The Barlow / Goff Connection
The Goff (Gawf) Family of Henderson, Tennessee
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In genetic DNA testing, samples provided by James Edward Goff and Larry Joe Barlar (1935-2018) were exact matches at the 37-marker level, proving that both men are somehow related. They further learned that they both are actually descendants of the Isle of Wight, Virginia BARLOW lineage.
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The Barlow / Goff (Gawf) Connection
Compiled by Phil Goff - December 05, 2005
Edmund Gawf, Henry Goff and Lewis Goff all claimed NC as their birthplace, with Lewis also naming SC as his place of nativity. No Barlow has been identified in SC census records before 1810.
The Barlow family, with which the Goff/Gawf family has a Y-chromosome match, is closely associated with NC. As such, North Carolina is the logical place to look for the Barlow orphan who was taken in by the Goff family.
The 1790, 1800 and 1810 NC censuses were searched for every Goff and Barlow and variants. Only Montgomery and Wake Counties counted both the Goff and Barlow surnames among their populations during this 20-year period. Of these, only Wake had a Goff and Barlow in the county at the same time:
William Barlow and Thomas Barlow were six households away from each other on the census enumerator’s schedule.
Thomas Barlow of Wake Co., North Carolina was born ca. 1761 in Isle of Wight, Virginia. Y-chromosome DNA testing has shown that Edmund Gawf, Henry Goff and Lewis Goff are closely related to the Isle of Wight, Virginia Barlow family.
Thomas Barlow served in the Third Virginia [Edmond’s] Artillery Regiment during the Revolutionary War, receiving his discharge on 23 August 1780.
Thomas Barlow married Elizabeth and they lived in Brunswick Co., Virginia until about 1786.40 In 1787, Thomas Barlow purchased land in Wake Co., North Carolina.. In September 1794, Thomas Barlow bought more land in Wake County. 41
Beginning in 1797, Thomas Barlow started purchasing land in Edgefield Co., South Carolina. 42 The final ties to Wake Co. were cuts when in May 1800 Thomas Barlow sold Wake Co., North Carolina land to Christopher Spier and William Smith.43 Elizabeth died ca. 1800 and Thomas married 2) Mary. Thomas Barlow died ca. 1813 in Laurens Co., Georgia.44
While Thomas Barlow can safely be eliminated as the father of the Barlow orphan(s) the William Barlow and the Sterling Gawf families require further examination between 1790 and 1800.
In September 1794, Thomas Barlow bought land in Wake County.
In 1799, William Barlow was dead.
In May 1800, Thomas Barlow sold land to Christopher Spier and William Smith.45
On 2 May 1800, Sterling Goff was listed among the debtors of the firm of Britian and Ellick Sanders, from the inventory of Britian Sanders.46
By the 1800 census, the Barlow family was gone from Wake Co., NC.