Gowen Research Foundation

Electronic Newsletter

 

September 2000

Volume 3        No. 9

 

 

 

 

"The Origin of Name Melungeon,

From Northern European People,

or ElsewheWider World Views?

 

   There is no proof of the origin of the name Melungeon. Yet, most

authorities support the assumed term French Melange, meaning 'mixture',

as the most valid speculated origin. These same speculators' demand

documented 'paper' proof from those who consider that a wider world view

may contribute to its origin. One hundred ten years after the first

speculation about this name appeared, it is time to seriously consider

this assumed origin is not the whole truth. There is a distinct

possibility that disenfranchised peoples came to America, by accident or

design who may have originated the name long before they got here. And,

long before it would be picked up and used by the Northern Europeans to

derogatorily describe their culturally 'different' neighbors in early

Appalachia.

   The defining of this name, and the origins of the early Tennessee

Melungeons was lost in history, because of racial identification

problems. Many nations in the old world had, and still hold caste systems

that result in discrimination. In Colonial America the black slave issue

would accelerate us into a caste system based on the color of skin. White

or black were the only choices. White Northern Europeans were assigned

the 'superior' class. All other 'off white' people, or anyone viewed to

be so, by the officials assigning the color, was officially Negro. Other

heritages in the World, who could not fit into this mold, would not be

considered a significant gene pool in the colonies. This situation was

bound to result in some lost ethnic identity.

   So, these swarthy skinned Melungeons came to the hills of Tennessee from

the Carolinas and old Virginia without written history. They were slowly

deprived of any attempts to define themselves, right or wrong. Their

white neighbors, and later scholar scientists, would accept the racial

social mores of their society, and define them all to fit this mold.

Historians often accept oral history as a valid component helping to

establishing ethnic or cultural heritage among some peoples of the World,

of which we know little about. It would not be so with the early

Tennessee Melungeons, Croatans (now Lumbee Indians of North Carolina),

Redbones of South Carolina, Moors of Delmarva Peninsula, Delaware. Or,

later groups of any genes mix other than Northern European white.

   The unscientific methods used by Northern European whites to classify

their racially 'different' neighbors were well expressed by Dr. Brewton

Berry, a mid 20th century Philosophy professor at Ohio State. "The

attitudes of whites toward Mestizos is a jumble of ignorance,

indifference, prejudices, suspicion, pity, fear, bewilderment, and above

all contradiction. Do we want this kind of scientific judgment to be the

judge of their names and their heritage? " It would be in the 1990's

before this is answered with determination. Berry's fifteen plus years of

study of what he termed, the 'Mestizos or racial orphans' along the

southeastern coast, was extensive for his time. It resulted in a depth of

understanding achieved by few others. After summarizing a few of the

established speculated name origins, he stated, "truth is, no one has the

faintest idea where the name Melungeon came from." Berry wrote several

articles from 1946 to the writing of his 1963 book, "Almost White',

Publishers Collier Macmillian. Ldt., London.

    Jack H. Goins of Rogersville, Tennessee, found what may be the first

reference to the name in print. The 1813 Minutes of the Stoney Creek

Primitive Baptist Church at Ft. Blackmore, Virginia. Page 37 contains a

reference to the 'Melungins' in their membership. It was spelled as it is

often pronounced. To judge how you believe the term was used by the

'Melungin' members, see the copy in the Palmer Room, Kingsport, Tennessee

Library.

   The next printed article reference appears in footnotes, as "The

Imprudent Melungeon from Washington County," The Whig Newspaper,

Jonesborough, Tennessee, Oct. 7, 1840 by William Barlow, Editor. I have

not seen the original copy spelling.

   An internet copy of  the March 1849, An article," From Littell's Living

Age #254-31, 1849 " shows the title as,"The Melungens"

   The first known reference to the French word melange was mentioned by

Dr. Swan Burnett. He read his, "Notes On The Melungeons," before the

Society of American Anthropologists, Feb. 5, 1889, and published in, Oct.

