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When I was growing up I had heard about an Indian heritage, but I’ve had the hardest time tracing back the lines which were supposed to Indian.
My great grandmother Augusta Hemmings (married Will Young in Surry Co, NC) had said that she was Cherokee (picture attached at bottom). Her parents were James Washington Hemmings and Elizabeth K. McBride both of Rockingham Co, NC. James “Wash” Hemmings father is listed as John Hemmings household number 754 on the Western Division of the 1850 Rockingham census, and Elizabeth McBride’s father is John McBride close by at household 747.
A McBride researcher for this particular line of McBrides said “As far as the Cherokee story, I have heard this too !! But, as of today, I have no proof of Indian relations to the McBrides or Hemmings.” A descendent of Augusta’s aunt, Martha Jane Hemmings said “My family has very Indian facial features; I’ll try to get a picture of my uncle, who had the most in my opinion.” A descendant of Augusta’s uncle William C. Hemmings said “but as for Indians I have a couple of known lines and my children have more.” A descendant of Augusta’s oldest brother Beaureguarde Madison Hemmings said “Would love to find out about the Indian connection. Although my grandmother Hemmings said it was a female, from the BlackFoot Tribe. Why I remember that is when I heard it, I must have been about 4, I thought BlackFoot meant she had dirty feet.”
I knew that the Goinstown Indians were located in Rockingham Co on the Stokes County line close to Virginia and suspected that the Hemmings lived there when I found out that Wash Hemmings had joined a Stokes County unit in the Civil War, 2nd Battalion, Co. A (the Brown Mountain Boys – another group of Indians ive in this area, Goings, Beazleys, Riddles, others) and then Colonel Manafees Virginia State Troops Regiment.
The 1850 census shows the Hemmings and McBride families surrounded by all these mulatto families (Lewis Goings family at 755 and Elijah Goings at 756), but I was looking for Indians. Going back to the census I saw that there were only 3 ways to list race: white, black and mulatto. Perhaps Indian wasn’t an option because it was official US policy that Indians were to be removed west of the Mississippi River to Indian territory. See http://www.civics-online.org/library/formatted/texts/indian_act.html to read about The Indian Removal Act of 1830. According to the Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast by Theda Perdue, p.136, “A series of laws in the 1820’s and the North Carolina Constitution of 1835 classified Indians as “free people of color” and stripped them of their civil rights”. From http://bz.llano.net/gowen/manuscript/Gowenms132.htm
“Virginia, in 1705, introduced the term “Mulatto.” The new law provided that the offspring also of “an Indian should be deemed, accounted, held and taken to be mulatto.” [Henning, 1823, 252.a]”. The Research Laboratories of Archaeology at UNC website http://www.ibiblio.org/dig/html/split/report47b.html says that “It is obvious that when Southern Indians ceased living in what the local non-Indians perceived to be an “Indian” manner, they were relegated to the larger “free colored” class.”
By 1860 the John McBride family had moved to Surry County (Mt Airy Township) where three Belton families live on both sides of them and one Scott family. In the 1850 Rockingham Co, Western Division census, the mulatto family name that appears the most is Goings, followed by Gibson then Belton. (The Journal of Southern Indian Studies published by the North Carolina Archaeological Society Volume 40, 1991 p25.
http://rla.unc.edu/Publications/NCArch/SIS_40(e-book).pdf has a brief description on Goinstown It says that the prominent names are Goins, Hickman, Harris, Richardson and Kimmons. I believe the article is referring to names found in the Goinstown area today. In the 1850 Rockingham Co, Western Division census you don’t find any Kimmons, only one Hickman family listed as white, and all of the Richardsons are listed as white.
By 1870, the Surry Co census shows the John Hemmings family living right beside the McBrydes with Mary Gowens family and dwelling no. 243 on the other side and William H. Gowens and wife Mary A. at no. 244. The 1870 Patrick Co Va census (Dan River Township) shows James W Hemmings and his wife Elizabeth K McBride and daughter Jugurthy living at dwelling 298 and Family 310. (I couldn’t believe that Jugurthy was Augusta’s real name but the 1880 Surry Co NC census shows it as Jugurtha. Augusta is the name used on her marriage license and headstone.) Beltons continue to live close by.
