Gatchells and Getchells

[hrj]

There's a reason that I have a policy of refusing to answer random genealogy questions that come in through my web-site. I'm a sucker for an interesting research question; that's the reason. It's pretty easy to refuse to address questions about the relationships of specific family lines or about disambiguating between possible name derivations for a specific family -- there simply isn't enough data for an informed answer. So this guy thought he was asking exactly the sort of random "what does my surname mean" question that I automatically turn away. Which means -- given that I have a notice on my web-site that I don't answer questions like that -- he deserved to be told, "Sorry, no." The problem (for me) was that the name he was asking about is one that appears in my own genealogy. So I was hooked on trying to find the answer. (The name does show up on my site in the section on the LaForge diaries, but from the wording of his question, I don't think he was aware of any specific connection.)

Three hours later ....

And after it all, I still don't have any certain knowledge of what the derivation of Gatchell/Getchell/Gatchill/etc. is, but I would be utterly unsurprised to discover that it's related to the town of Goathill in the area where the family was located in the 16-18th century. Somewhat surprisingly, none of the standard surname references mention it.