I am one tired lady. I worked way into the nightime hours inputting data on the Gorin breakthrough and accordingly, over-slept this morning. The eyes are blurred, the fingers and hands stiff from typing, the brain is sort of here. Then my beloved daughter Shelley emailed me with a whole batch of information she had found .... and here I sit. It's going to be several days before I can intelligently discuss and post my findings but want to tell you the incident I've had in the back of my mind for oh so many years that kept pushing me. A wonderful gentleman whom I've never met worked his fingers to the bones maybe 7-8 years ago - Charlie Barnes who lives in Fairfax Co. He literally copied everything he could find on any name that looked even remotely like Gorin. He's an excellent genealogist and I need to find him again to say thanks. One of the things he sent me was a LONG case against someone that set off a bell in my brain. The case went on for years and involved a Gowen family of Prince William County VA. It's dificult to explain what happened but basically, this Gowen family of 15 different spellings at least raised race horses. They were short on funds so sold some land to raise the funds. The problem was - they didn't own the land. It was part of Lord Fairfax's estate. It involved some familiar names I run into later on in KY and was in the area where the Glad(d)i(e)n family also lived. The land was owned at the time by Robert Alexander who was not all pleased that this family had sold it. It was located below the Lower Falls of the Potomac, near the Four Mile Run .... in the area where I kept finding Gladins, Sanford Gorums (of any spelling you chose) ... the Harrison family (who later came to Logan Co KY and a son married one of Henry Gorin's daughters). The confusing thing is that in checking this Gowen etal family, they were showed on various records as white, black, mulatto and what would be considered now melungeon. In the law suit they were called "those Molatto rascals". Hmmm ... couldn't be the Gorin family, their heritage is supposedly all white. But wait. There was no classification on the records other than black, white, Indian and sometimes yellow. It was not until later that what we know as melungeon appeared as a description. Melungeons themselves are a fascinating history - people were classified as melungeons if they had Indian blood mixed with white, Indian blood (as from India), Turkish blood, French mixed with another nationality - dozens of combinations.And it appears, Welsh. Since they were coded white on many records, I quickly determined that they were not mulatto, and altho there are Turkish Gorin's to this day ... doubtful. French and another nationality - a possibility. But what made their classification so doubtful? Because, as I learned as I studied away, they had a darker complexion that was not black, not mulatto, not Indian ... just a darker but not black skin, coal black hair. Some of the melungeon records indicate that they were an extremely intelligent people, spoke a beautiful English that was even purer than those of later arrivals, used an unusual gold coinage. But ---they looked different and were many times persecuted because of it. Many fled to the Carolinas, to TN and to KY and tried to hide their lineage. They didn't want to be different.They were good people, hard working, many coal miners, nothing to make people doubt them but ... Now many generations later, some of the traits still remain although the blood line has been crossed with the Irish, English, etc. and are hard to distinguish. Of many of the Gorin men I have met, they all fall into the category of having almost coal black hair, dark eyes and a beautiful complexion. Remember my posting a long time back that Henry Gorin supposedly stated to his family that the original family was from Wales and came to "the Carolinas" in the mid 1650's or so, and somehow ended up in Fairfax. The Welsh, hard-working people, are many times of a darker complexion. They spoke their own type of English as well as their native tongue. Maybe these "mulatto scalawags" were Welsh descendants? I don't know the answer yet. I can take these Gorhams I found over the weekend back to the early 1700's with some variations on the data. I can take them unconfirmed back to about 1610. One family member says that there were 3 brothers who came over from England (others say they came from somewhere else, went to France and then to England as many Huguenots did). One was a Thomas, one a one-armed insurance type fellow (unnamed) and another one who went up to the upper east coast. Others say there were five brothers. But, good old Thomas ended up in VA at the right place at the right time. His children came to Logan Co KY after also bouncing around (some of them) in Bourbon and Fayette Co. One of them (I'll give you all the data later) went to PA for awhile and came back. Some of the family moved just across the state border into Robertson Co TN (right under Logan Co). One branch went to Putnam Co IN. The main batch just happened to be in Logan Co Ky tho at the time when John Gorin Jr and his brother Henry (sons of John and