The 1880 Surry County census shows Elizabeth Hemmings living in her father’s household (John McBride) 261, and her two brothers’ households are beside him at 262 and 263. The Gowens families still live on both sides of the McBrides. There are listed as Mary Goin at 260 and Mary A Goin at 264 and a new family James Goin at 265. Also close by is the Joshua Hicks family.
The Indexed Register of Marriages for Surry County, NC shows the marriage of William Young and Augusta Hemmings on 12/16/1887. Witnesses are E. McBride (that’s Edward McBride, Elizabeth’s brother and Augusta’s uncle), James Thomas, and John Goings. Thomas is a last name associated with Indians in the area (http://www.homeedmag.com/HEM/173.00/mj_art_thomas.html, http://www.expage.com/page/intelligence – the Hemmings descendant who said “but as for Indians I have a couple of known lines and my children have more.” is married to a Thomas). John Goings might be a relative just like E. McBride.
I imagine there is a connection with some of these Goings if I could just find it. In the 1850 Rockingham County census, John Hemmings wife is listed as Cynthia and that is all anyone knows. Her last name could have been Goings. I think that the McBrides may have had Indian ties as well from what the McBride reseacher said and from the fact that there are two twin mulatto McBrides girls listed in the 1850 Rockingham County census. John McBride’s wife’s name is Elizabeth Smith whose parents were Frank Smith and Anny Grogan.
James Washington Hemmings doesn’t show up in the 1880 Surry Co census because he had left his wife and three younger children and moved to the Clinch River area of Scott County Virginia with his oldest son. He’s buried at Clinchport (just a few miles from the Tennessee line). Records on him are hard to find there. Hemmings researchers have mentioned a courthouse fire that destroyed records there.
Wash Hemmings neighbor, Lewis Goings had already moved to the area in Hawkins County, Tennessee (which straddles the Clinch River) around 1860 according to
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/GOWEN/1999-08/0934166256.
This area in Virginia and Tennessee was also a hotbed for Indians. There are thousands of web pages devoted to the subject. I got 2,930 hits for a google search of Clinch River, Virginia, Indians, Goins. Some mention the ancestors of the present day Person County Indians moving there, others mention the relatives and ancestors of the Occoneechees moving there, http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ogemah/ (That Goinstown Indians, Indians of Person County and Occoneechees were moving into the same general area seems to be significant in that it shows that these groups were at least communicating with each other and it could indicate that they were related.)
I think there’s more Indian blood in the Surry Co, NC/ Patrick Co, VA area than most people know about. I went to school in the northern part of Surry County outside of Mt. Airy with a few people who appeared to be more Indian than white (this was before and during integration) with differing last names such as Nichols, Lewis and several others. There was a Harris family down the road from me with big, high cheekbones. I had always noticed the same big, high cheekbones on my brother in laws siblings. I just found out a couple of years ago that he had a Goins grandmother. When I was growing up, people with the name Goins were recognized as having Indian blood in both Surry and Stokes Counties. Thompson is another name recognized as Indian in Patrick County.
I found out about an Indian on my father’s side a few years ago from a distant relative. (Augusta is on my mother’s side). Her picture is show below along with her husband – the quality is poor because it’s a copy of a copy. My aunt said that she had olive skin and black hair and eyes. The people in this picture are William Franklin Hiatt and Virginia Caroline Willis. Virginia’s parents are Greenville Richard Willis Jr and Permelia Ann Hendrick/Hendricks of Patrick Co, VA. Greenville and Permelia appear on the 1850 Patrick Co census Southern Division under dwelling number 423 and family number 447. Permelia’s parents were James Hendricks and Lucy ? I think the Indian blood may come from Lucy. I’ve seen her last name given as Eklum, Worsham, Workman, and Greenland. A lot of people from this area went to West Virginia and I notice that several Workmans from West Virginia appear on the Guion Miller Roll.