1889, Vol. 11, pp 347-349, "American Anthropologist Magazine." Burnett

grew up hearing about the Hawkins (later Hancock) Co., Tennessee,

Melungeons. He became a medical doctor with a side interest in

anthropology. "He was assisted in this limited study by Dr. J. M. Pierce

of Hawkins Co., Tennessee and Dr. Gurley of the Smithsonian Institute.

These doctor's observations were the first scientific notes I know of to

be penned by any professionals.

    He wrote, "I trust my imperfect notes may cause a study of the

Melungeons by some one more competent than I. I do not know their origins

or the origin of their foreign sounding name. I have never seen the word

written, nor do I know the precise way of spelling it. The first thought

that would come to one on hearing it would be that it was a corruption of

the French word 'melange-mixed'. The current belief was that they were a

mixture of white, Indian, and Negro. On what data that opinion was based

I have never been able to determine, but the very word Melungeon would

seem to indicate the idea of a mixed people in the minds of those who

first gave them the name. They resented the appellation name Melungeon as

given them by common consent by the whites, and proudly called themselves

Portuguese." Some of Burnett's speculations, and factual statements,

would be taken somewhat out of context by some later scholars to

gradually become accepted 'fact.'

   The next scholar was James Mooney, an anthropologist. He was a

specialist in Siouian Indian culture with the Bureau of Ethnology,

Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC. The Bureau was formed in 1879 to

study the American aborigines and their language. Their two volume

publication, "Hodges Hand Book of American Indians North of Mexico" was

published in 1907. Mooney's interest in the mixed bloods was sparked by

personal letters from Charles James McDonald Furman of Privateer

Township, Sumter Co., South Carolina. A collection of letters and

articles he wrote are in, "The Furman Collection, Manuscript Room, South

Caroliniana Library, USC, Columbia, South Carolina.

     McDonald Furman was descended from Furman family education and

religious icons in South Carolina. In the 1880's and 1890's he

unsuccessfully tried to get officials in his state to do a scientific

study of his Redbone neighbors. His life time friendship and interest in

the Redbones, and Catawba Indian remnants in his neighborhood made him an

authority on them. James Mooney and other officials recognized his vast

South Carolina historical knowledge. Furman called the Redbones a

'peculiar' race separate from the Indian, Negro, or whites. He insisted

their true racial name was Redbone, not 'old issues' or late freed men as

their white neighbors called them. Redbone was not a derogatory name at

that time, though it has been generally accepted as a derogatory term

given them by their white neighbors. It would become so derogatory that

some descendants of these same few families would eventually migrate to

North Carolina and become known as the Smiling Indians. A term derived

from the surname Smiling. Redbone is not mentioned in, "The Smiling

Indians Study by Wesley White Jr." (His papers in Box 92 Smithsonian

Institution National Anthropological Archives Center, Study of Man."

1975.)

    James Mooney's entry in the Smithsonian's Hand Book describes the

Melungeons under the Negro and Indian title,( page 52 Vol II).

"Melungeons of Hancock Co, Tennessee, formerly of North Carolina are said

to be "a mixture of white, Indian and Negro." His noted source "Am

Anthrop,"  p 347, 1889, is from Burnett's Notes. Mooney adds, "The

Redbones of South Carolina and Croatans of North Carolina seem to be the

same mixture." Under the Croatan Indian title, p 365, Vol I, of The

Handbook, Mooney's entry suggests, "the Croatan, Redbones, Delaware

Moors, Melungeons are of similar origin." And, says, "the name  Melungeon

is (probably from melange-mixed) or Portuguese." This is also taken from

Burnett's Notes.

    Webster Dictionaries and other major dictionaries list a description of

the Melungeon name and the people as accurate as the knowledge they had

at a given time. They often show confusion on the origins of both. Mostly

saying,"origin unknown, from French Melange." This helped enforced

'melange' as the most accepted name origin.