Elizabeth Franklin) Gorin decided to move from Glasgow to Russellville (Logan Co). There sit the Gorhams from Fairfax Co VA and having kiddos named John, Henry, Gladin and Sanford; and there sits John Jr and Henry having kids named John, Henry, Gladin and Sanford. The Pells, Sanfords, Gladin's etal were all names Fairfax Co VA. Did the two families know at that generation they were related? Maybe yes, maybe no. Then I found that there was one John Gorham etal whose line hadn't been traced. All that's shown is that he came to KY, he was born between 1762-1764. and they thought he was in Todd Co. Our Henry and John Gorin owned land in Todd Co - showing up on tax records there before finding them in Fayette Co KY (from where they came down to the Barren and Warren Co areas).Henry Gorin moved from Warren Co thru Christian Co into Todd Co where he died. So - what we have: 1 - there was an old Gorham family in early VA in the Fairfax Co area, their names being spelled many ways. They were into horse racing and fine breeding stock. They lived close to George Washington. 2 - John Gorin in the Rev War was called on twice - once to guard Washington's house and once to provide horses for the war. 3 - When John came into Barren Co, he still had beautiful horses which were often tried to be stolen. Over in Todd Co, Henry Gorin raised beautiful horses which he stopped during the War of 1812. Another VA family who wouldn't have lived too far away raced horses. He also came early to Barren Co and opened the first horse racing track here. They appear to have known each other in VA and there were 3 marriages back and forth between the Gorins and this line. 4 - All the Gorhams, Pells, Gladins, etal were neighbors in VA 5 - Some of the Pells, many of the Gohams and some of the Gladins came to KY - settling reasonably close to each other.Some of the other families also went to Bourbon Co. 6. One of the Gorhams went to PA and came back. John Gorin ran a tobacco route between Lexington KY and PA; later one of his family moved to PA and stayed. 7. One of the Gorhams, John W was not traced. His family had a gap between the years when Henry and Gladin Gorin was born. Child after child they had, year after year. But there are gaps right at the times Henry and Gladin were born ... babies who died? Or children who had moved out of the area up to Lexington and were "lost". 8. There were land dealings between the Gorhams and the Gladin's in the Fairfax area. Quite a few. Naming patterns being what they are, a first name of a son was often the surname of a mother. 9. The Pells refused to let their dau Sarah marrry Henry because he was considered "too wild." Maybe they knew his parents or grandparents who sold land that didn't belong to them? So Henry and Sarah had a "woods marriage"; Sarah made her own dress and they were married in the woods by a non Church of England minister. PS - Henry turned out just fine! 10. Franklin Gorin, son of John and Elizabeth Franklin Gorin wrote 2 biographies. The first one said that the name was spellilng Goring (another variation) and came to Washington DC in 1750 and were French Huguenots. The second bio spelled his name as Gorin and said they came in the mid 1650's and settled in Fairfax Co VA. 11. None of the John Gorin family at least said anything about their family heritage. Altho some of them were DAR members later and avid genealogists, they stopped with John Gorin, not evening mentioning his brothers (likely because the families had been parted for several generations).Was it because they didn't want to mention the events back in VA? 12. One of the Henry line, Jerome Rinaldo Gorin, who lived in Decatur IL spelled his name Goren. It was not until he corresponded with the wife of Franklin Gorin that he realized that his ancestor Henry was a brother of John and bingo ... he changed the spelling on his name back to the original. I could go on, but that's a lot of coincidences. In closing for today, a history lesson on VA because these Gorham families can be found in a LOT of counties. FAIRFAX Co was formed in 1742 out of two other counties, Loudon and Prince William. LOUDON Co was formed in 1757 from parts of Fairfax. Confusing! PRINCE WILLIAM CO was formed in 1730-1 from King George and Stafford Co. STAFFORD Co was formed in 1664 from Westmoreland Co. WESTMORELAND CO was formed in 1653 from Northumberland Co. So basically, the family never moved - the boundaries kept changing! John Gorin always said that he was born "In Fairfax Co near Alexandria". Henry Gorin's Bible says that he was born in Fairfax Co. Gladin Gorin's records don't say, but he was born in 1771 and they were still in the Fairfax area. Henry's Rev War records are very slim and gives very little information. But in looking at early Fairfax area censuses, there was a Thomas Gorin there in Fairfax, spelled "our way".There is also a Thomas Gorin who fought in the Rev War (have to refind my papers). There is a Widow Elizabeth Gorin there in 1850. All have their names spelled Gorin or Goren. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Hope I haven't confused you. Gary, if you'll write me back, need some help! Sandi