Félix Victor Goethals (1798–1872) was a Belgian

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...

and

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

Life

Goethals was born in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

( Département Escaut) on 4 June 1798 (16 Prairial of Year VI in the French Republican calendar). He studied law at

Ghent University Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...

and interned at the public prosecutor's office in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

.F. Remy, "Goethals (Félix-Victor)", ''

Biographie Nationale de Belgique The ''Biographie nationale de Belgique'' ( French; "National Biography of Belgium") is a biographical dictionary of Belgium. It was published by the Royal Academy of Belgium in 44 volumes between 1866 and 1986. A continuation series, entitled the ' ...

''
vol. 33
(Brussels, 1965), 375-376. From 1827 he worked as assistant librarian in Brussels city library, becoming head librarian in 1830. In 1842 the city sold its library collection to the Belgian state, and Goethals was responsible for transferring the holdings to the

Royal Library of Belgium The Royal Library of Belgium (french: Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België, abbreviated ''KBR'' and sometimes nicknamed in French or in Dutch) is the national library of Belgium. The library has a history t ...

. The core of the Royal Library's holdings was the collection of

Charles van Hulthem Charles Joseph Emmanuel van Hulthem (1764–1832) was a bibliophile from the Low Countries whose collection of books provided the first kernel of the Royal Library of Belgium. Life Charles was born in Ghent in the County of Flanders (Austrian Neth ...

, bought in 1837. On 4 February 1843, Goethals was seconded to the Royal Library with the task of identifying duplicate holdings in the Van Hulthem and the Ville de Bruxelles collections that could be sold or exchanged. Resistance to this mission within the Royal Library, sustained by head librarian Reiffenberg, led to his removal on 1 April 1853. In retirement he pursued genealogical and bibliophile studies. He died in Brussels on 10 May 1872, bequeathing his own collection of 1,882 manuscripts and 2,224 printed books to the Royal Library at his death.

Works

* ''Dictionnaire historique et bibliographique des écrivains et des artistes célèbres nés dans le royaume des Pays-Bas'', vol. 1 (Brussels, 1829) * ''Lectures relatives à l'histoire des sciences, des lettres, des moeurs et de la politique en Belgique et dans les pays limitrophes'' (4 vols., Brussels, 1837-1838) * ''Notice historique sur la vie et les travaux de Simon Stévin'' (Brussels, 1842) * ''Histoire des lettres et des arts en Belgique et dans les pays limitrophes'' (4 vols., Brussels, 1840-1844) * ''Histoire généalogique de la Maison de Hornes'' (Brussels, 1848) * ''Dictionnaire généalogique et héraldique des familles nobles du Royaume de Belgique'' (4 vols., Brussels, 1849-1852) * ''Histoire généalogique de la famille Van Havre'' (Brussels, 1850) * ''Généalogie de la famille Van Gestel'' (Brussels, 1851) * ''Généalogie de la famille T'Serclaes'' (Brussels, 1853) * ''Histoire genealogique de la maison de Beaufort-Spontin'' (Brussels, 1859) * ''Histoire genealogique de la famille, des vicomtes Du Bus de Gisignies'' (Brussels, 1869) * with Jules Huyttens, ''Indicateur nobiliaire de Belgique, de France, de Hollande, d'Allemagne etc. d'après les collections manuscrites des bibliothèques publiques de Belgique'' (Brussels, 1869)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goethals, Felix Victor 1798 births 1872 deaths Ghent University alumni Belgian librarians Belgian genealogists