1995 – 12 Dec Newsletter – GRF

Sections in this issue:

1) Cornelius Keife, father of Mary Keife wife of John Going/Gowen By Jack Harold Goins;
2) Amos Goyne Served in Louisiana Militia During the War of 1812;
3) DEAR COUSINS;
4) Research Team Members To Present Melungeon Trilogy in Nashville.

All Gowen Manuscript Pages and Newsletters:   https://goyengoinggowengoyneandgone.com/gowen-research-foundation-pages-and-info/

GOWEN RESEARCH FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER
Volume 7, No. 4 December 1995

1)  Cornelius Keife, father of Mary Keife wife of John Going/Gowen By Jack Harold Goins

By Jack Harold Goins;  Editorial Boardmember
Route 2, Box 275, Rogersville, Tennessee, 37857

Research Report

My wife, Betty and I have just returned from a three-day genealogy trip to Brunswick, Lunenburg and Halifax Counties in Virginia. On the first day, we researched in the old Brunswick Courthouse at Lawrenceville. This county was formed from Prince George County in 1732, and the old books are in such poor condition they will not let you make copies.

Our primary reason for going there was to find Cornelius Keife, father of Mary Keife wife of John Going/Gowen [formerly residents of Stafford County, Virginia.]

All documents reveal a man named Cornelius Keith came from Great Britain about 1709, according to the court records of May 3, 1739 [Court Order Book 1]. From our research, Keith first appears on a record there dated May 2, 1734 when he was deeded 100 acres up the Roanoke River by Robert Hicks, Sr, according to Brunswick County Deed Book 1, page 125. Then on May 3, 1739, he was granted permission to keep and maintain a ferry on the Roanoke River, according to Court Order Book 1, page 240. About the same time, Cornelius Keith requested his Importation “Rite” [right] . which was “ordered to be certified.”

Cornelius Keith was “paid 5 shillings for burying Sarah Taylor” October 8, 1742. He was also “paid 2 shillings for reading the prayer book at noon,” according to St. Andrews Parish Vestry Book, page 26. I believe all these records pertain to the same person, Keith, and that he is not Cornelius Keife, father of Mary Keife Going/Gowen, as suggested by other researchers.

On the following day, we proceeded to Lunenburg County.

The courthouse is actually out in the country. The county was established in 1746, and court has been held in the present courthouse continuously since 1832. Our task here was to locate the farm of John Going/Gowen [400-acre patent issued February 14, 1761] and to trace the sales history of this land.

In this we were successful.

All of this farm was sold in December 1761, the same year the patent was issued. John and Mary may have lived on this land for several years and may have made improvements on it.

They were probably living elsewhere when the patent was issued. John and Mary Going/Gowen gave 100 acres each to their sons, William and John, on July 7, according to Lunenburg County Deed Book 6, pages 378-380. John, Sr. was the first to sell, as he sold his remaining 200 acres December 1, 1761 to William Sandifur. The deed was not recorded until February 2, 1762, according to Deed Book 7, page 151.

Mary Keife Gowen used “M” as her signature, and John Gowen used his initials “JG” overprinting the ascenders to form a ligature. These unique marks proved that John Gowen and Mary Keife Gowen of Fairfax and Stafford Counties were the same ones who later lived in Lunenburg County.

Son William Going/Gowen sold his 100 acres December 13, 1761 to William Hatchel. The land was described as “lying and being on the Great Branch which makes [its way] out of Allins Creek, according to Deed Book 7, page 302. William’s mark was a “W.” Next, son John, Jr. sold his 100-acre gift on December 18, 1761 to his brother, William for £40 “lying on the Great Branch which makes out of Allen’s Creek,” according to Deed Book 4, page 48. The mark of John, Jr. was an “X.”

The 100 acres William bought from his brother John, Jr. was sold July 6. 1762. “William Goin of Orange County, North Carolina conveyed to Francis Norvell 100 acres lying on the Great Branch, which makes out of Allin Creek,” according to Deed Book 7, page 302.

We now know by the above deeds that the Great Branch is made from Allins Creek. Using the 1939 map in the courthouse we were able to locate Allins Creek, a tributary about five miles long which divides into three branches. The largest branch is called the Great Branch which empties into Couch’s Creek.

