Jack Goins New Blog Part II

THE MOORS

Jack Goins writes that the letter to the editor by  Lawrence Johnson  somehow shows that everyone  in the south knew all about the Melungeons except  for Will Allen Dromgoole.  Although she lived in  Murfreesboro and her sister in law was Nancy  Gibson she had never heard of them until Swan  Burnett's article and the letter by Johnson in the  Atlanta Journal, yet  because Johnson used the term  Moors he *must have* heard this by word of  mouth that was started by John Sevier in 1800 but Dromgoole had never heard of them?

Are you confused yet?  Well maybe Mr. Johnson  said they were Moors because he grew up in South  Carolina, had heard their history and he is the one  that told Baird and Dromgoole they were Moors? 

In 1527 when Lucas deAyllon and his 300 men,  women and children arrived at the mouth of the  Pee Dee River he brought with him 100 or more  slaves. Does Jack Goins suppose deAyllon  brought with him some English or French slaves?  The Moors had a large influence in Portugual for  hundreds of years and it would seem very likely at  least some of these slaves with deAyllon and later  deSoto were of Moorish descent.

Some of these slaves [and Portuguese adventures]  were left behind in the 1500s to mix with the  Native Tribes. After nine or ten generations were  they still Moors and Portuguese or were they  Indians? Were those English, French and Germans  that mixed with the Native Tribes called  Englishmen, Frenchmen etc., or where they called  Indians? There is no difference and the people  called Cherokee living in Oklahoma, no matter  their mixture, no matter their DNA, they are called  the Cherokee Indians. And to pretend that because  their DNA is Sub Saharan or European or their ancestry is  'Moorish' they are NOT Indians is the most severe  form of racism.. one drop rule is alive and well

THE PEE DEE RIVER FAMILIES

Jack Goins wants to rely on some hundred year  plus definition from Webster to define who the  Melungeons were, which seems to me utterly  ridiculous. After all of the documents, research,  etc., that have turned up just in the last 15 years,  not including the huge DNA project we are going to define these people by one book a hundred years old?

He talks about how these Melungeon families came  from Virginia and then North Carolina before  Newman's Ridge but does not mention the  migration of the Pee Dee River families although  their surnames have been included in his CORE  project.  How does he explain them?  

He provides no records for them but supposes the  North Carolina families were there in 1790. He  doesn't seem to know where the Pee Dee families were in 1780.  In fact it has been recorded the  families from the Pee Dee River moving south in  the 1780s  travelled over land to the Holston River  in East Tennessee to avoid the hostile Indians.

Jordan Gibson, brother to Gideon Gibson was  living at Bledsoe Lick in the early 1780s and was  employed in cutting the road and escorting  families from the town and of Clinch Mountain to  the Cumberland Settlements.

Then Jack Goins presents us with "a good example  of DNA confirming family research" by telling us  that Buck Gibson's DNA matches descendants of Gideon Gibson who was called before Governor  Johnson in 1735 and proven NOT to be Negroes. 

Well the problem with this is no one knows what  happened to this Gideon Gibson. He was granted  land but according to this 1745 South Carolina  record he never claimed it. 

Read the Petition of John Brown, planter shewing  that the Petitoner had four persons in family for  whom he has not received any lands pursuant to  his Majesty's Royal bounty, and as there is a tract  of land containing 800 acres surveyed above 10  years ago for Gideon Gibson and at pres't a Plat  thereof in the Survey'r General's Office, as appears  by his certificate, and is vacant, by not being  applied for in the time prescribed in the Gazette,  the Pet'r herefore humbly prays that the Survey'r  General be directed to Certify the said Plat for the  use of the Petitoner, and in his name that it may  be granted him accordingly.  To which was  annexed a certificate by George Hunter... that 200  acres of land was surveyed on the NE side of the Pedee River for Gideon Gibson on the 13th day of  April 1736 in pursuant of a Warrant from Gov'r  Johnson, dated March 6th, 1733, and that a Plat  thereof was returned into the Survery'r General's Office on the  18th day of June 1736 which has  laid there ever since without any  application made  for y'e same tho advertized in the Gazette, August  5th 1743... the prayer was granted...

