Basque Origins
The surname Goyetche in North America traces its origin to a Basque fishermen, Jean Goyetche, born in 1763 in the Bayonne region of France.

The Basque region, or Euskal Herria as it is traditionally called by the Basques, straddles southern France and northern Spain. It is located where Spain and France connect on the Bay of Biscay, extending 8,056 square miles (20,864 km2). It encompasses the western end of the Pyrenees Mountains on the Iberian Peninsula, down to the Bay of Biscay. The region is made up of seven provinces spanning both sides of the Spanish/French border, and has its own unique culture and language.

While there continue to be imaginative theories about the origins of the Basque people (everything from a lost tribe of Israel to refugees from Atlantis), there is no evidence that the Basques of ancient times lived anywhere other than where they are now, in France and Spain. The Basques are known to have had their distinctive language as early as 7,000 BC, and they have the last remaining non Indo-European language in the area. Their language, Euskara, is the oldest surviving in all of Europe. Through history, the Basque people were renowned as fishermen, traders and shepherds.