In my best estimation, the farm of John Going/Gowen, Sr lay about 10-15 west of present-day Lunenburg which is near the center of Lunenburg County.

Earlier, other Gowin individuals had appeared in Lunenburg County as recorded in the Court minutes, May 1754 term:

“William Jones who intermarried with Elizabeth, Relict of John Gowin, deceased, is appointed Guardian to John Gowin, [an in.fant under the age of twenty-one years, Heir and Son of the said John Gowin, deceased], to defend a Caveat entered by Peter Fontaine junior against the said Infant & others [on the Part of the said Infant] for Eight Hundred Acres of land lying and being in the County of Halifax on the south fork of Venable Creek.”

In November 1755 term, William Goins and Rebecca Goins, his wife, appeared in the Lunenburg County Court minutes:

“An Indenture of Feoffment [Deed of Trust] between William Goins & Rebecca, his wife on the one part and Benjamin Bridgford of the one part, with a Memorandum of Livery of Seizen [legal transfer of land] and a Receipt thereon Indorsed are proved by the oaths of two of the witnesses thereto, and the same are ordered to be Certified.”

Where did John, Sr. and his family go? We know that Halifax County was formed in 1755 and that this territory then bordered Granville & Orange County, North Carolina where William Going/Gowen was living when he sold the 100 acres bought from his brother John, Jr. on July 6, 1762.

We drove next to the town of Halifax, Virginia in Halifax County, approximately 40 miles, and only had time to look at the Court of Pleas books.

Alexander Going/Gowen, a brother to John Going/Gowen, Sr. was all over the place. In 1762, “Alaxander Going vs. William Williams” was dismissed when the plaintiff failed to appear, according to Halifax County Court of Pleas Minute Book 3, page 405. In the 1764 case of “Alixander Going vs. John Martin,” Martin was ordered to “pay note of £2, 10 shillings, plus interest,” according to Minute Book 4, page 314.

In the July 1767 term, Thomas Spragins filed suit against “Alexander Gowing,” claiming debt on an “attachment against the said defendant’s estate.” The clerk recorded that “for reasons appearing it is ordered that this suit be dismissed,” according to Minute Book 5, page 474. In the same year, the case of “Alexander Going vs. Owen Brady” was dismissed.

The clerk noted, “Plaintiff not residing in this Colony and failing to give security for cost as the law directs,” according to Minute Book 5, page 459.

In the May, 1765 Court session “Shadrack Going” & Peter Rickman were indicted by the Halifax County Grand Jury “for concealing each one Tithable.” In the August 1766 Court term charges against “Shadrack Going were dismissed by the Grand Jury, according to Minute Book 5, [Part 2], page 358.

In the case of “Aron Going vs. Philip Going” held in 1778, the defendant “confessed judgement £100 pounds current money,” according to Halifax County Court Minute Book 9, page 304. I believe all these Goings/Gowens in this neck of the woods were someway related and will keep trying too prove it. This
search will be continued when we revisit Halifax, Pittsylvania, Henry and Patrick Counties. We will keep you posted on our findings.

2)  Amos Goyne Served in Louisiana Militia During the War of 1812

By Carroll Heard Goyne, Jr.
Editorial Boardmember
10019 Canterbury Drive, Shreveport, Louisiana, 71106

Part 3:

Amos Goyne The first sighting of this name is in the 1773
petition for the partition of Orange County, North Carolina. It
was written “Emus Gowen.”32 The estate file of Amos Goyne
[spelled variously Going, Goyen and Goyne in the file] is in
the South Carolina Archives. Apparently, Amos died in 1785.

Contained within the file is a note dated 15 Nov. 1779,
co-signed by John Goyne and Amos Goyne. Another note
dated 24 February 1780, was signed by Amos Goyen with his
mark of an “A”.33

On 25 January 1806, a list of letters remaining in the
Nashville, Tennessee Post Office was published in the
“Tennessee Gazette.” Among them was one addressed to
Amos Goyne.24 On 25 July 1806, Amos Goyne signed as a
witness to a marriage in Sumner County, Tennessee.35

In the War of 1812, Amos Goyne, Sergeant, served in the Tennessee
Infantry under the command of Col. James Raulson
and Capt. Mathew Neal.36 On 14 February 1814, Amos
Goyne bought Lot 17 in Cairo, Tennessee in Sumner
County.37 On 24 December 1817, Amos Goyne was
bondsman in a marriage in Sumner County.38

Amos Goins, Private, was listed on the payroll of a company
of Louisiana Militia commanded by Capt. William Watson of
the 12th and 13th Consolidated Regiments.