So Gideon Gibson never claimed that land and  many researchers have confused him with Gideon Gibson the Regulator of Marrs Bluff.  The Gideon who married Mary, daughter of William Brown, by  1728 and was granted this land can NOT be the  same Gideon of Marrs Bluff whose wife was  Martha. 

This Gideon born about 1720, is undoubtedly the  brother of Jordan Gibson who died in South  Carolina in 1799 and is not the brother of Jordan  who went to Tennessee. 

Gideon, the Regulator, and ancestor of General  Randall Lee Gibson who PBS has given the title of  'Randall Gibson and his black father' descends  from John Gibson and Elizabeth Wilcox of  Middlesex Co., Virginia, not the Gideon Gibson examined  by Governor Johnson.

And while all of these Gibson descendants may  have DNA that matches their DNA is not Sub  Saharan but European and neither the DNA, nor their records, can prove their race or ethnicity.

MORE DNA

Goins then drops a bombshell-- if your family was  listed on census records as white the only way you  can be sure they were 'tri-racial' is a male Y-DNA test.   

Ok.  So Vardy Collins and Buck Gibson have  European DNA - they were marked Mulatto on the  census, so that means they were NOT tri-racial  but white men?  [SMH]  The DNA of ONE of your  ancestors out of a couple thousand can NOT  determine the race or ethnicity of those ancestors  who came before you. It is impossible.

Jack Goins wants you to believe ''some researchers  have been led down the wrong path by accepting  early authors definition and location of the Melungeons'' yet on the other hand he uses these 'early authors' -Jarvis, Dromgoole, etc., in order to  build his case. You can believe 'Jack's authors' because he has given them his stamp of approval.  He doesn't say why one should be believed over  the other, I guess he just likes what they said.

PARSON BROWNLOW 

Now he covers Brownlow. He says Brownlow was  the first to use the term Melungeon as a political  slur, and he was. What Jack Goins doesn't tell you  is this 'political enemy' was from Washington D.C.,  not Tennessee. 

Then just a few years later Brownlow wrote that  Frederick Ross, his 'Religious enemy,' was a  Melungeon.  Ross was the son of David Ross of  Richmond, Virginia, who supposedly took one of  his 'slaves' for a wife and ironically one of his 'slaves' was one Thomas Gibson who won his  freedom from David Ross by proving to the court  he descended from the Indian woman named Jane Gibson of Charles City County.

J.H. Newman

Will Allen Dromgoole went to Newmans  Ridge in 1890 and wrote about the Melungeons.  On page 5 of Jack Goins books he recites the story  of the ridge people who created a jingle about  poor Ms Dromgoole, dubbing her, Will Allen Damfool.  Apparently it was not good to write  about the Melungeons, actually it probably still  isn't today. 

A few weeks after Dromgoole's articles appeared  in print one W.D.P of Rogersville wrote to the  editor of the Knoxville Journal giving his history of the Melungeons. No name.  In 1891 W.H. of  Sneedville wrote to the New York Sun with his  version of their history. No Name. One Newton Otis,  supposedly from Owensboro, Ky., also wrote to  the newspaper in 1900 but the only two Newton  Otis' on the 1900 census are from Iowa and  Minnesota. All the way up to 1928 we find these  unsigned or mysterious people giving interviews to newspapers. I don't think it means they made it up, it  just means they didn't want to be called a 'dam fool.' Still today we find reputable people using  'fake names' on message boards rather than  divulging their true identities. 

February 2, 1928 Patton Gibson of Hancock  County, Tennessee wrote to the Knoxville News  with his knowledge of the Melungeon people. He  tells their history of the move from near Camden,  South Carolina to East Tennessee. Apparently he  was not afraid to give his name or his birthplace,  perhaps he knew he was dying. Within 3 weeks he  was being treated for tuberculosis and died a few  months later; 

Knoxville News-Sentinel

February 2, 1928

The Melungeons of East Tennessee are not a mixed  race.  They are descendants of some ancient  Phoenicians who removed from Carthage to a place near Camden, South Carolina and from there  to Hancock County, Tennessee.  This is the same  people as Hiram of Tyre who wrote letters to King  Solomon and helped to build the great Jewish  temple.

