William Goyens Jr and DNA

We've always been told that we were mix't. Court documents filed in Randolph County, North Carolina explicitly spelled out how mix't we were, but they didn't leave hints on what the true origins of our family were.

William Goyens Jr. of Nacogdoches was born in 1794 in Moore County, North Carolina. His sister Leah Goings was born in 1790. William Goyens Jr. left Moore County in the 1820's and came to Texas were he was captured twice as bounty hunters tried to pass anyone of dark complection off for slaves. He stood before the Republic of Texas Legislature and stated "Unfortunately I am a man of color . . .", but he never claimed African-American ancestry.

Being descended from this family, we were always aware of admixture. It was the way society treated the Goinses from Moore County, North Carolina and one of the reasons so many pulled up stakes to seek a better life out West - a life free from the prejudices and discriminations of a harsh and judgmental society. The family who remained in North Carolina stuck together and was considered clannish. They lived on the fringes of town. They kept among themselves. They were buried together out in woods, not being acceptable, even in death to rest among society.

So what's the story? Our elders didn't talk about it. To talk about it often meant being deprived of rights such as land ownership, the right to own guns or the right to vote. They were even deprived of the right to choose who they could legally marry. So they kept the secrets of our heritage and carried the knowledge with them to their unmarked graves.

When my father decided to have our DNA tested, we knew the blood would reveal many of those secrets and we were ready to embrace the TRUTH, no matter how many surprises it might hold. We had some family tales and remembrances, but not enough to understand who we were and what stories were true and which ones were created by a biased society with tunnel vision. My father is four generations from William Goyens Jr and his great-great-great grandmother Leah Goins. His DNA results were:

91% European

9% Native American

0% Sub-Saharan African

0% East Asian

So the test results prove that the family who remained in North Carolina and were known as Croatan Indians did retain some of their cultural identity, and Goyens who traveled to a land where he was 'different' could only be labeled as a 'runaway slave' and that became engraved on his final resting place by the Texas Historical Commission and related in biographies long after his death.

Goyens was considered remarkable enough to have his final resting place honored by the Texas Historical Commission (although the historical information on the marker was riddled with errors). A final dishonor was when some entity from Nacogdoches moved the marker from the site to the side of the road on Goyens Hill, leaving Goyens' grave unmarked and in danger of being lost forever. I have repeatedly asked for answers and help from the East Texas Historical Association to rectify this mistake, but none feel the issue is important or that their account of Goyens should be corrected and preserved.

William Goyens, Jr of Nacogdoches, TX

William Goyens, Jr. Nacogdoches, TX (1794-1856)

It was quite a romantic picture to grab Goyens' story and put him up in Texas history as an icon. Without researching his past, historians have consistently portrayed him as a runaway slave from South Carolina who escaped bondage and was able to build a fortune in Texas. If any of them would have taken a field trip to Moore county, North Carolina and learned about his family there, they would have questioned such claims.

Goyens, born 1794, was not born in Africa. He was not born into slavery.. He was born to free persons of color in Moore County, North Carolina. His father, William Goings, Sr. purchased the land in Pocket Creek in 1764, therefore, dismissing the myth that his father earned the land with manumission for serving in the Revolutionary War.  They were Free Persons of Color in Colonial America.  Goyens' sister, Leah Goins and her children have consistently been enumerated as Croatan, Lumbee o Mulatto.  Goyens' grandfather was John Harmon, a native of Portugal and this multi-ethnic heritage is important in American history as most Portuguese/Spanish colonization efforts take the back seat to Britain's colonization efforts in the text books.  

Ancestors Speak

When we go looking for our ancestors, we may not find them in the fine cemeteries with finely engraved gravestones. Often our ancestors were buried in small family cemeteries, some now reclaimed by the wild woodlands. Some with only hand-scratched stones, telling us who they were and why they were buried as they were.In one such case, a Goins descendant in Moore County, North Carolina is buried among other family members deep in the woods. They were buried there, because they were not allowed to be buried in a public Anglo-White cemetery. They were considered too "dark" to be buried near the White citizens in the area. Yet, the family members buried their loved one in a way so future generations - who knew where to look- would have a clue to who they were and why they lived as they did. On the footstone of the grave was a crudely scratched figure of a person with three long lines underneath. It was a local gravedigger who told me that he had once unknowingly dug into a grave of these people. He said the body was buried erect, supported by timbers, with their head facing toward the sky, and their feet touching the earth. It was a Native American practice of some of the indigenous peoples of Moore County, North Carolina. It is an indication that the Redbone, Melungeon, Lumbee peoples are of complex heritage. Anyone who tries to simplify their culture into a single Black or White answer, will be disappointed. The answer is not so simple, nor were the lives that the Redbone ancestors lived.Some may wonder why I post to the Redbone site. They may say - oh she is another mixed blood person. She is Croatan. She is Lumbee. She is Melungeon. Yet, my heritage is complex and my ancestors migrated South and Westward. I have a death certificate that states my g-g-g-grandmother, Leah Goins was Croatan. But I have family stories that she had sons who left Moore County, North Carolina and settled in Mississippi or Louisiana. Did these brothers take their culture with them? I'm sure they did. It was who they were. Would they seek out others like them? Yes. It was their way to be clannish and they would be attracted to others who were like them. Will we someday find a link between the Melungeons, the Redbones and the Lumbee?

I think we will.