His service was for the period: 28 December 1814 to 10
March 1815.39 Amos Goyne was enumerated in the 1820
United States Census of Rapides Parish, Louisiana. “Mr.
Amos Goyne, of the State of Tennessee, died in Rapides
Parish, Louisiana on 9 October 1820,” according to his
obituary in the 14 October 1820 edition of the “Louisiana
Herald,” Alexandria, Louisiana.40

On 4 November 1821 Amos Goings was married to Parthena
Dixon in Amite County, Mississippi.41 In 1825 Amos Goynes
was listed in the tax list of Copiah County, Mississippi, p 39.

Amos Goyne was enumerated in the 1840 United States
Census of Kemper County, Mississippi.

On 27 April 1849, Hiram D. Goyne [Newsletter, May 1990]
made original entry on land in Union Parish, Louisiana using a
Military Warrant issued in the name of Amos D. Goyne,
Permit No. 44591. Hiram D. Goyne was the son of William
Goyne who made his will in 1816 in Warren County, Georgia,
and Agnes “Nancy” [Stroder] Goyne.42

Daniel Goyne Daniel Going’s name appears among Virginia’s
colonial soldiers in 1756. In that year he was described as
being age 27, height 5’4″, a planter, or a hatter, of Virginia.

He had light brown hair and a long thin visage. He was from
Stafford County, Virginia, and served in Capt. Cocke’s
Company. In 1757 he was a member of the 7th Company of
the Virginia regiment commanded by Capt. Joshua Lewis.43

A Daniel Going served in the 5th Virginia Regiment of the
Continental Line in the Revolutionary War.44 On 17 June
1786, Daniel Goyen received payment for 90 days duty in
1782 in the South Carolina militia under the command of Lt.
John Hollis. His payment was received from Gen. Richard
Winn of Winnsboro.45

Daniel Gowens made his will in January 1818 in Fairfield
County, South Carolina. There is no record of probate. It was
recorded on 10 October 1828 in Fairfield County. Named
were his wife Jean and his seven children: Hugh, Danel,
William, Robert, Margaret, Nancy, and Polly.46

32. See note 21.
33. Apartment 28, Pack 984, Fairfield Co., SC. SC Archives.
34. Eddlemon, Sherida K.. Genealogical Abstracts from TN Newspapers, 1791-1808, Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1988, page 115.
35. Whitley, Edythe Rucker. TN Genealogical Records: Records of Early Settlers from State and County Archives, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, Inc, 1980.
36. Sistler, Byron & Samuel. Tennesseans in the War of 1812, Nashville: B. Sistler & Assoc, 1992.
37. Murray, Joyce Martin. Sumner Co., TN Deed Abstracts, 1806-1817, page 92, Deed Book Vol. 6, September 1811-May 1814, Dallas, page 436.
38. Murray. Sumner Co., TN Deed Abstracts, 1806-1817, page 124, Deed Book Vol. 7, January 1814-April 1817, page 367.
39. LA Genealogical Register, Vol. III, No. 6, Dec. 1956, Baton Rouge.
40. LA Genealogical Register, Vol. II, No. 5, October 1955, Baton Rouge.
41. Dodd, Jordan R. Mississippi Marriages, Early to 1825, Bountiful, UT: Precision Indexing, Inc., 1990, page 43.
42. Entry Book East, District of Ouachita, LA. Copy in the Union Parish, LA Courthouse.
43. See note 13.
44. Gwathmey, John H. Historical Register of Virginians in the Revolution, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1973.
45. Audited Account 3015, SC Archives.
46. Apartment 49, File 755, recorded in Will Book 10, page 231, Fairfield Co., SC. Typed copy obtained from the Genealogy Room, Fairfield Co, SC Museum, Winnsboro.