   As later scholars or writers picked up on this first assumption, some

would add, "the French gave them the name." If there is a documented

source for that, I have not seen it. The French passed through much of

colonial America and Canada, leaving no other trace of  the term melange

for other mixed blood populations. Melungeon has never been pronounced as

' lang" but as " lunj' sound. The Melungeons are a melange - mixture, and

rightly called so. But, was it the 'only' origin of the name we should

consider non mythical or exotic?

   The next major evaluations of the Melungeons were the infamously

unscientific, yet often quoted writings of Miss Will Allen Droomgoole.

She used the spelling Malungeon in her only two articles. ("The

Malungeons", Vol. 3 pp. 471-479 March 1891 and "The Malungeon Tree and

It's Four Branches," June 1891, 745-751, Boston MA.)  She makes the first

reference I have seen to calling themselves Malungeons. Droomgoole, March

1891: ''When John Sevier attempted to organize a colony of dark skinned

reddish brown complected people supposed to be of Moorish descent who

called themselves Melungeons and claimed to be Portuguese, in Eastern

Tennessee." This is often rejected as, it could never happen, since as

long as memory the people hated the name Melungeon. A Major Droomgoole

served with John Sevier. Was he an ancestor of Will Allen who told her

this?

   A reference to others outside early Tennessee calling themselves

'Melungeans' is found in the revised 1907 edition of the 1888 booklet,

"Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony." It was written by North Carolina

State Senator, Hamilton McMillian, who was instrumental in passing the

1885 law giving a nameless tribe of Indians the name Croatan Indians.

   See Chapter VI, Summary of the tradition of the Croatan Indians, p 41

for the quote: "Formerly these Indians called themselves "Melungeans,"

and some of their old people still adhere to that name." The only

explanation given by a recent writer is that being a mixed race, the

early French colonists coming in contact with them called them Melange,

which means mixed and that the descendants of the Melange were called

Melan-geans or Melungeans, as these Indians pronounced it." The 'recent

writer' may have been James Mooney's 1907 quotes in "Hodges Hand Book of

American Indians North of Mexico."

   McMillian testified under oath in the, "North Carolina, Superior Court

Case, of Goins Families vs. the Board of Trustees Indian School Pembroke,

NC." (March Term, 1915, State Court Records)  The Goins Redbone families

had to prove they were Indian not Negro. Court questions to McMillian

regarding the Croatan Indians whom the school was formed for in 1885

included, "do these people here call themselves Croatans?" Answer: "No

sir they call themselves Malungeans." The testimony of one of the Redbone

Indians, also under oath said, "his mothers side were Indian his fathers

side Malungeans." Why would these people in 1915 pick up this so called

derogatory name supposedly applied only to a small group in Appalachia?

   McMillian knew many of the Croatans since 1885. In 1915 they were no

longer calling themselves Croatan, as it had become the derogatory 'Cro'.

In 1911 their leaders changed their name to "Indians of Robeson County."

Shortly before the 1915 court case they were asking for the name

"Cherokee Indians of Robeson County." ("The Lumbee Indians, An Annotated

Bibliography with Chronology and Index," by Glen Ellen Starr, 1994). Was

Malungeans an old term dug up from memories past by some older ones to

briefly redefine their lost heritages? Had it been passed from neighbors

who had migrated years before to Appalachia, who may have used it before

it became a hated term to them? The 'Malungeans' name would not be

recognized by modern Lumbee historians as ever being used by their

people.

   There is a reference to 'Lunjins' in early Arkansas. Little seems to be

known of it's origin there.  