Several of the Willis family had married Indians with names like Goings, Ayers and Guinn. Also Greenville Richard Willis Jr’s father was Greenville Willis Sr who married Sarah “Sally” Thompson daughter of John Thompson. There are Thompsons recognized as Indians living in the area. Four years ago http://www.monacannation.com/ listed Willis as one of the four names that comprise the Monacan nation along with Johns, Branham, and Adcox.
Infquirer,
You have accomplished an enormous amount of research and made the necessary conceptual leap to define definitions.
At the level of research you’ve reached, it’ll take some time to work thru it, but I’ll get back to you.
Bill
By studying the people associated with my McBride and Hemmings ancestors, names not usually associated with Indians, I believe I showed a probable kinship with the Goings. By studying other Indian/mulatto names not usually associated with the Goinstown Indians but who lived close by, may give clues as to what tribe or tribes the Goings were associated with and where they came from.
I had read somewhere, maybe in the Gowens Foundation material, that the Goinstown Indians seem to pop up out of nowhere on the western division of the 1850 Rockingham Co., NC census. They go on to say that you can find some on earlier censuses but others were there all along but were afraid of being counted. Perhaps, the Cherokee Trail of Tears took place around 1838. Anyway, 1850 seems like a good point of time to start.
The Journal of Southern Indian Studies Vol 40, 1991 p25.
gives the prominent names in Goinstown are Goins, Hickman, Harris, Richardson and Kimmons. I believe that the article is referring to names found in the Goinstown area today. In the 1850 Rockingham Co, Western Division census the names you see listed as mulattos are Goings, Gibson, Belton, Harris, Moore, Edwards, Guin and a few others.
Goinstown is in the northwest corner of Rockingham Co on the Stokes Co line and going to Virginia (Henry Co and very close to Patrick Co). Several researchers also include the surrounding area of Stokes Co, NC and Patrick and Henry Counties, VA as part of Goinstown. It does seem reasonable to think that other Indians close by would be connected especially if they share a common name such as Goings.
The Snow Creek district of the 1850 Stokes Co census is beside the Goinstown area of Rockingham Co. and adjoins Patrick Co. In dwellings 785 and 786 are two Sizemore families who are classified as white but carry a significant entry in the Guion Miller Rolls as does the Poindexter and Scott families in the surrounding area.
To the left of Snow Creek and also adjoining Patrick Co is the Peters Creek District of the 1850 Stokes Co census with another group of Indians listed as mulattos. At dwelling numbers 48, 49, 51 and 61 are various Goings families. At number 50 is a Beazley family, at 89 a Franklin family, Hickman at 175, Riddle families at 205 and 207 and Pike at 219. The Sauratown District has mulatto Goings families at dwellings 1187 and 1188 along with mulatto Riddles at 1198. Although classified as white, Poindexters live at dwelling 1072.
The presence of Indian/mulatto Gibson, Riddle, and Beazley families in Goinstown and next door in Stokes Co might be an indication of tribal connections. I believe Gibson has been tagged as a Saponi name as well as Riddle. I believe Beasley has been linked on this forum to Granville and Person Counties again suggesting a Saponi link.
In the Southern District of the 1850 Patrick Co along the Stokes Co border mulatto Harris and Goin families share a dwelling at 253. Beside them from 254 to 257 are various Ayres and Harris families listed as white. A mulatto Goin family lives at 214 and mulatto Goings at 656, 660, 672, 698, and 722. A mulatto Guinn family is at 614. Many other Goings families listed as white along with Ayres/Ayers, Bowman, Guinn, Thompson, and Scott families who can be found living next door to each other or very close by. Some Thompson familes in Patrick today are considered to be Indian or have a lot of Indian blood.
