John Harmon, a Portyghee

For over 25 years, my father and I have been researching the William Goings family of Moore County, North Carolina. It has been an adventure because most of the clues we found were not in indexed census records or published books. Instead, they were in abandoned townships and cemeteries deep in the woods or in oral histories from our elders. It would have been difficult to figure things out from a desk at home, so the adventure began as we spent decades visiting every homeplace, every neighborhood, every church our family lived at. With that knowledge and through DNA, we can say we have an accurate record of this family. Still, the trail vanishes with John Harmon, the portuguese progenitor. Some of the Nansemond Indians of the Chesapeake area have prominent Harmon surnames and claim to be mixed descendents of Portuguese sailors and Native American. Will we find the answers to our colonial ancestry there?

document:

The following is the true genealogy of Daniel GOINS & family. His greate grand Mother Elisabeth GOINS was white. His grand father William Goings was mixt his grand mother Patsey PETTY was white his father Sandy MURCHISON was white his mother Leah GOINS slitly mixt making Daniel GOINS verry Slitly mixt past into the whit(e) race to the 3rd generation at least and to all probability to the 4th or 5th.

The following is the true genealogy of Margaret GOINS & her family, her great grandfather Edward GOINS Slitly mixed about an eight her grand mother Celia COFER white her father William GOINS verry slitly mixt her mother Kisiah SINCLARE white making her (Margret GOINS) past into the white race to the 5th generation. The above mentioned Margret GOINS is the wife of Daniel GOINS of Randolph County, N.C.

My Moore County Goings family tree

Leah Goins, born c.a. 1790, was the daughter of William Goings, Sr (1749-1835) and Patsy Petty.  William Goings Sr. was the illigitimate son of John Harmon, a Portuguese in documents, and Elizabeth Goings (1740-?)

Daniel Goins, (1824-1907) was the illigitimate son of Alexander Murchison (b.c.a. 1804) and Leah Goins, a Croatan of NC.  Daniel married Margaret Goins (double Goins line)

Many of these Goinses remained in North Carolina after a mass emigration to Tennessee and Texas in the 1820's-1830's.  The ones who remained clung to their cultural identity.  They have represented the Croatan/Lumbee Indian tribe on the tribal council for many generations and Jimmy Goins former  Chairman of the Tribal Council.


William Goyens, Jr, (1794-1856) is the brother to Leah Goins.  He served as a Cherokee fighting side by side with the Cherokee at the Battle of the Horseshoe in Alabama, 1814 as muster rolls reveal.  It is by no accident that he was tapped as Indian Agent by Sam Houston for negotiation of the Houston-Forbes Treaty.  They had already fought one battle together under Andrew Jackson and knew of each other prior to arriving in Texas. These events were set in motion before any of these people arrived in the Republic of Texas.