   Attempts to identify their heritage were made by lawsuits, by social

scientist scholars, as well as by the curiosity of journalists of their

day. The intrigue surrounding the lack of proof positive identity would

result in many articles surfacing over the decades. Many were honest

attempts to identify them by the standards of their decade. Bonnie Ball's

1969 "The Melungeons," revised 1992, and Jean Patterson Bible's 1974,

"The Melungeons Yesterday and Today," mention varied theories for the

reader to consider. Both books are in print by, Over Mountain Press,

Johnson City Tennessee, P.O. Box 1216, 37605. And, Dogwood Press, Ph 409-

579-2184, HC 53 Box 345 Hemphill, Texas 75948

   Jean Bible, pp 11-12, mentions the reported Melongo tribe, and the

Melungo/Melango Portuguese word meaning shipmate or companion. Until the

1990's this origin term has often been scoffed at. Greek melan meaning

dark or black was mentioned. Bible also suggests that many early writers

used the spelling Malungeon. Melas spelling may also be used in Greek.

    In 1990, Gowen Research Foundation founder Arlee Gowen, started a

renewed interest that seemed to develop every decade or two. In 1992,

Melungeon descendent, Dr. N. Brent Kennedy came into the public scene to

join this interest. His abilities encouraged more interest than in any

previous decade. The questions Dr. Brewton Berry posed several decades

ago, would be answered with determination. Scholars and researchers

willing to look past the narrow scope of the nationalities known to have

been in the early colonies,  joined with Dr. Kennedy to take a wider look

for unanswered questions. What was happening in the World that could have

brought dark skinned peoples from the Middle East, Mediterranean,

Southern Europe to the colonies by accident or design?

   Kennedy started by following the long held oral claim of Portuguese

ancestry. He called the Portuguese embassy and asked if  they had heard

of Melungeons or the Afro Portuguese word Melungo/Malungo. He was told,

it is pronounced Melunzhawn in Portuguese, a common word the early

Arab/Berbers and some others used to describe themselves as white people

of Portugal. Portuguese diplomat Louis de Sousa added to Kennedy's

research saying, "West Africans used the word Mulango to refer to white

people. They would mean people from Portugal, as Portuguese were the

first white people they saw." It was never an approved Portuguese word.

The term was used in many nationalities with various spellings, but

similar pronunciation. This included the Portuguese, Berber, Arabic,

Turkish, West Africa, and among the Spanish/Moors. It developed into

meaning shipmates to these disenfranchised people. Some were captured, or

of the  lower classes sent from their homelands to battle or to colonize

other lands. Mulungo is seen in Spanish folk stories according to Eloy

Gallegoes, Spanish historian.

   Dr. James Guills author of the book, "Azores Islands, A History," 1993,

told me that, the Portuguese word "Mulungo's for shipmate was used by all

the families sent to the Azores. And, to all other places they went to

colonize. All the people on board the ships sent to the Azores were

Malungos and would identity themselves as such to anyone one they might

meet. Or, to anyone they might encounter later in their new location."

   It was suggested to Kennedy that the sea travel of the Ottoman Turks

should be looked at. They certainly conscripted a variety of

nationalities into their vast  Empire. People moving throughout the world

in the 15th-18th centuries would be revisited. He learned from Turkish

scholars, the term 'Melun can' among the Turkish Levant Ottoman soldiers

was pronounced the same as Melunjun. Meaning lost or cursed soul. Arabic

Melun jinn meant cursed spirit. Melungeon, with various spellings and

similar sound, was used by the Turks, Moors, Arabs, and Portuguese. Was

Melungeon perhaps used by others who considered themselves

disenfranchised ethnic mixed peoples of 'fringe' tribes from the

Caribbean, West Indies or elsewhere? Perhaps some sent to colonize, to

battle, or as marauding lost traders, never to return to their home

lands. Mulungo / Melunzhawn / Melun can / Melunjinn / Melungeons were all

terms for disenfranchised people. It is very likely none were ever

considered proper words in their respective countries, just as Melungeon

was not a legitimate ethnic term our country.

   Linguistics specialists say, written language is difficult to define.

Words can sound similar in various language with different and similar

meanings. This may slow the modern day scholar's linguistics findings.

Yet, the similarity of the meaning of this word is found in various

Middle East, Mediterranean, or Southern European languages. They all mean

the same, disenfranchised people. What an interesting coincidence!

