# 14 QUALIFIED REDBONE EXPERT?

Larry Keels recently posted comments from the so-called Gowen Manuscript. His comments were posted to:
http://genforum.genealogy.com/melungeon/messages/19184.html
Also read the post by Mary E. Watson. She seems very confused about what “Redbones” were. Perhaps she needs a reality check.

“mixed-with-white Choctaw families owned many slaves, and brought their slaves with them to Indian Territory in the early 1830's. Perhaps the Goings owners of slaves also sired children by these slaves, and they became 'redbone' in Louisiana?” Ah, she has a sex angle!

Whose scientific research is this? Perhaps Mary could give us a citation or two.

This Gowen commentary has been on the refuse pile of long outdated material that was never seated in reference or truth. Manuscript? Hardly! Any researcher worth their salt would question who said what, where and – immediately look for the citations? However, there are none! Just a lot of mostly “he said, she said, they said” – not documented research at all.

Philip Goings [i] (one “L”) is my fourth Great Grandfather and Jeremiah and Sharofina Drake, of course, are my third Great Grandparents. I do not have “Blue” eyes and there is no proven connection to the Louisiana/ Texas Goings and the Melungeon Goings to date. Close, but not there yet, and remember -- not all Smith’s and Jones’ are related.

Now, Larry Keels, who excerpted this material knows all this, as we have discussed his favorite post up ad nausea. Nevertheless, he continues to post this non-research and places the blame on far outdated data and suppositions which he presents here to create controversy, which -- will likely be followed by convoluted double talk if it is challenged. So, let us begin – you decide.

"Phillip Goins," a "three-quarters" Choctaw, was born in Mississippi about 1770 and was a resident of the Choctaw Nation in Mississippi, according to United States Citizenship Court records as transcribed in "The Journal of American Family Research," Volume 3. For Phillip Goins to have been a "three-quarters" Choctaw, his father and his grandfather before him would have had to have married full-blood Choctaw women. This suggests that the grandfather Goins must have arrived in the Choctaw Nation around 1710 which is regarded as highly unlikely."

No one knows what blood Quantum Philip had other than he was Choctaw[ii] and living with a Choctaw woman named “Oti Montro” (could have been Monroe or Montroe and the correct given or nickname would have been spelled “Ooti” in the Muskogeon dialect). Jeremiah’s children, by deposition, say their father was from half to full blood Choctaw. I do not know of any proof decreeing Philip to be ¾ Choctaw. For Philip to be ¾ any thing, one parent would have to be full blood and the other half, or -- both parents ¾ Choctaw. The Grandfather Goin(g)s was Stephen Goings, and he likely was “born” in Mississippi or in the surrounding areas around 1710-1720, what would be a problem with that – although it is not known where or actually when?

"Goins" is not a word in the Choctaw language, nor is it found in the "Choctaw Lexicon" compiled by the Rev. Cyrus Byington. Since the "Goins" name is Caucasian and since blue-eyed individuals have turned up among the Choctaw descendants of Phillip Goins, it is suggested that he was of Melungeon descent. The names "Goins" and "Gibson" were prominent in the Melungeon communities of Virginia, Tennessee and the Carolina's."

Another gossip comment from a person who knew little if anything -- Smith and Jones’ again? This commentary means nothing and is a total fairytale.

On my Thomas side, the family name was Pushshuke and my Great Aunt Nancy Thomas Pushshuke married Cyrus “Harris” – first Governor of the Chickasaw Nation. Another Great Aunt, Julia Thomas Pushshuke, married Nelson Chigley, a Chickasaw Senator. Another Great Aunt Adaline Goins married Lewis Mulkey, son of Mariah Ross Mulkey, sister to Cherokee Chief John Ross -- mostly so called “Caucasian” names. What, no “Eagle’s flying high?”

So what is this “it is suggested” stuff? Is that like the “they say” or “it is said?” Great research technique when you want to include your own fairy tales! P"It is possible that Phillip and Oti Goins were "invented" by the children of Jeremiah Goins and Sharofina Drake Goins to legiti­matize their bid to be enrolled by the Tribal Council of the Choctaw Nation. Their claims of Choctaw blood were denied by the Tribal Council and the Dawes Commission, which investigated the evidence."