They have no facial resemblance to Indians or  Negroes.  They have none of the characteristics of  either negroes or Indians.  The fact is there is no negroid or Indian blood, but a pure distinct race.

 J. Patton Gibson

(Hancock County, Tennessee)

Now why wouldn't Patton Gibson, born and raised in Hancock County say the Melungeons originally came from South Carolina? Surely he must have known the Gibsons came from Louisa County, Virginia?

Perhaps J. H. Newman was an alias, perhaps Jack's  friend just couldn't find him on the census, but  there certainly were Newmans on the Ridge ... and  in fact they were living with Jacks's Minor and  Sizemore family. Joseph, [born 1893 - was his father J.H Newman?] Bart, Elsie, Maggie and  Joe Jr. Newman, nieces and nephews of Simpson Minor, are in his household in Hawkins County, 1920.

There was also a Professor J. H. Newman of  Maryville College in Blount County. Perhaps he is  our J. H. Newman but whoever gave the interview  he was either there or read the transcripts, he  could not have made up a story that would match  the records found a hundred years later.

And lastly Jack Goins writes;

The Newman Ridge Melungeons were the source of  other colonies in Davidson, Morgan, Rhea,  Hamilton in Tennessee and Lecture and Knott  Counties, Kentucky, but the people who migrated  there did not retained the name some of their  neighbors may have called them Melungeon after  learning where they came from. A good example is  the Goins family in Hamilton County, Tennessee  “We generally called them Melungeons when we  talk about the Goins and them-the Goins that were  mixed blooded.”(Testimony in the Shepherd Trial)  The problem with all these mysterious Melungeon settlements is a lack of named Melungeons and  pinpoint location. They do not have a history of  other witnesses, or names of Melungeons such as  described by Lewis Jarvis. Usually one person wrote an article about some phantom group of  unnamed Melungeons, but that group has no  historical existence beyond these named events.

 Judge Lewis Shepherd in giving the history of the Melungeon families, his clients, the Boltons, [and  Shoemake, Perkins, Goins, etc.] said they lived in South Carolina near the North Carolina line and  they left South Carolina and came over the  mountains to East Tennessee where they were  given the name Melungeons. Shepherd does say  that most of Hancock County people are Melungeons or allied to them in some way but his  entire article is written about his CLIENTS the  Portuguese Melungeons of Hamilton County, Tennessee. 

They were called Melungeons as proven by  testimony, in the 1850s as were the Portuguese  settlement at Lebanon, at the same time or earlier  than the Hancock County families.

Jack Goins can continue to try to spin this to fit his migration and 'Hancock County only' theories but he knows these records are a problem. He claims the "problem"  with the other settlements is a lack of 'named Melungeons and pinpoint location' but they are NAMED and their location is PINPOINTED in both the Hamilton and Wilson County settlements and Jack Goins knows this IS A PROBLEM.

In his own words;

In a message sent to me dated 9/22/2005 11:32:36 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, jgoins@usit.net writes:

"This court case has changed my view on the originator of the word Melungeons as beginning on Newman Ridge as per Jarvis. This testimony in SC and 1874, before Dromgoole and appears from this case the word Melungeon may have been widely known during this period. Jack" 

In a message  dated 10/2/2005 9:43:35 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, jgoins@usit.net writes: 

"All of this aside I believe this case changes some of our arguments, such as they were not called or known as Melungeons in other places where they migrated. In fact it may yet show they were called Melugeons in SC. .......

......That 1848 reporter was not a neighbor. No doubt he came here because he was told this was where the Melungeons lived. What I am saying is this; In Hamilton County a Justice of the Peace, said they were called Malungeon. If they were from Hawkins/Hancock this means they did retain the name Melungeon, or Malungeon. This being a sworn under oath court record makes it much more reliable record , In fact there was two witnesses who said they were called Malungeon. If they were given this name by their neighbors who lived here among them, then why haven't we found this?

Dromgoole came to Hancock probably because some old senator in Nashville told her to, but we have a problem, We don't have one witness like say that Justice of the Peace who lived in this area before Dromgoole who testified the Collins or Gibson, or Goins were Malungeons. The problem is the Bolton trial survived and the Voting trial proceedings did not, or have not yet been found. Penny don't think this is a problem but I do."