   Dr. Burnett, in 1889, mentioned assumptions and speculations regarding

the name origin. Through the generations many people would gradually

assume them to be almost fact. No basis for truth has surfaced in over

one hundred years for the French 'melange- mixture' origin. No other

words are proven that it could be corrupted from. We now have some

factual early world events surrounding the foreign word Melungeon /

'Melun can / Melunshawn / etc. The term Melungeon was also used by people

outside of Appalachia whose tentacles join each other in some

similarities. Continued scholarly studies may reveal new meaning for our

disenfranchised Melungeons. Is a lost key to the heritage of the

Melungeons to be found in this definite world view of their name?

 

By Evelyn McKinley Orr,  

________________________________________________________________

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Parts of this were used in August

Hello Arlee,

 

Yes, I'm delighted to be back in circulation--quite a luxury after spending

the last two years trying to bring my first book to publication while

working on the research for the second.  I should be a fixture for the

forseeable future.  I am flattered that you would want me on GRF's advisory

board but would be happy to oblige.

 

As far as my professional credentials go, I have degrees in U.S. history

from Harvard (B.A. 1990) and Duke (M.A. 1992, Ph.D. 1996).  My first book,

Southern Workers and the Search for Community, was released this month from

University of Illinois Press (check out their website if you're curious,

although it's on a very different topic).  My interest in the Goinses and

like families dates back to my teen years, when I worked (in my spare time)

as a professional genealogist in Halifax Co., Va.; I was responsible, among

other  things, for the two published volumes of cemetery listings there. 

While doing research on other families at the courthouse I came across the

Goins, Wilson, Epps, Stewart, and other "mulatto" families.  I was

fascinated to discover--as we all were, at one time or another--the

existence of folks who were neither black nor white in a society like the

antebellum South.  Who were they?  How did they survive?  What became of

their descendants?  Certainly their very existence challenged the rigid

black/white racial views with which I had been raised in the 1970s and early

1980s.  My interest simmered for years and almost became my dissertation,

but instead I opted to write first about my own family's heritage in the

Carolina textile mills--a project that involved hundreds of oral interviews,

which, of course, can only be postponed so long with elderly informants. 

Now that I've completed that book, my other research can assume its full

importance.

 

My present project involves a rather large handful of families and

communities in the NC/VA border counties, including their diaspora in TN,

KY, OH, IN, IL, and elsewhere.  I am interested in how mixed-race families

maneuvered in different times and places and under various circumstances as

American society (and American racism) moved forward.  My hope is that

studying families like the Goinses can shed light not only on how racial

attitudes evolved in America, but also on other, forgotten, perhaps even

alternative "racial scripts."  In addition to Goinstown and the Patrick Co.

Goinses, I'm working on a congeries of families (25 or so) in Surry, Yadkin,

and Stokes Cos.; three separate mixed-race communities in Wake Co., NC; the

so-called "Person County Indian" group in Person Co., NC, and Halifax Co.,

VA; and a number of other "stray" families in southside Virginia and central

NC.  My genealogical research is odd in that I'm trying to move forward in

time rather than backward--hence my need to contact as many descendants as I

can.  What I'm looking for are "racial narratives"--accounts of family

origin, racial makeup, etc., such as abound in the 1907-08 Cherokee

applications.  To me, such stories are in and of themselves fascinating,

whatever the "proof" of ancestry might be.  And of course in many cases

we'll never really know.

 

My years as a graduate student were not pleasant; upon completion of my

Ph.D. I opted out of professional academia entirely, making me an

"independent scholar."  Right now, however, I'm between paying jobs, so I

may take a teaching job--at least for a bit--in the coming year.  We shall

see.  In the meantime "independent scholar" I remain.

 

Thanks for resupplying me with the necessary log-in info.  As soon as I have

a chance to fully peruse the areas of the Manuscript I'm most interested in,

I'll start forwarding updates.  I'm especially pleased with my work on the

Goinstown "outreach" community at Benville, Indiana.