It is also possible that Philip and Ooti were really space aliens. The fact is that the Goins family was accepted by the Dawes Commission and the Chickasaw/Choctaw Citizenship Courts and then removed by the Chickasaw/Choctaw Citizenship Courts only to be re-instated by the U.S. Courts, but never accepted by the Citizenship Courts. It would have been smart for the writer of this “Celebrated Manuscript” to have read the actual court records.

But, I will say no more other than the “rest of the Goings/Goins story” will be published in the 2 nd and 3rd volumes of the Redbone Heritage Foundation Chronicles— under the sub title, -- Goin, Going, Gone to Texas” -- read the rest of the story there.

"Jane P. McManus, a Goins researcher of Covington, Louisiana wrote September 19, 1989: "Several years ago I came across a huge genealogical collection of family group sheets assembled by Curtis Jacobs in a library in southern Louisiana [Beauregard Parish Library]. Included was a sheet on the Goins family. Listed were John Goins and wife Nancy John­son Goins. Their children were: Benjamin, James, Thomas, Stephen, Jenny [Virginia], Jerry [Jeremiah], William M. and John. ["John Goines, age 42, born in South Carolina" was enumerated as the head of Household 421 in the 1860 census or Rapides Parish, Louisiana.]William M. Goins had a bible record wherein he recorded all his family's dates. He was born August 22, 1809. He was married to Charlotte Elizabeth Nelson July 27, 1832 in St. Landry Parish. She was born December 10, 1808 in Louisiana. John Drake was bondsman. He recorded that Stephen Goins was married to Edith Perkins November 14, 1826. Jenny married Jordan Perkins March 12, 1814. [Jordan Perkins was the son of Joshua Perkins and Mary Mixon Perkins who migrated west from South Carolina to Mississippi to Louisiana in the early 1800s. They travelled with a group composed of the Willis, Sweat and Johnson families led by Rev. Joseph Willis.] Jerry married Sarafina Drake about 1820. John Goins was married to Francis 'Fanny' Nash."

So what is the point of quoting this research of Jane McManus? She is talking about a generation not directly connected to Philip, Jeremiah or Sharofina Drake Goins (other than John Drake who was Sharofina’s father and my fourth Great Grandparent, provided we are talking about the Jr. Drake). So John and Nancy’s kids had the same given names. Hello! Wake up. Jeremiah was born in Lawrence Mississippi about 1800. Sharofina was born in 1804. If John Goins was 42 in 1860, how old would he have been in 1818, and what generation are we talking about – two different John’s?

"Joshua Perkins and Jenny Goins Perkins had seven children who lived to adulthood, according to Patricia Ann Waak, Foundation member of Erie, Colorado in a letter dated October 21, 1995. One of their sons, Jesse Perkins was born about 1816. He was married about 1838, wife's name Cyndelia. Joshua Perkins and Jesse Perkins took their families westward into Texas about 1840. They appeared on the tax roll of Houston County, Texas in 1846 and were enumerated there in the federal census of 1850. Both father and son and their families appeared in the 1860 census of Bee County, Texas. Jesse Perkins and his family were enumerated in the 1870 census of Goliad County, Texas. The oldest daughter of Jesse Perkins, Martha Perkins was born about 1845 and was married about 1862, husband's name Quarles. She was remarried in 1870 to Charles Smith in Goliad, Texas. They were enumerated in Callahan County, Texas in the 1880 census. Seven children were born to them, including two sets of twins. In 1887 Charles Smith transferred all of his land to Martha Perkins Quarles Smith, shortly before her death in 1888."

Pat Waak’s work? More filler for Larry Keels, perhaps to qualify earlier skewed excerpts from Larry Keels. Notice that Larry does not seem to have any original thoughts about his excerpts as he posts none. But that is the renegade Redbone, East Texas “Cowboy and Indian,” in him.

Gary J. Gabehart, Mishiho (Mish-eh-ho)

[i] . 1815 Natchitoches marriage document Keziah Nash
[ii] . Rueben Goins, Affidavit. 27 August 1896. NARA Document.