This project was established in 2003. The initial goal was to establish if the various Gooch families found in 17th and 18th century Virginia had a common ancestor and how likely that ancestor might be the original emigrant or a person in England. Additionally, it is hoped that UK participants may join and help focus research on a particular area of the UK. Results have verified that those families that standardized on the "Gooch" name in Virginia appear to all have a common ancestor, but there appears to be significant distances between some of these lines, so that is is hard to conclude they stem from one emigrant ancestor. Virginia records have too many missing records to positively identify this common ancestor, but knowing that the families in New Kent, Hanover, Caroline, King William and Albemarle Counties are related is a step forward. The results should help other people whose family adopted names that have been considered variants of Gooch (e.g. Goff, Goffe, Gouge, and Gough) determine whether they actually are connected or represent a completely different family group that emigrated to Virginia. IF JOINING, please submit your lineage as follows: Self > Father > Grandfather> etc. > Earliest known ancestor location and birth year if you have it. This will help add granularity to the connections. Any living people just put "Living" or "Self". If able, assign a secondary person to inherit. your account.