View source for Godshalk (Godshall, Gottschall, Gottshall, Gottschalk, Godtschalch, Gaedtschalck) family

Godshalk is a family name found especially in the [[Franconia Mennonite Conference (Mennonite Church USA)|Franconia Mennonite Conference]] (Mennonite Church) in southeastern [[Pennsylvania (USA)|Pennsylvania]]. The progenitor of the family was an immigrant of 1701 from [[Goch (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)|Goch]], [[Germany|Germany]] named [[Gottschalk, Jacob (1666-ca. 1763) |Jacob Gottschalk]] (Gaedtschalck). Jacob was a preacher in the [[Germantown Mennonite Church (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)|Germantown congregation]] (1702-1712) and later at Skippack (1713-1763), and was the first Mennonite bishop in [[North America|North America]].

Two Godshalk family histories had been published by the early 1950s: <em>The Godshalk Family History </em>by Abraham Godshalk (Harrisburg, Pa., 1912), and <em>A Genealogical History of The Gottshall Family </em>by [[Grubb, Nathaniel B. (1850-1938)|N. B. Grubb]] (Harrisburg, Pa., 1924). The family has included a number of bishops, ministers, and deacons. Well-known members of the family include the preacher-author [[Godshalk, Abraham (1791-1838)|Abraham Godshalk]] (1791-1838), Bishop Moses Gottshall (1815-1888) of the [[Eastern District Conference (Mennonite Church USA)|Eastern District]] Conference ([[General Conference Mennonite Church (GCM)|General Conference Mennonite]]), and his son, [[Gottshall, William Shelly (1865-1941)|Elder William S. Gottshall]] (1865-1941) of the same district.
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[[Category:Family Names]]