Note: This is incomplete and will be updated. There are obviously some slight discrepancies and mistaken years even in genealogy sites, from biographers and even ship manifests.

Barbados

Neville Lancelot Goddard was born on February 19, 1905 in St. Louis. Michael, Barbados , West Indies.

Goddard Background

On October 13, 1921, Joseph Nathaniel Goddard formed a partnership with his son, Victor, to open a meat and grocery store located on a side street in Bridgetown. At the time, neither could have foreseen that this small business would develop into a successful multinational conglomerate.

Just three short years after opening the business, the Ice House Building on Broad Street was purchased by Mr. Goddard on October 13, 1924, expanding the food operation. Being that this was the first refrigerated meat store in Bridgetown, this brought innovation to the local retailing sector.

Genealogy

Neville Lancelot Goddard the son of Joseph Nathaniel Goddard and Wilhelmina, nee Hinkson, at the family home Sunnyside, Fontabelle, St Michael, Barbados, British West Indies.

His father, Joseph Nathaniel, was a merchant who had been born as a poor boy in Clifton Hall Woods, in St John, Barbados. In 1890 he moved to Bridgetown to seek work and became a successful businessman.

In 1926 Joseph Nathaniel purchased Kensington Plantation yard with fifteen acres of land, a former sugar plantation in Fontabelle, and Kensington House was the Goddard family home for the next 65 years.

England

The Goddard family originate from Staple Fitzpaine in Somerset [England], which is 8.5 miles south-east of Taunton. Captain Nicholas Goddard, who signed himself as a mariner and bondsman, was in Barbados c. 1637, and the Goddard family have remained in Barbados since. Nicholas’ father, Henry Goddard, was a farmer and inn-keeper in Staple Fitzpaine.

Origins of the name Goddard (Brian Goddard, Newbury, England, June 1, 2005)

Goddard English (Norman) and French: from Godhard, a personal name composed of the Germanic elements gõd good or god, got god + hard hardy, brave, strong, The name was popular in Europe during the Middle Ages as a result of the fame of St Goddard, an 11th-cent. bishop of Hildesheim who founded a hospice on the pass from Switzerland to Italy that bears his name.

Left Barbados for New York 1921

Note: The lecture by Margaret Broom says 1921 but the manifest says September 25th, 1922

Little Room on 75th Street – 1933

In November, 1933, I bade goodbye to my parents in the city of New York as they sailed for Barbados. I had been in this country 12 years with no desire to see Barbados. I was not successful and I was ashamed to go home to successful members of my family. After 12 years in America I was a failure in my own eyes. I was in the theatre and made money one year and spent it the next month.

I was not what I would call by their standards nor by mine a successful person.

Mind you when I said goodbye to my parents in November I had no desire to go to Barbados. The ship pulled out, and as I came up the street, something possessed me with a desire to go to Barbados.

It was the year 1933, I was unemployed and had no place to go except a little room on 75th Street. I went straight to my old friend Abdullah and said to him “Ab, the strangest feeling is possessing me.

From Five Lessons: A Master Class (1948)

I lived in a basement apartment on 75th Street in New York City, not knowing where the next dollar was coming from. I did not despair, however, but sat in the silence and quietly closed my eyes. I was not thinking of anything in particular, just resting with my eyes shut, watching the golden clouds which always come, as all the dark convolutions of the brain grow luminous. As I contemplated this golden, liquid light, a quartz approximately 20″ in diameter suddenly appeared, then fragmented itself into numberless parts. As I watched, they gathered themselves together into a human form seated in the lotus posture. Startled, I realised that I was looking at myself – but a self containing such majesty of face and beauty of features, that I could never have believed possible. There was nothing I could have added to that perfection to improve it.

I was looking at myself in deep meditation, not as a piece of clay, but a living statue. Then it began to glow and increased in luminosity until it reached the intensity of the sun and exploded; and I awoke to find myself still seated in my chair in my little basement apartment in New York City.

From “The Mystery of Life” (1969)

Where Abdullah Lived in New York

“So we know from the Abdullah Q&A that Abdullah lived at 30 West 72nd Street in 1933. Neville mentioned that Abdullah rented the first floor from Henry Morganthau Sr. I just came across a post that discusses the history of that house.”

New York and 30 W. 72nd Street

All of the above excerpts say he lived on 30 West 72nd Street (see Reddit post by u/Thenaturalones)

In “Gift’s Bestowed By God“

‘I am standing in his place on 72nd Street, off Central Park West; that’s where he lived. He lived at 30 West 72nd Street. “

In “Abdullah Q&A“

“I didn’t have a job, I had no money, and I was living in a basement on 75th Street and he (Abdullah) lived on 72nd Street, in a very lovely home that was owned by Morgenthau, whose son (Henry Morgenthau Jr) was then the treasury (sic) of our country, a cabinet member (US Secretary of the Treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt), but his father owned this house, but he didn’t live there, and he rented the first floor to my friend Abdullah.”