From: JoannePezzullo@aol.com

Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 20:06:25 EDT

To: jgoins@usit.net, pennyferguson@alltel.net

I'm with Penny I don't see the problem........I don't understand why you think it is a problem? Shepherd says they left South Carolina and went to HANCOCK COUNTY first...and spread out from there. 

In a message dated 10/29/2005 8:49:08 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, jgoins@usit.net writes: 

The bottom line is we have no neighbor in Hancock pointing to any family and saying they are called Malungeon. I cannot believe in the heart of Malungeon county we cannot even find the word in a court record. and Yes it is a problem 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Bottom line -- I'll let the reader decide. My blog is not about theories,  I have no family from Newman's Ridge, I have no ancestors marked mulatto on the 

census, my DNA is not African. I have nothing to prove, nothing to hide.  

Occam's Razor; " the simplest explanation is usually the correct one." The Melungeons said they were Portuguese Indians and almost every article written since 1848 on the Melungeons describes them as Portuguese Indians. 

The Portuguese were found on the Pee Dee River region mixing with the Indians as early as 1527 and there are numerous court cases of these people on the Pee Dee River with testimony they were Portuguese. Historians, ethnologist, antrhopologists, members of the Smithsonian in the 1890 were all convinced the Melungeons were part of the Lumbee and Redbones and they were Portuguese mixed with Indians. All of these records can be found on this blog or at this website;  The Melungeon Indians   

May the truth prevail above all else   ~Joanne Pezzullo

New Blogs - Old Research

I've been getting emails and messages, "Jack Goins has a new blog page"  -- new blog, same old rehash. 

He starts out with the research of Edward Price from 1950 - 60+ years ago which is based on "available records and census shedules at that time." He gathers from these census records of what 1880, that all these small pockets of brown people, remnant Indians, were not related. 

Without giving the genealogies of these families Price, and now Goins, wants us to believe they were not related. The Perkins family of the Pee Dee River were called Portuguese and Melungeon when they went to Hamilton Co,. Tennessee and when they went to Kentucky they were part of the Magoffin County Indians, and when they went to Mississippi and Louisiana they were called Redbones.  Ditto the Gibson, Chavis, Oxendine, Shoemakes, Collins, etc. And then he writes; "Pedee River clans in SC, were called the Mestizos, Brass Ankles, etc," well, that may be true but what were the 'clans' from Virginia and North Carolina called?  Not Melungeons, apparently they weren't called anything until they got to Eastern Tennessee and were joined by the Melungeons from South Carolina.

In the paper co-authored by Jack Goins last year we have from the Table title MELUNGEON HERITAGE;

_________________________________________________________________

1888  1889 1890 1907 1915

Hamilton McMillan[12]

Lumbee as descendants of Lost Colony, Lumbee "formerly called themselves Melungeans", Lumbee "branch of the Melungeans", Lumbee "call themselves Malungeans", says Melungeon designation preceded first tribal name

Now in the North Carolina 1915 Superior Court Case of Goins families vs the Board of Trustees Indian School Pembroke McMillan was asked; "Do these people here call themselves Croatans?"  He answered, "No sir they call themselves Malungeans."

Now why would these people in Robeson County just decide to start calling themselves Malungeons, a supposedly derogatory term.
Jack Goins, Penny Ferguson and I were researching the 'Celebrated Melungeon Case' in 2005 when we discovered the transcripts from the case. Until then it was not known if these people in Hamilton County had been known as Melungeons in the 1850s or if they were simply dubbed Melungeons after the fact. The trial proved that the Boltons, Shoemake, Perkins, Goins, etc., were indeed known as Portuguese people called Melungeons and they came from the Pee Dee River, not Louisa County.

Jack Goins realized this was a problem immediately, which I discussed in this earlier blog.  He knew these people came from the Pee Dee River as they are on the 1794 petition there, he knew their neighbors called them Melungeons many years before the trial, he knew they were known as Portuguese, he knew this information changed the old arguments of a few families coming from Louisa County, Virginia to Orange County, North Carolina as he had outlined in his book so many years ago.  And he knew it was a problem.