 

GC Waldrep

 

 

21 October 2000. GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH IN SPAIN, a day-long

seminar sponsored by the Hispanic Genealogical Society of New

York and the Hispanic Heritage Committee at Mount Sinai Medical

Center, New York City, will be conducted by Dr. George Ryskamp,

author of FINDING YOUR SPANISH ROOTS, and Peggy Ryskamp. Lunch

is included in the $25 registration fee. Advance registration

before 13 October 2000 is recommended. Limited registration at

the door. A registration form is available at the HGSNY Web

site: http://www.hispanicgenealogy.com. Location: Mount Sinai

Medical Center. Entrance through Madison Avenue and 100th

Street, 12th floor, Annenberg Building, Room 1201, New York,

New York.

 

                         *    *    *

=====================================================================

A result of your requested PML search.  To refine or cancel this

search, please visit http://pml.rootsweb.com/

=====================================================================

Source:   GC-Charlton Co. Ga Queries Forum

URL:      http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ga/Charlton/170

Subject:  James Gowen

 

 

Surname: Gowen, Christy

-------------------------

 

I am searching for information on James Gowen. He is listed on the 1900

census as being the (adopted son) of Thomas Chrestie (Christy). This may

have been my father, as they had the same birth date and my Grand-fathers

name was Thomas Albert Christy. Please provide any information that anyone

has to help me solve this mystery. If this was my Dad, he never mentioned

that he was adopted, and this information could change the direction that

my ancestor search would turn. If this information is correct,I may still

have some living relations that I am not aware of. Thanking everyone in

advance.

 

Drew Christy

 

 

The Family History Society of Arizona will host an Annual

    Seminar on October 27 and 28, 2000. Guest speaker will be

    Kellee Blake, Director, National Archives, Mid-Atlantic

    Region. The seminar will be held at Arizona State University

    Memorial Union. For information, see FHSA website

    http://www.fhsa.org

 

I am trying to do research on my paternal family.  My Father's Mother's

maiden name was Goen.  She was a daughter of Charles Henry Goens from

Jefferson County, W V/Va.

He supposedly was a son of Lawson Goens and Sallie Hart Goens.  Any

information you have on this family will be greatly appreciated.  Thank. 

Phyllis Jacoby

Phy9102@cs.com

 

28 October 2000. St. Louis Genealogical Society fall one-day

Guest Speaker Series seminar: Immigration and Naturalization

with featured speaker John Philip Colletta, Ph.D., will be held

on Saturday, 28 Oct 2000 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at Creve

Coeur Country Club, 988 E. Rue de la Banque, Creve Coeur,

Missouri 63141. Registration limited to 300 participants. Fees

for registration and lunch are $30 (members); $35 (non-members).

Details at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~mostlogs/stgstspkr.htm

 

Dear Arlee:

 

I wrote to the gentlemen, whose name you gave me.  So far, I did not hear back from him. 

 

Since we have no idea of prices of doing such a thing, we have delayed. 

 

Question:  There are two grandsons of William Zachariah Goings born 1854 Ark, son of Pleasant L. Goins/Goings.  There getting up there in age.  If I asked them to give me a hair sample (I assume root and all) and perhaps fingernail clippings and maybe even a blood sample, could I keep these in a regular small plastic bag from the grocery store until such time we get to this point?

 

Both of them are borderline diabetics and have test on a regular basis.  Would I be "nutty" sounding to ask for such?