See also 30 W 72nd Street: Henri Zay, The Anthroposophical Society, Neville Goddard and the Search for Abdullah

Mary Divorce – 1939

From “Proof, The Law Works” (1971)

I told a simple story to explain that everything in this world must be forgiven, no matter what it is. When I met the girl who now bears my name and who is the mother of my daughter – the very first time I met her, I knew she was going to be my wife. She didn’t know it, but I knew it. I said to myself, “She doesn’t know it, but she is going to be my wife.” We sailed for Barbados six months later, and she met my mother and met my family – met them all. They all loved her. That was back in 1936.

In New York City, because of the archaic law that is now past, you couldn’t get a divorce unless she was insane for seven years or for adultery, and that’s all. The orthodox Christian churches had sewed the whole thing up so that it made life miserable and made everything simply a burden to all. When I met her, I had just such an entangled background. And here it’s New York City, the most archaic city in the world concerning such laws.

I went to bed and slept as though I was happily married to the girl who now bears my name. I did not have any physical emotion with her: just that she was sleeping there, and I am here, and it’s blissful. I did that for one solid week. Then comes a telephone call from the court one morning, telling me that I must come down to this federal court on Tuesday morning. Well, I was groggy, it was early in the morning, and in those days I didn’t rise as early as I do now. And so, I just said, “All right,” and I hung up.

Well, on Tuesday morning that I am supposed to be there, I made no effort to go there. And about 9:30 the phone rang. It’s the court, and they said to me, “You are supposed to be here in court this morning. We meet at 10:00.”

And I said, “What on earth am I supposed to be in court for?”

They said, “Well, it happens that your wife is arrested, and we thought maybe you could throw some light on the reason for her arrest. That’s why we are asking you to come down.”

Well, I wasn’t shaved. I simply threw myself into some clothes, and off I went in a taxi down to the court. I got there just as they were bringing her in. A man whispered into – there were three judges – into one judge’s ear that I was in the audience. The judge asked me to take the stand. “You don’t have to swear, but will you please take the stand and throw some light on the behavior of your wife? She tells me you have been separated now for almost fourteen years.”

I said, “Yes.”

“Is it a religious reason why you have been separated?”

I said, “No, none whatsoever. We knew we were wrong the very first day we got married. We knew it was completely a failure right away.”

Then he read the case. She was picked up for shoplifting. They went to her home and found other things in her home.

He said, “What can you say for this?”

I said, “As far as I am concerned, I don’t think that really she is a shoplifter. As far as I am concerned, she just moved under compulsion. Take into consideration her age. She is eight years my senior, and she is passing through a certain emotional state. And do be lenient. We have a son who lives with me, and I don’t want anything to happen to his mother that would cast any shadow on his life. He is a wonderful boy. He is in my charge by law. He is in my home, lives with me, and I don’t want anything to happen to her that in any way would reflect upon my son.”

The judge said, “You know, in all my years on the bench, I have heard no plea by one for another who has every reason in this world to get her committed, because that in any other state would be enough for a divorce, and yet he pleads for her.”

He sentenced her to six months, and then, on my plea, he suspended it. She met me on the outside, and said, “Neville, that was a very decent thing to do. Give me my papers.” She knew I was looking for her. My dancing partner had told her I was looking for her to serve the papers and therefore to be scarce and move out of New York City. So, she did.

But she had to commit the act, and they had to call me and ask me to throw light upon that. How could I condemn her? Who was the actual cause of her shoplifting? I! I slept as though I were blissfully married to the girl who now bears my name, and I had to get the evidence. I had to get some reason to bring the action. And here, my wife actually gave me the papers.

I said, “I don’t have the papers with me.”

She said, “I am driving home to your place right now, and you can give me the papers.”

That is illegal to serve your own papers, but she drove up to my hotel where I was living. I went to my room and came down to the lobby and gave her the papers – did my own serving! Now that is an illegal thing in this world. Then I got my divorce in the City of New York, then I could marry the girl who now bears my name.

When I told that, I told it only to tell people of that one word, the first word on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” They are all moving under compulsion, and the unseen causation is hidden from the world. They do not know who is “treading in the winepress.” And I was “treading in the winepress” to be happily married to a girl who was not then engaged to me. I couldn’t be engaged to her under the circumstances. And then my wife behaved in such a manner that it made it real and natural for me to do what I did. How could I blame her?