The significance of the Sizemore name can be found in Guion-Miller application number 417. From the government document for 417, “Sizemore…applicants claim through Ned (or Edward), John (or Doctor Johnny Gourd), Joseph Sizemore and William Sizemore, …. These applications number about 2000, representing approximately 5000 individuals. The claimants reside chiefly in northwestern NC, northeastern TN, southwestern VA and southern WV, and northwestern and western AL…it appears that Ned Sizemore, John Sizemore, and Joseph Sizemore were brothers, but the exact date or place of birth could not be definitely determined. It is probable, however, that they were born somewhere between 1740 and 1760. Some accounts fix the place of birth as Halifax Co, VA while others say it was Halifax Co, NC, while another account states that Ned Sizemore “was duly enrolled upon the rolls of the Cherokee Nation taken and made in the year 1748, in the Catawba Reservation…”
Stokes Co appears prominently in the testimonies such as “Joseph Sizemore … must have come to Stokes Co about 1821 or 1821, but Doctor Johnny Gourd (known as an old Indian doctor) came out here several years before he did.”
“Old Ned Sizemore lived on a creek called Blackwater that ran into Clinch River right at where he lived in Lee Co, VA.” Thus some of the Sizemores were moving into the same areas that other know Indian groups had moved to. Specifically, Gibsons and Collins, names associated with Saponis had movied into the same area ( http://www.geocities.com/ourmelungeons/jarvis.html).
How can you make sense of the Halifax Co, VA , Halifax Co, NC, Catawba River and Cherokee locations? According to http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/nations/catawba.htm “In 1826 nearly the whole of their reservation (Catawba) was leased to whites for a few thousand dollars, on which the few survivors chiefly depended. About 1841 they sold to the state all but a single square mile, on which they now reside. About the same time a number of the Catawba, dissatisfied with their condition among the whites, removed to the eastern Cherokee in western North Carolina, but finding their position among their old enemies equally unpleasant, all but one or two soon went back again.” From http://www.ibiblio.org/dig/html/split/report47b.html “After 1730, many of the Saponi left the area to take residence with the Catawbas. However, they were not happy there and returned to Virginia in 1733, accompanied by some Cheraws.” It could be that the Sizemores were Saponis or Cheraws who had joined with the Catawbas, were unhappy and remembering their kin went back to visit remnant Saponi populations in Halifax Co VA (the Indians of Person Co spill over into Halifax Co, VA) or Halifax Co, NC before moving to Stokes Co. (The time frame 1826-1841 just before the 1850 Rockingham Co census when all of the Goinstown Indians show up could be significant. From http://sciway3.net/clark/freemoors/Catawba.html, “By 1822 the number of souls on the Catawba reserve was recorded at approx. 450” and “A report of David Ivey, the agent to the Catawba, puts their number in 1826 to be an incedible 110.thats a loss of over half of the population within 4 years!” (Goinstown could be the place where part of the missing Catawbas had gone.)
Another significant Guion-Miller application for the Goinstown area which includes Patrick, Stokes and Surry Counties is number 664 for Sarah Mashburn. According to the government document, some of the applicants ancestors were living in Cherokee territory in the 1835-1851 time frame. There were about 800 applications representing 1500 individuals which led back to common source, Chief Donohoo. According to application number 664, “Chief Donohoo was born in Va, probably near or on the James River, about the year 1700; that he married a white woman by the name of Mary Wentworth, and had a daughter who was given the name of Elizabeth or Betty, who married a white man by the name of William, commonly called Bill Pledge – that this Betty Pledge had two children who took the name of Pledge, to-whit, Elizabeth or Betty, the second, and Frank Pledge, and that she also, either before or after her marriage to William Pledge, had two other children, John Ayers and Junalusky. Betty Pledge, the second about the year 1760 or 1765, married Thomas Poindexter…raised a large family…and their descendants are scattered through the Counites of Stokes, Surry, Yadkin, and Forsythe, NC. It further appears that Frank Pledge removed to the same general locality with Poindexters and his descendants are also located in that vicinity, as are some of the descendants of Junalusky and John Ayers.” The Scott family figures prominently in the descendants from Ann Radford Poindexter marrying Daniel Scott around 1780 in Surry Co, NC. Evidently, Scott used to be a common name among the Catawbas, but by 1847 most of the Scotts had disappeared from the Catawbas according to http://sciway3.net/clark/freemoors/Catawba.html.