 

Shirley A. Goings-Lindsey

WLindsey@msn.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

28 October 2000. HOUSTON GENEALOGICAL FORUM FALL SEMINAR with

featured speaker Michael Jon Neill, M.S. Topics will be Clues

Contained in Probate Records, Post-Death Court Records Other

than Probate, Searching and Making Effective Use of Probate

Records, and Where Do I Go from Here? Registration fee for

members is $25 or with lunch $32; for non-members $27 or with

lunch $34. Make checks payable to Houston Genealogical Forum

and mail to Houston Genealogical Forum, P. O. Box 271466,

Houston, TX 77277-1466    

 

 

3-5 November 2000. AFRICAN-AMERICAN LEGACY SYMPOSIUM, "Viewing

the Past Through Different Lenses: The African-American Legacy

in the Lower Brazos Valley," sponsored by the Texas Historical

Commission, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and the Varner-Hogg

Plantation State Historical Park, will be held at the Lake

Jackson Civic Center in Lake Jackson, Brazoria County, Texas.

The fee for the three-day symposium is $20, and the three

workshops on oral history, genealogy, and cemetery research

are $5 each. For more information, visit The Texas Parks and

Wildlife Web site: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/lenses/index.htm

or contact the Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historical Park,

P. O. Box 696, West Columbia, Texas 77486 or e-mail

varner-hogg@computron.net or telephone 979-345-4656.

 

10-11 November 2000. FLORIDA STATE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY (FSGS)

24th ANNUAL CONFERENCE will be held in Jacksonville, Florida at

the Radisson Riverwalk Hotel. Speakers will be Paula Stuart

Warren and Jim Warren; Beth Gay; Ann Bergelt; Ann Osisek;

Rhonda McClure; Florida Pioneer Descendants Committee; and

Florida State Archives Staff. For a registration brochure,

contact A. Staley, P. O. Box 441364, Jacksonville, FL 32222;

e-mail astaley@jax-inter.net, phall@iu.net, or

maddocks@ix.netcom.com; or go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~flsgs/

 

 

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arlee Gowen, Editor

Gowen Research Foundation

A non-profit heritage society

5708 Gary Avenue

Lubbock, Texas, 79413-4822, 806/795-8758 or 806/795-9694

E-mail: gowen@llano.net

Website: 

   http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gowenrf

 

The Foundation Website offers:

 

Foundation Newsletters--All editions published since 1989

Foundation Electronic Newsletters

"Melungia" Home of the Melungeons-Articles published by

    our Melungeon writers

"Dear Cousins" Letters from Foundation Researchers

Foundation Manuscript--10,000+ pages of research on the

    following Families:

 

Gawan,    Gawans,     Gawen,    Gawens,    Gawin,

Gawins,   Gawn,       Gawne,    Gawnes,    Goain,

Goains,   Goan,       Goane,    Goans,     Goen,

Goene,    Goens,      Goin,     Goines,    Going,

Goings,   Goins,      Gorin     Gouen,     Gouens,

Gowain,   Gowan,      Gowane,   Gowanes,   Gowan,

Gowans,   Gowen,      Gowene,   Gowens,    Gowin,

Gowine,   Gowing,     Gowins,   Gown,      Gowne,

Gownes,   Gowyn,      Goyen,    Goyens,    Goyne,

Goynes,   Goynne,     McGowan,  McGowen,   McGowin,

O'Gowan,  O'Gowen     O'Gowin."

 

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                 Membership Application

 

Gowen Research Foundation      806/795-8758 or 795-9694

5708 Gary Avenue               E-mail: gowen@llano.net

Lubbock, Texas, 79413

                        

                

Website: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gowenrf

 

I enclose payment as indicated below for

 

  [  ] New Membership,

  [  ] Renewal Membership

       in Gowen Research Foundation.

 

  $15    [  ] Member

  $25    [  ] Contributing Member

  $100  [  ] Sustaining Member

 

  [  ] Please E-mail a sample copy of the Electronic

      Newsletter to the family researcher(s)

      listed on sheet attached.

 

  [  ] Please send Gift Membership(s) as indicated above

      to individual(s) listed on sheet attached.

 

  Name(s)________________________________________________

 

  Address______________________Phone_____________________

 

  City________________State_____Zip________[+4]__________

 

  E-mail Address_________________________________________

 

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