Catherine Willa – New York – 32 Washington Square West – 1940s

1936–1941—Neville meets Catherine Willa Van Schumus, who is to become his second wife.

From census record below: 32, Birthplace: New Jersey
Gender Female
Home in 1940
West 55th Street
New York, New York

My wife, back in 1945, when she left the Music Hall (she worked at the Music Hall for eleven years as a costume designer, and the head producer used to treat her unmercifully) but I told her one day: “Darling, he couldn’t do anything for you unless you allowed it. You actually feel that he is no earthly good. You feel that you are a cultured American lady. You went to Smith College. You were born and raised in a lovely environment. You never heard unkind things in your home. You never saw anything that was cheap. Your mother had lovely taste, beautiful things.” The interior was a beautiful, a huge, enormous home, with eight fireplaces, with every floor beautifully furnished, and she was raised in that environment. She went only to private schools, then off to Smith College, and then she worked in the Music Hall. Well, her father was managing director of the Music Hall, so when she went in there, she did not ask any favors because of her father’s position, and this man simply lorded it over her. She would say within herself (this she confessed to me): “Oh, you foreigner!” because he came from Russia. And she mentally would remind him that she is an American by birth for at least six or seven generations, and he came from Russia, and is now acting this way. Well, that’s wrong. Whether he be a Russian or American, or English, or anything else, we are all one.

“Now, stop it, and allow him to praise you for your work. He’s always condemning and always criticizing. Walk to work. You only walk five blocks from where you live to the Music Hall. Just imagine that he is not only praising you for your work, but he wants to use all of your designs, and the budget will not allow it, so he goes to your father and asks your father to increase the budget, that he may be allowed to use all the designs. Your father’s a businessman, and he’s not going to do it. He’s going to cater neither to you nor to him, but he has to run that at a profit for the Rockefellers. So, let him do it. But in your Imagination assume that he does!” How long do you think it took for him to actually change his attitude towards her? I’ll tell you: twenty-four hours! When she came downstairs with this wonderful collection of designs, he raved about them, and he actually went to her father and begged him to increase the budget, that he may use them all. Her father would not allow it. And from that day on, he changed his attitude toward her radically for the better. Why? Because she changed hers towards him.

From “Many Mansions” (1969)

145 W. 55th Street ?

“I found myself in the apartment house where we as a little family of three lived for thirteen years and eight months, 145 W. 55th Street. The same superintendent was there; his name was Eddie Fox. When I lived there with my little family we had operators—-the elevator was operated by individuals—-but now it was a push button affair. I started from the ground floor into…and a man started before me and Eddie Fox said, “Let Mr. Goddard”—-he called me Goddard—-he said, “Let Mr. Goddard get in first.” – The Dreamer

1941—Neville publishes his longer and more ambitious book, Your Faith Is Your Fortune.

1942—Neville marries Catherine, who later that year gives birth to their daughter Victoria. Also that year, Neville publishes Freedom for All: A Practical Application of the Bible.

1942–1943—From November to March, Neville serves in the military before returning home to Greenwich Village in New York City. In 1943, Neville is profiled in The New Yorker (September 11, 1943)

From “The Perfect Law Of Liberty” (1971)

I didn’t say one word to him, or to the Colonel. I didn’t oppose it. That was the decision of “Caesar.” Now I looked into the perfect law, the Law of Liberty, and I persevered in that law; and I “slept” that night as though I slept in my own home in New York City on Washington Square, where I lived on the 7th floor. I lived on that floor; it was a very large apartment . . two bedrooms, a lovely big living room, a dining room, a huge kitchen, and the foyer; and I slept in that place just as though I were there and not in the Army.

I got out in 1943 in the spring, in the month of April . . March or April of 1943* They drafted me November the 19th, 1942, and I got out in March, 1943*

Going West – California

After the war was over, Neville began to travel, holding lectures in various large cities as far west as San Francisco. And then one day he knew it was time to leave New York City. He had hoped to move to San Francisco, as he loved this cosmopolitan city, but this was not to be. He knew by then that his major work was to be done in Los Angeles so, packing up his wife and child, the Goddard family moved to Los Angeles in 1955. They returned to New York in the fall of 1956, coming back to Los Angeles in 1957.

From The Man Who Knew He Was God

El Camino – 1952

So, where will I go now? Let me show you another one. Here, I think it was ’52 or ’53 I was living in Beverly Hills on El Camino. It was a home that we rented, it was furnished, and we had a double bed.