3)  DEAR COUSINS

Thanks so much for all the information you sent from the
Foundation office on my Gowan-Thurston family in answer to
my request. Other information has arrived from Gowan
researchers who saw my query in “Dear Cousins.”

New information shows that Elijah Thurston and Lettie
Gowan Thurston had 21 children; only three survived. The
other 18 children are all buried in a row in a cemetery [name
unknown] located on Pruitt Mountain in upper Greenville
County, South Carolina. I will keep you posted when I learn
more. Pat Wells, 804 S. Salisbury Ave, Spencer, N.C.

==Dear Cousins==

While passing through the Atlanta airport on the way to
Charleston, I had time to pick up a copy of the “Atlanta Journal-
Constitution.” There on Page 2 were our old friends, the
Melungeons, which I am enclosing:

“Dr. Brent Kennedy and local filmmaker William VanDerKloot might just be scripting a prologue to the Pocahontas legend as they complete filming in Turkey later this year for
their upcoming ‘The Melungeons:

America’s Forgotten People.’ Kennedy, and author and professor, contends that the first American settlers from other shores were Melungeons; a blend of Middle Easterners, Africans and Europeans who might have settled in America almost 50 years before the English arrived at Jamestown, Virginia.

‘My brother and I have always had dark complexions, yet we were always told we were Scotch-Irish,’ says Kennedy from his Clinch Valley College office in his native Virginia.

When Kennedy, 45, developed sarcoidosis, a disease common in Middle Easterners, a few years ago, however he started some intensive research that culminated in the  documentary project.

‘I’ve taken some heat from white supremacists,’ he says, ‘but I have discovered that we’re not as white as we’ve been taught. People have got to understand that racial prejudice
is self-mutilation.’ VanDerKloot Film & Television is planning an early 1996 release for ‘Melungeons.'”

I’m looking forward to being with you and all the cousins in Nashville in May 1996. Elizabeth H. Morfitt, 353 Westmoreland Dr, Idaho Falls, Id, 83402.

==Dear Cousins==

I am searching for the ancestors of my g-g-gf Henry
Harrison Gowins of Claiborne County, MS. He served in the
4th MS Cavalry during the Civil War and was a landowner in
Claiborne County. Nine children were born to him, two
daughters and nine sons. Most of his descendants removed to
Richland Parish, LA, some to Dallas, TX. Grateful for your
help. Barbara Gowins White, 981 Buck Creek Rd,
Richton, MS, 39476.

==Dear Cousins==

Many Goins burials are recorded in “Lest We Forget–
Cemetery Inscriptions of Vernon Parish, Louisiana.”

Volume 2, 391 pages, covers 35 cemeteries, $30 plus $2.50
postage, available from Jane P. McManus, CPS, 4401 Hayman
Lane, No. 139, Alexandria, LA, 71303, 318/443-5912.

==Dear Cousins==

I was thrilled to see the article of Carroll Heard Goyne, Jr.
on Revolutionary James Goyne in the Newsletter. He has
done some excellent and extensive research, and I am so
happy he has chosen to share it with others of us who are
descendants of James Goyne. I appreciate his documentation
and can’t wait to see his entire series.

In reading through the information, I made some notations.
Initially he lists John as the senior Going/Goin/Gowin in
Lunenburg/Mecklenburg County in the 1750s [about the time
of the birth of James Goyne]. Then in 1773 he lists
Goyne/Gowens by the names of Alexander, Alexander Sr.,
John, Daniel, Amos, Henry, Drury, and William. Is his
supposition that James Goyne, born in 1755, is the son of
Alexander Sr. or the son of John in the tax iists of the 1750s?
In the John A. Sands book, “Guynes Family History,”
James Goyne is listed with two children, John Goyne and
Sarah Goyne [born 1789] who married James Hall, brother of
John Goyne’s wife, Matilda Hall. Mr. Sands does not mention
Wiley Williamson Goyne although I have learned of him
through Gowen Foundation “cousins”.

Concerning the possibility of Alexander as James Goyne’s
father, Mr. Goyne says that the Alexander name is pervasive
in the Goyne family, but I do not find it in the children of John
Goyne and Matilda Hall Goyne or Sarah Goyne Hall and
James Hall. Both did have a child named Daniel, a name I
don’t see among the other Hall siblings of Matilda and James.