A few of the applicants sued after being rejected and managed to actually get Cherokee roll numbers. Descendants of the applicants have formed a tribe http://www.neetribe.org/ with powwows http://www.powwows.com/calendar/calendardisplay.php?eventid=5037. From their website “descendants of Chief Donnaha, a Cherokee Chief whose Tribe and Clans lived along the Dan River, Yadkin River, Catawba River and upper parts of the Pee-Dee River of North Carolina.” The river locations sure sound like Saura/Cheraw locations if the information is correct. I believe there is a lot confusion as to whether John Ayers and his brother was really Cherokee, and the granting of the roll number may have been in error.
From a county government website http://www.stokescounty.org/stokesyesterday.htm “The Dan River is said to be named for an early Saura Chief, Danapaha. The North Carolina Gazetteer repeats this tale. (I would have thought that it might have named after the Dan River of the Old Testament and the city of Dan being the northern limit of the Promised Land. William Byrd did survey the area and received land here which he named Eden.) Anyway, http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/NA-CHEROKEE-NC/2004-03/1078587149 and http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/NATIVEAMERICAN-CHIEFS/2004-02/1077561256 suggests a link between Danapaha and Donohoo.
continued
Ayers or Ayres as well as Scott was once a common Catawba name (http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/sc/catawba/1847cen.txt, ). The following is From the Scratch of a Pen in 1763 and the Transformation of North America by Colin Calloway. The governors of VA, NC, SC, and GA held a multitribe congress at Augusta, GA to discuss issues that threatened the peace. “Attakullakulla…represented Cherokee…Colonel Ayres brought a small delegation of Catawbas” p 102. “Colonel Ayres, their spokesman, needed no interpreter, but he had little to say- ‘he lives among the white people and came to hear the talk of others’.” p 104. It looks to me like the John Ayers of Betty Pledge probably was a Catawba who had resided at Cherokee at the time there was a Catawba village there and later went to Surry Co. The Ayres/Ayers in the 1850 Patrick Co, southern district census living beside of Bowman, Goings, Guinn, Harris, Scott and Thompson families are listed as white but the fact that they are living beside of Indian named families is suspicious. There is some kind of connection with the Ayers name to Goinstown (northwest corner of Rockingham Co). If you look on a map, Goinstown Road is in the northeastern corner of Stokes Co and goes into the Goinstown area of Rockingham Co. It is joined by Ayersville Road and Ayersville itself is just beside of or included in the Goinstown area.
Harriet E. Rasnick on TheOtherBlackfoot@yahoogroups.com posted a couple of queries about her Bowman and Harris Indian accestors from Patrick Co. who had moved to Tazewell Co., VA. I believe I went to school with one of her cousins, a Bowman girl with very dark eyes/hair and darker than normal complexion for a white. In the Share History Research Forum, under Catawba Indians by tarcarion, http://www.saponitown.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2231&highlight=catawba+bowman, talks about Hawkins Bowman who had Catawba Indian listed as a note under his name for the 1850 Lee Co, VA census. He was supposed to be from either NC or Va. I’d bet he was one of the Bowman Indians in Patrick who were right on the Va/NC line.
Although the Bowmans, Ayers, and Scotts are listed as white in the 1850 census, you can get some idea of who thought they were Indian by looking at the Guion-Miller Rolls. Most of the Ayers on the list from this area are from Winston-Salem which is close by. Beltons are on the list from Tazewell Co, VA. Most of the Bowmans are from Tazewell and Scott Counties, VA with a few from Surry Co, NC. A few Harris families appear from Surry as well as some Revels (same name as among the Lumbee), and a whole lot of Scotts.