From “Coming to Know the Only True God”

I knew exactly where I laid my body down in Beverly Hills on a street called El Camino. I knew it was a double bed, and my wife was right next to me, and here I am, standing erect in a place more lit than this, far more plush than this . . luminous, and I am shut out; and I have unfinished business in this world that you and I now know.

From “Test Him And See”

1025 Carol Drive – Sunset Blvd

Note: The house is no longer there and is a block of condos

At night when I go to sleep, Reason tells me, “You are now sleeping at 1025 Carol Drive;” and Reason is telling me what I have in the world. But suppose I don’t like what I seem to have and Reason dictates? I must dare to assume that I am that which I would like to be, and “sleep” in that state, rather than the state that my reason and senses dictate. If I dare to do it, I know from the experience of 1933 that it works.

I have taught that law to everyone who will listen to me. Many will listen, yes; many have proved it. But we are creatures of habit; and when all day long and every moment of time Reason is dictating, we tend to go back to what Reason dictates and what the senses dictate. But the Being who is speaking in you is the Lord Jesus Christ, and He’s your own wonderful human imagination. So, He is telling you, “Be not afraid. Let not your heart be troubled, for in my Father’s house there are many mansions.”

“Mansions” means states of consciousness, and these are all for the purpose of satisfying the hungers of a man. I hungered for Barbados. It was a state to satisfy that hunger. The day will come there will be a hunger that not a thing in this world can satisfy but an experience of God. That’s a state of consciousness. There is a hunger for money that nothing can satisfy but money. There’s a hunger for fame, and nothing but fame, — trivial as it is, not a thing will satisfy it but fame as you understand fame.

So, these are all states; so you enter into the state of the hunger and view the world from it and satisfy your hunger. If you are now known as you want to be known, then the hunger to known is satisfied. If you want to be anything, then you view the world from that state; and the world viewed, although subjective, confirms what you are actually seeing and experiencing subjectively, — well, then, your hunger has been satisfied.

Now, having done it, in my own case a bridge of incidents was built without my conscious reasoning mind. I didn’t write my brother’s letter. I didn’t buy the $50 draft. I didn’t notify the shipping company to issue a ticket to me. All that came by mail. He was influenced two thousand miles away by my assumption. I dared to appropriate subjectively my objective hope.

So, take your hope – your objective hope, and then appropriate it subjectively, and “sleep” in it as though it were true. If you dare to sleep in it as though it is actually true, in a way that you do not know, that bridge of incidents will appear, and you will be compelled to walk across that bridge to the fulfillment of the subjective appropriation. But when you get to the end, it is now the fulfillment of the objective hope.

This is what, this night, I would share with you. I tell it from experience; and then, from then on, when I have found a crisis in my life, I have applied it. I do not live by it every second of time because I am fairly satisfied with the life I live; and so there is no need for constant change in my life, but there are moments in the lives of all of us where we reach a crisis, and then you have to take action if you know who Christ is. For, bear in mind: “By Him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made.”

From “Gift Bestowed By God” (1971)

Victoria Goddard – Citizen-News Hollywood California

West Hollywood. Victoria Goddard daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Neville L. Goddard of 1025 Carol Dr. has been named to the dean’s list at Russell Sage College Troy, N.Y. Miss Goddard a senior majoring in English is vice president of her class.

April 7 1964 Citizen-News Hollywood California

Neville’s Neighborhood in 1964 – Carol Dr. – Sunset Blvd.

Vintage Photos: A Drive Down Sunset Strip, 1966, Going The Other Direction
By Paul Niedermeyer

End of video is block of flats that turn left on Carol Dr. See Trio of professional buildings on Sunset Strip at Carol Drive, West Hollywood, circa early 1940s

Neville’s Awakening at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel San Francisco (July 20, 1959)

More Resources

Neville Goddard: Marriages, Children and Family Tree: Research Notes

Where Neville Goddard Lived and Lectured in West Hollywood and New York

Part #1 “About Abdullah” Neville Goddard Research (New York) Part #1

Part #2: “Abdullah’s Real Name” Neville Goddard Research (New York) Part #2

Part #3 About Abdullah: “The Wall Street Priest David B” Neville Goddard Research (New York)

See all historical research

See all lectures and books

.

To do:

4th Street Old Bohemia

Tonight if I want to pay my rent and I’m embarrassed, I may want that more than I want any experience of God in this world. Just let me get the rent first and I’ll think of God afterwards. But may I tell you, in the days of the Depression in New York City, I can see it now, I didn’t pay rent. I was sitting in the Silence all day long, just meditating, imagining myself on the ceiling and feeling myself up there looking down at the body below. I can see the landlady now. I was living on 4th Street in the Village, in old Bohemia…that’s the Bohemian area of New York City

From “Twenty-seven Heavens“