The Gothard family are part of my maternal ancestry.
The most recent Gothard in my ancestral line was my Great Great Great Grandmother Mary Gothard (pictured) who was born in Witcham, Cambridgeshire in 1847.
Her parents were William Gothard and Sarah Hawkins, and she had eight known siblings.
My Great Grandmother remembers that the surname was spoken sometimes as ‘go-therd’. This makes me wonder whether the surname is an occupational one with ‘go-therd’ being to goats, what ‘shep-herd’ is to sheep. Whatever the origin of the name, I’ve only been able to push the Gothard family back (so far) to this William Gothard, born in 1816.
In a must-be-related branch of the Gothard family from just a few miles away, descends a photographer – Warner Gothard.
His work was so highly respected that he opened 4 ‘Day and Electric Light Studios’ in Barnsley, Dewsbury, Leeds and Halifax. He pioneered the ‘Montage Postcard’ and became a photographer for the British Royal Family.
A blue plaque has been erected in Barnsley on the shops and offices that he erected in the 1920s, and to commemorate his achievements and his gift of Seckar Woods to the people of Barnsley and Wakefield.
Common variants seem to include: Gotherd, Gothard, Gottard, Goatherd.
History Repeating 
I too have been studying the origins of the Gothard name for several months now. I am a Gothard from Alabama. And you are correct it is hard to find information on the origins and trying to trace all the different routes of the last name. Obviously, you probably know the meaning and root of the word means “God like, hardy, brave, strong”. from an occupational standpoint it translates to goat herd or herder of goats . I have a cousin his name is Andy Gothard and he over the years has done a lot of digging into the origins of the Gothard name mainly inside the United States and particularly in Alabama. From what I was told from him, our particular line of Gothards that settled in Alabama were from Germany it was two twin brothers and they were orphans this would’ve been in the late 1870s long story short they ended up traveling with a neighboring family to port in western Europe got on a boat and landed. I believe somewhere close to Charleston, South Carolina upon landing there was a foul up. The two brothers got separated from the family and they ended up, hopping on a cargo train and took it all the way to Rockford, Alabama. They were no more than 13 years old. they ended up settling in Rockford Alabama had families which branched out throughout Alabama. The line I came from dispersed all the way out to Lowndes county Alabama, and there are currently four Gothard males residing there. That is where my father was from. I carry the Gothard last name and I have two sons. There are several other pockets of Gothard‘s throughout Alabama, but very few most reside in Montgomery and Rockford. when my father was in college he was taking a history class and his professor had a passion and a hobby for ancestry in surnames as well as my father so they ended up finding a book in the library. This would have been in the 1980s and there was actually some information about the Gothard’s in Germania all the way back to the time of the Romans and their campaigns in Germania. The Gothard’s were known for their size and strength during this time, and they were nomadic goat herders, and mainly inhabited the Bavarian and Swavian Alps. And they were one of only a handful of tribes that were never conquered by the Romans.
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