Nancy in the Share Genealogy Research Under Wife of William Conn, http://www.saponitown.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2028&highlight=Conn, is looking for her native American ancestor. They might be found in the Ayers and Scotts listed below (also notice the Griffin name). From http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/message/rw/localities.northam.usa.states.virginia.counties.patrick/484 “Wm. Scott, b. ca. 1780 (NC?) possibly m. ca. 1800 a dau. of Thos. Ayers of Patrick Co., VA who d. 1814 Patrick Co. In 1794 Wm. Scott gave a P.O.A. in Patrick Co. along with Sarah Scott, Nancy Scott wife of Henry Blanchett, Elizabeth Scott, wife of Joshua Haynes to friend Wm. Griffin to collect their legacies from their father Wm. Scott who had d. Orange Co., VA. By 1804 Wm. Scott is in Wythe Co., VA, selling land in Patrick Co. Shorly thereafter he is in Wayne Co., KY where he m. Celia Conn, dau. of James Conn, in 1809. Wm. left KY for TN and AL ca. 1830, then to Yell Co., AR early 1840’s where he and Celia d. 1850-60.”
The Sizemore, Ayers, Scott, Bowman, Gibson, Riddle, Beazley names are not commonly associated with the Goinstown Indians but I think they should be as they are living with Goings in Rockingham, Stokes and Patrick Counties. Gibson, Riddle and Beazley suggest a Saponi connection. Harris and Scott are found among both Catawbas and Lumbees which could sugest a Cheraw connection as well as Catawba. Ayers is found among the Catawbas. A Bowman with possible connections to the area was listed as Catawba on a census. The Sizemore testimony on the Guion-Miller testimony indicates Saponi and/or Catawba connections. A next step would be to find the records containing the names of the Catawbas who disappeared after 1822 and compare to those in Goinstown area.
Your help is appreciated.
Your overall concept carries water, however, an hypothesis lacking specific proof can be put on any set of stilts. That said, when dealing with this specific subject, circumstancial evidence does have to be weighted more heavily due to lack of/and destroyed records, and that is not an exact science, so I’m not saying that your approach is incorrect. I am saying that the information offered is not proof of your general hypothesis regarding the Hemmings/McBrides. I would like to encourage you to keep digging. I am still researching the Hemmings/Hemmons/Hammonds & McBride people.
Bill
Yes, this is great work. Keep it up, unless of course, you have reached a point where you believe your family’s oral history and are satisfied within yourself. If you decide that’s more important than science, it would be entirely reasonable. What a grandma said may not be important to the rest of the world, but when she’s YOUR grandma, it only takes so much corroboration to suffice. If you want to go on to contribute a proof that others can also benefit from, that’s a good thing, too.
Infquirer,
This is great info. Thank you for the insight into my Bowman ancestry. I had found the large number of Bowmans in Patrick Co. but had not made the connection with Surry Co. NC. Even knowing Patrick Co. is right on the VA/NC line, I had not made the connection about the border dispute (even though I knew of it) which could explain why Hawkins Bowman is listed as “sometimes from VA and sometimes from NC”. Also, Hawk’s second wife, Nancy Barbour, was born in Surry Co. NC. Thank you for these very important pieces of this puzzle.
Jim
Infquirer–I’ve started a Goins family genealogy message board on Roots Web. The Goins’ I’m related to were a little knot of farming families of Goins and Standup, listed as “mulatto,” north of Charlottesville near the Blue Ridge. Who knows what the connection might be, but I wanted to start a place were Goins descedents could begin to talk to each other—check it out.
Lee
Clen99,
Orange Co, VA is about 10 miles northeast of Charlottesville. From http://www.angelfire.com/tn3/youngeagle/INDIANMelungeon.htm,
“January 1743 In an essay titled ‘The Last Indians in Orange County VA’. Author cites document which states, “the following Sapony Indians were arrested for hog stealing, burning the woods, etc, and brought to Orange County Court (held near Somerville Ford on the Rapidan River); their names were Alex Machartion, John Bowling, Maniassa, Caft Tom, Isaac Harry, Blind Tom, Foolish Jack, Charles Griffin, John Collins and Little Jack.’ Describes trial, guns taken, ordered to leave county, ‘several white gentlemen sympathizing with them, wanted security on their bail bonds, and the poor fellows soon settled up their and left the county’.