Apparently Jack Goins is still wrestling with that today, still trying to figure out a way to *crop* them Pee Dee River families out of the picture, the families he calls 'my imaginary Melungeons' even though their names are listed in his Core Melungeon Project.

So in his first blog what does he cover? The Pee Dee Melungeons. Although I personally informed Jack before his second book was published that it is a well established fact that George Gibson, son of Gilbert Gibson married Susannah and lived and died in Louisa County as proven by court records, yet Jack Goins still wrote in his book on page 66;

"As stated previously George Gibson was a brother to Gedion and Jordan, sons of Gilbert of Louisa County, Virginia. The will of George Gibson was proven May 1776, names wife Mary...."

George Gibson of Orange County, North Carolina was NOT the son of Gilbert Gibson of Louisa County. It would appear he was the son of John Gibson of Bertie and/or Northampton County, North Carolina as shown by these records;

1727  John Gibson, who received a grant for 328 acres on the south side of the Roanoke joining John Lowe, Jackson, and the swamp on 1 December 1727-Northampton County, NC

1756 Feb 5: John Gibson made a deed of gift of his household goods in Northampton Co., NC to his son George Gibson [WB 2:251]

1763 Aug: George Gibson  of Orange Co., NC to Thomas Lowe of Northampton Co, NC sale of negros Phillis & Joe, 3 horses, 2 mares, furniture, household goods, livestock, all his part of the estate of Mrs. Sarah Lowe, dec'd now in the possession of William & James Lowe; wits: W.U. David, Tos. Haykles, Francis Dave. Aug Court 1763 [Northampton Co., NC Deeds 1759-1774, abstracted by Dr. Stephen E. Bradley, Jr., Bk. 3]

Whoever George Gibson of Orange County, North Carolina was, he was not the son of Gilbert Gibson of Louisa County, Virginia. Jack writes in his new blog, in attempting to connect these Pee Dee families to Louisa County, Virginia [he knows if he doesn't he will have to rewrite his book] that Gideon Gibson of the Pee Dee River families is now from Louisa County, Virginia. From Jack's new blog;  

"On 25 July 1767 as a leader of the Regulators, Gideon was involved in a skirmish with a constables party near Marr's Bluff on the Pedee River . The incident brought matters between the Governor and the Regulators to a head.....

.....These Gibson's originated in Louisa County, Virginia. Descendants of Gideon Y-DNA was R1b1b2 and matched the Newman Ridge Melungeon Shep “Buck” Gibsons on 29 of 30 markers, which proves they share a common ancestor."

Well sorry Mr. Goins but no they did not originate in Louisa County, Virginia. General Randall L Gibson was a direct descendant of the above Gideon Gibson and his obituary does not mention Louisa County, Virginia. His earliest ancestor was married in Middlesex County, Virginia in 1707.

While the Pee Dee Gibson's DNA does indeed match the Gibsons of Louisa County it is not known how they were related. It is likely the lines go back to Colonial times in Charles City County, Virginia when the "Indian Jane Gibson" was born in 1640. Court documents show this Gibson family in Charles City County were known as Indians. 

Gibby Gibson, the father of Gilbert Gibson was of 'Westover, Charles City County' and left a will naming his children. Two of his daughters removed to Bertie County, North Carolina and later was found living on the lands of the Indian trader William Eaton at the same time it was reported there were Saponi Indians living on his lands.

To Be Con't

The Indian Gibson Family

 Paul Heinegg believes the Evans family 'may have' started with Eleanor, Heinegg writes; 

"Eleanor Evans, born say 1660, was probably an African American since she was a taxable in Surry County, Virginia, in William Hancock's household in 1677, in the household of Robert Caufield in 1678, and in Joseph Rogers' household in 1679 [Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, vol.22, no.3, pp.57, 63, 67]. She may have been the ancestor of....."

