Félix Victor Goethals

Félix Victor Goethals (1798–1872) was a Belgian genealogist and librarian.

Life Goethals was born in Ghent (Département Escaut) on 4 June 1798 (16 Prairial of Year VI in the French Republican calendar). He studied law at Ghent University and interned at the public prosecutor's office in Brussels. 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 core of the Royal Library's holdings was the collection of Charles van Hulthem, 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. 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)