I found the name William Patterson Guynes twice in the
family and a number of Johns and James’ of course. Cynthia
Hudson Reed, 1752 Willowbrook Lane, Simi Valley, CA,
93065.

==Dear Cousins==

I wonder how many cousins, like me, have failed to show
our appreciation for the way you have helped all of us in our
search. For me, you have provided much information for
which I have searched for many years. So thank you for the
wonderful gift you have given all of us. Your willingness to
share has been been wonderful and most appreciated. Forrest
B. Gowan, 240 Wallace Rd, Jackson, TN, 38301.

4)  Research Team Members To Present Melungeon Trilogy in Nashville

Three members of the Melungeon Research Team are
scheduled to present a “Melungeon Trilogy” at the Foundation
Research Conference & Family Reunion to be held in
Nashville May 5-6-7, 1996. Evelyn McKinley Orr, team
chairman of Omaha, will be joined by Ruth Johnson of
Kingsport, Tennessee and Jack Harold Goins of Rogersville,
Tennessee in the presentation.

Each is also a member of the Foundation Editorial Board and a
member of the Melungeon Documentary Film Committee
which is currently producing “The Melungeons, America’s
Forgotten People” under the direction of Dr. N. Brent
Kennedy.

The trio shares a Melungeon ancestry, and each has written
extensively about the research of his family for the Newsletter
and the Foundation Manuscript. Orr is a sixth-generation
descendant of David Goings and Susannah William Goings of
Montgomery County, Virginia. Johnson, a nurse and a native
of Newman’s Ridge in Hancock County, Tennessee, is a
descendant of Joseph Goins, Revolutionary soldier of Louisa
County, Virginia. Goins, an electronic technician, also born in
Hancock County, is a seventh-generation grandson of
Zephaniah Goins, Revolutionary soldier who was present at
Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered.

Orr, author of a 160-page book on her family’s Melungeon
roots, will present an overview of Melungeon research to date.

She has long made a detailed study of American history. Her
interest in her family’s involvement with these events brought
her into genealogy and ultimately into Melungeonology.

Johnson, author of “Melungeons, Life on Newman’s Ridge,”
will speak on her life-long experiences with her Melungeon
kinsmen and neighbors. She is an artist and a collector of
Melungeon art. She has collected a library on Melungeonana
and acts as curator for papers of Bonnie Ball who wrote “The
Melungeons” in 1969.

Goins has long researched in the colonial records of Virginia
for his Melungeon family. His article in this issue of the
Newsletter describes his ongoing research in the courthouses
of the southside of Virginia. He has sought his family’s
connection with the Powhatan Indians. This tribe extended its
influence in the tidewater portion of Virginia to the southside
by the conquests of an able chieftain known by the same
name.

His celebrated daughter, Pocahontas who married the Englishman
John Rolfe, gained fame for her efforts as a peacemaker
between the Powhatans and the whites.

It is planned that the trio will by joined by Dr. Kennedy on a
panel for a question-and-answer session following their
presentations.

Gowen Research Foundation 806/795-8758
or 795-9694
5708 Gary Avenue
Lubbock, Texas, 79413 Electronic
Library/BBS 806/795-2005

___________________________________________________________

NOTE:  The above information produced by the Gowen Research Foundation (GRF), and parts of the “Gowen Manuscript” they worked on producing.  It has tons of information – much of it is correct, but be careful, some of it is not correct – so check their sources and logic.  I’ve copied some of their information in the past researching my own family, only to find out there were some clear mistakes.   So be sure to check the information to verify if it is right before citing the source and believing the person who researched it before was 100% correct.  Most of the information I found there seems to be correct, but some is not.

Their website is:  Internet: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gowenrf

There does not seem to be anyone “manning the ship” at the Gowen Research Foundation, or Gowen Manuscript site any longer, and there is no way to contact anyone about any errors.   The pages themselves don’t have a mechanism to leave a note for others to see any “new information” that you may have that shows when you find info that shows something is wrong, or when something has been verified.

Feel free to leave messages about any new information found, or errors in these pages, or information that has been verified that those who wrote these pages may not have known about.