“Tradition however says, ‘one remained and long lived on the Gowin Mountains below Rapidan Station’. At Orange County Court in May 1740 William Bohannon made oath that ‘about 26 Saponey Indians, who inhabited Col. Spotwood’s land in Fox’s Neck (near Germanna on north side of Rapidan River) do mischief.’”
I’m assuming the Gowin in Gowin Mountains is the same as Gowen, Goin, Goins. Gowin Mountains implies that there were Goins living there for the mountains to be named after them. That there were Saponis living on the mountains indicates a possible relationship between the Saponies and the Goins. Can you trace your Goins ancestors back that far to that part of Virginia?
As you probably know, John & Cyntha Hemmings are on the 1850 Rockingham Co., NC census.
On the 1840 Rockingham census, 2 houses beyond John Hemmings is
William Hemmings whose household contains:
1 male 20 to 29
1 male 70 to 79.
1 female 10 to 14.
1 female 15 to 19.
1 female 20 to 29.
1 female 60 to 69.
Bill, I probably should have included everything I knew.
On a family tree that I received from a very distant relative I connected to through rootsweb, William Hemmings is given as the father of John Hemmings. It shows William Hemmings marrying Delilah (Cibney) McKinzy on Nov 28, 1804 in Henry Co., Va. (I have found a few mistakes in this family tree on later stuff that I can confirm. The 1850 Rockingham Co census lists John Hemmings place of birth as VA so this looks right.) The family tree shows children as Martha Jane, James Washington, William Cole, Elizabeth and Adaline.
William Hemmings is found on A Supplement to the 1810 Census of Virginia, under John Waller’s list for Henry County. My understanding is that the 1810 and earlier censuses for Henry County were burned by the British during the War of 1812.
William Hemmonds 83, along with Libby 77, William 45 and George 42 appear on the Peters Creek District of the 1850 Stokes Co census in dwelling 114. Several mulatto Goings and Beazeley families appear from dwellings 48 to 51, and 61. This is the district where almost all of the men of Co A of the Second Battalion come from (the Brown Mountain Boys).
William Hemons appears on the 1860 northern division Rockingham Co census living in dwelling 886, family 860 headed by Salothiel Newnam with wife Betsy. Elizabeth Ann Hemmings married Solathal Newnam on March 18, 1848 in Rockingham Co.
John Hemmings appears on the 1830 Rockingham Co census with one male 20-30, two females under 5, one female 20-30, and one female 60-70.
Between John and William Hemmings on the 1840 census is Abner Barnes. Abner Barnes is the bondsman for George Washington Hemmons marriage to Elizabeth Proctor on Jan 15, 1852. Nobody is quite sure who George Washington Hemmons is, but I imagine he’s very closely related. Hiram Barnes (dwelling no. 917 on 1850 Rockingham Co census, John Hemmings is 754) and his two sons James M., and John F. are the only other people from Rockingham County besides James Washington Hemmings and William C. Hemmings to join Company A of the Second Battalion of NC, a Stokes Co unit. The entire Second Battalion was captured during the Battle of Roanoke Island. Some time after it’s parole, this company was reformed as Company H of the 23rd Battalion of VA. James M. Barnes was now captain of the company and James W. Hemmings was sergeant.
James Washington Hemmings is the bondsman for the marriage of William C. Hemmons and Jincy Taylor.
On the 1850 Rockingham Co census, John Hemmings lives at dwelling 754, Lewis Goings at 755 with occupation as wagoner, Elijah Goings at 756 with occupation as black smith. One source at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/GOWEN/1999-08/0934166256 regards Elijah and Lewis as workers on a tobacco plantation. John Hemmings is listed as an overseer, and I imagine he worked at the same tobacco plantation. There was a Hairston family which had plantations throughout the area in Stokes, Rockingham, Patrick and Henry Counties, http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/h/Hairston,Peter_Wilson.html.