Anthony Evans first appears in 1668 in Surry County tax list along with a Robert and Abraham through 1677 when Elanor Evans appears as a WHITE WOMAN in the home of William Hancock. There is nothing to suggest in the early records that Anthony, Robert, Abraham or Eleanor were considered anything but white.  Richard Evans who came over on the Neptune in 1618 and was  listed as living in the community of Basse's Choice may have been the ancestor of this Evans family.

These two sources show Eleanor Evans (Anthony, Robert, etc.) designated as 'white' not African American as Paul Heinegg suggests;

(1)Surry County Virginia Tithables, 1668-1703By Edgar McDonald, Richard Slatten

(2)The list of Surry County Tax Payers or Tithables from 1668 through 1703 is a MS Excel file. Forrest has compiled this long list of 14,581 entries from the Magazine of Virginia Genealogy. It is a large file, bringing together in one place a vast amount of very valuable information about early Surry County tax payers. (When you click on this link you will have to click on Surry County Tax Payers link in the new page. It will open an Excel file where you will find Eleanor Evans listed in the 'white' column.  Also the Gibsons, Chavis, Collins, Goodmans, George -no last name - 'the Spanyard', etc. 

The Complete Book of Emigrants 1607-1660 by PW Coldham  Page 300 

1655:2 November. Morrice Evans of Bruton, Som, labourer, bound to Henry Haines of Bristol, mariner, to serve 4 years in Virginia.
6 November. Morris Evans of Frome, Som, yeoman, bound to Mary Toms of Frome, widow, to serve 4 years in Virginia.

Morris may have or may not have descended from the above families but we do know that one Morris Evans married to Jane Gibson (the younger) who descended from Jane Gibson 'an Indian woman.' The genealogy of Jane Gibson and her brother George Gibson is yet to be written but what is known these two Gibsons were living in Charles City County in the late 1600s to early 1700s were called 'dark mulattoes' and although the numerous records have identified them as 'Indian' Paul Heinegg classifies them as 'Free African Amerians' - even though the descendants won their freedom by proving they descended from 'an Indian woman.'  

Jane had a brother and a son George Gibson and a daughter Jane Gibson who married Morris Evans.  Some of the descendants of the Indian woman, Jane Gibson, were free while others had been enslaved. Thomas Gibson (aka Mingo Jackson) also a descendant of Jane Gibson won his freedom as did some of the Evans family.

Many, if not most, of the Charles City County records were destroyed but we do know that George Gibson, his son George, as well as Gibby Gibson were residents of Charles City County in the mid 1600s and into the early 1700s, as was Thomas Gibson who came over on the Second Supply with Christopher Newport and a later Thomas Gibson or two. 

Gibby Gibson left a will in Charles City County in 1727 and named wife Frances, daughters; Mary Smith, Hannah Denham,  Frances Smith and Tabitha Rollinson, Sons; George,  Gibby, and Edward.  In the LIGHTFOOT Cemetery at Sandy Point is buried Thomas Gibson, Gibby Gibson and Frances Gibson.

The above 'Gibby' is undoubtedly Gilbert Gibson of Louisa County, Virginia who was in Henrico County as early as 1707 and in 1719 in the area of New Kent that would later become Louisa County.

Thomas and Mary Gibson were in New Kent County as early as 1695 but it is unknown at this time if or how he is related to Gibby Gibson. Thomas Gibson died in New Kent/Hanover County in 1734 and left a will naming his daughters; Eunice Nicks, Mary Brooks, Frances Humphrey and sons Thomas, John, Valentine and 'William Robinson.'

Gideon Gibson born about 1720 is the son of John Gibson and Elizabeth Wilcox of Middlesex County, Virginia and removed to the Pee Dee River area in the mid 1700s. The descendants of this families DNA matches that of Gilbert/Gibby Gibson of Louisa County as well as that of Thomas Gibson of Orange County, North Carolina who moved to East Tennessee.

If you believe you descend from this large Gibson Family you might consider joining the Thomas Gibson yahoo group. I will be adding many files over the next few weeks and hope others will do the same.

Yahoo Group
Thomas Gibson Family


Here are links to the transcripts and the Descendency Chart for Jane Gibson

Chancery Court Records, Lynchburg County, Case 1821-033, Charles Evans etc., vs Lewis B. Allen

Jane Gibson descendancy chart on Chancery Papers