GOFFE descendants in New Zealand, I have information re: Louis' family in Rhode Island, USA.
Louis was born 1837 in Newport, RI. Father William GOFF b. England 28 May 1808 and d. Rhode Island 16 Jan 1850. Mother Sarah Rose STALL b. Newport 30 Aug 1808 and d. Providence 23 Oct 1893.
William is the son of John Goffe (1782-1850) and Sarah EDMONDS (1785-1861) of Northamptonshire, England. The family emigrated to the US in 1823. Sarah is the daughter of Isaac Stall (1780-1851) and Anna Trowbridge BENTLEY (1787-1816) of Newport.
Louis C. GOFFE emigrated to New Zealand as a young man, establishing a hotel called The Northampton Castle at Haruru Falls in 1856, when he was only 19 years old. Interesting that it seems the wife he married in New Zealand is also named Sarah Edmonds Goffe.
http://www.paihia.co.nz/harurufalls.cfmI have letters from Louis and his son, also Louis, addressed to his mother in Rhode Island dated 1877, when the younger Louis was about to embark on a visit to family he had never met. He booked passage on the whaling ship Horatio to New Bedford, Massachusetts, arriving late in that year.
http://www.nmdl.org/aowv/whvoyage.cfm?VesselNumber=297I am currently working on GOFFE/GOFF ancestors in England, if anyone has information to share.