I imagine though that the Indian comes in through a marriage to a native American female. I suspect that Cynthia, wife of John Hemmings could be the source.
infquirer wrote: Gibson, Riddle and Beazley suggest a Saponi connection.
What do you mean by “Riddle suggests a Saponi connection”?
Yes, Moses and Mary Riddle (Ridle, Ridley) lived near and seemed to follow the Collins and Gibsons, I have yet to find any proof that they were indeed Saponi by blood.
Nobody said anything about proof. Type in define:suggest in Google and you’ll get:
· propose: make a proposal, declare a plan for something
· imply as a possibility; “The evidence suggests a need for more clarification”
· indicate: suggest the necessity of an intervention; in medicine; “Tetracycline is indicated in such cases”
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
· propose a theory for acceptance or rejection.
http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/courses/LA100_Legal_Systems1/LA100_glossary.html
· means that there may be more than one answer you must give the most appropriate. Use your general knowledge of the subject to a new situation.
Suggest does not mean proof. What little evidence that I’ve seen would suggest or indicate as a first guess that the Riddles are Sapponi. Perhaps they’re Algonquins from the Powhatans. Nothing more is meant.
I’ve never read anything about what tribe or tribes the Goinstown Indians were connected with. I wanted to see where the best guesses for the names listed would lead. A hypothesis for what comes up would be a mix of Sapponi/Catawba and perhaps Cheraw. This gives me a direction as to where to look for more information. I could try to find the names of the Catawbas who disappeared from 1822 to 1826. If they show up in this time frame in the area I’m looking at, it would tend to support the hypothesis.
I didn’t mean to sound cross (sorry if you took it that way). I was hoping that you might have more information on Moses Riddle and his origins, that’s all.
Determining the origin of these names is a Riddle wrapped up in an enigma, and I’m afraid that the records listing the origins of the Goings may be gone.
I’m amazed at the connections between Indian descendants in the area I grew up in, Surry Co NC and the Riddle name. You’ve probably seen this website http://www.jimcal.com/v04is01.htm. It shows a Surry Co, Riddle connection, “In the Spring of 1781 Capt. William Riddle captured Col. Benjamin Cleveland, of Surry County, North Carolina, who was a particularly vigilant patriot.2”
Also from the website, “Others of the Tory brigands also fell into the hands of Cleveland’s vigilant troupers. One of them was Bill Nichols, a noted and desperate leader, whose wife is said to have been a sister of Captain William Riddle…. Nichols was speedily executed.”5
“William ‘Bill’ Nichols was reported in the Draper Manuscripts to be a brother-in-law of William Riddle. He was apparently captured along with a man named Meeks and both were hanged because they killed a prominent patriot from Henry County, Virginia named Letcher.42” I went to school and played football with a Nichols who was as Indian as anybody you’d see at Cherokee.
“In 1774 William Riddle (Riddell) was a member of Capt. William Herbert’s militia company, and apparently fought in Lord Dunmore’s War at Point Pleasant on the Ohio together with Neal Roberts,… George Sizemore, Micajer Bunch, … Daniel Blevins, James Blevins and William Blevins.11” A large number of the Sizemore claimants in Guion-Miller application number 417 are Blevins from Stokes and Surry Counties.
The website http://www.jimcal.com/riddlefam.htm is titled Stokes Co., North Carolina Riddle Family Origins and shows a connection between the Riddles and Bowmans. “Randolph and John Riddle were the grandsons of John Riddle born 1680 in the present day Washington, DC area and Elizabeth Bowman of Prince George’s Co., Maryland.”
From http://www.jimcal.com/riddle_petition.htm, “…the Children of Samuel Riddle another son; and the Children of his daughter Elizabeth who intermarried with John Beck…” Beck is another last name in the area who are reputed to be Indian. Again I was in a lot of classes with a very pretty Beck Girl with very dark hair, eyes, and skin a little darker than most whites.
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