When Ansel Goodrich was born on 27 October 1782, in Portland, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States, his father, Eliakim Goodrich, was 19 and his mother, Sarah Leland, was 19. He married Mary "Polly" Strickland on 14 October 1801. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 3 daughters. He died in 1819, at the age of 37.