because text never seems to scan perfectly. However, I did make a few changes to the original book, which are pretty simple, and are outlined below. Such are the benefits of global search and replace . . .

Original	Current
b.	born
b. abt.	born about
Ch:
d.	died
dec'd	deceased
divc'd	divorced
m:	married
Res:	Residence:
State Name Abbreviations	Full State Names

I have tried to maintain the formatting that Mr. Lacey used with the letters and historical documents he included in the book, so if the formatting seems a bit odd at times, it is because Mr. Lacey simulated the format of the letters, and I simulated his formatting in turn.

After having worked with this book so closely, I believe that its main value to us now is as an historical document. The information that was current when the book was published, such as current residences and marital status of living persons, is now hopelessly dated; after all, it was published over 40 years ago. However the information that can be discovered about our family and the relationship to other families is absolutely invaluable.

My main goal in putting this information on the Internet is to make the Goodner Family Book as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. I have no plans to update the book at this time, nor would I even know where to begin. So, having said that, fellow Goodners and relations, please enjoy yourself looking through Mr. Lacey's work, and appreciate the depth and breath of our family and the American Experience.