Karla, I found this article in the Handbook of Texas Online to be interesting, so I thought I would share it with you. Also, my gg-grandfather was a traveling Methodist Episcopal preacher in Texas, Illinois, California, and Oregon in the 1820's-1870's. I have several books and papers about him. Is this what you are looking for? Judi McSween GYPSY POPULATION IN TEXAS ROMA. There are about 20,000 Romani Americans (Roma) in Texas, out of a national population of about one million. Romani people, commonly known as Gypsies, have been in the America since 1498, when Columbus brought some on his third voyage to the West Indies. Their subsequent forced transportation brought most Gypsies across the Atlantic. To understand why Gypsies were shipped to the American colonies, it is necessary first of all to examine the circumstances of their presence in Europe. They arrived in the Balkans from India in the middle of the thirteenth century because of the spread of Islam into the Byzantine Empire; the ancestors of the Gypsies had in fact left India in the first place during the first quarter of the eleventh century as troops resisting Islamic incursions. Gypsies were at first associated with the Muslim threat. Being non-white, having no country, alien in language, dress and religion, they were quickly and easily targeted as scapegoats. Nevertheless their artisan skills, particularly in metalworking, made them indispensable to the Balkan economy; as they started to move away from southeastern Europe to escape the increasingly rigorous demands upon them, legislation began to be put into effect making them the property of their employers. By the early fourteenth century, they had become slaves in Moldavia and Wallachia (presentday Romania). Slavery was not fully abolished there until 1864, after which date an ongoing migration out of the area to America and elsewhere began. Gypsies originating in this part of Europe are known collectively as Vlax (x as ch in German Achtung), and are divided into a number of distinct groups, depending upon their occupational or regional background in the Balkans. The two biggest groups in Texas (as well as in the rest of the country) are the Kalderasha and the Machwaya, who have been in the United States for about a century. Those who moved on into the rest of Europe had reached all of the countries in the North and the West by A.D. 1500. There, strict laws came into effect rooted in fear of the foreign intruders; Gypsies were the first people of color to come into Europe in large numbers-their descendants there today number about eight million. Having no country of their own, denied access to housing and schooling, they were in every sense outsiders, a fact that is having serious consequences today. During the colonial period, western European nations dealt with their "Gypsy problem" by transporting them in large numbers overseas; the Spanish shipped Gypsies to their American colonies (including Spanish Louisiana) as part of their solución americana; the French sent numbers to the Antilles, and the Scots, English, and Dutch to North America and the Caribbean. Cromwell shipped Romanichal Gypsies (i.e., Gypsies from Britain) as slaves to the southern plantations; there is documentation of Gypsies being owned by freed black slaves in Jamaica, and in both Cuba and Louisiana today there are AfroRomani populations resulting from intermarriage between freed African and Gypsy slaves. Other wellrepresented Romani populations in America include the Bashaldé or "musician" Gypsies who immigrated after the collapse of the AustroHungarian Empire, the Xoraxaya or Muslim Gypsies from Turkey and southeastern Europe, the Lovara, a Vlax group mainly from Poland, and a number of smaller groups. There is little social contact among these various Romani populations in this country, due mainly to considerable differences in dialects of the Romani language. Since the collapse of Communism and the resulting sharp increase in ethnic nationalism, incidents of anti-Gypsyism have become common in Europe. As a result, a small but growing number of (mainly illegal) Romani immigrants are coming into the United States. Being of Indian descent, Gypsies have retained an Indian cultural and linguistic heritage as well; Romani is widely spoken, and is certainly one of the healthiest immigrant languages in the country, transmitted from generation to generation with little danger of dying out in the foreseeable future. This is because language is a principal factor of Romani ethnic identity, and because certain cultural events require its exclusive use. If one cannot speak the language, he simply cannot participate. One such event among the Vlax is the kris or Romani Tribunal, a kind of internal "court" which deals with problems within the community. Such courts take place several times a year, usually in Houston or Fort Worth, and have their origins in the Indian panchayat. Also of Indian origin, and fundamental to Romani existence, is the concept of untouchability or ritual pollution. In Romani there are right and wrong ways to prepare food, for example, or wash clothes, or interact with other people, especially nonGypsies (called gadjé, singular gadjó), who have the potential to "pollute." For this reason more than any other, Gypsy life is maintained quite separate from the non-Gypsy world, and parent are reluctant to send their children to school, especially after puberty, because of this. Unlike the situation in Europe, where Gypsies are much in evidence, Roma in the United States have been called the "hidden Americans" because they remain by choice largely invisible. There are two reasons for this: first, the United States is made up of minority groups of all complexions, and so it is easy for Gypsies to present themselves as American Indians, Hispanics, or southern Europeans, and they usually do this rather than identify themselves as Gypsies. Second, most Americans know very little about actual Roma but a great deal about the Hollywood "gypsy" (with a small "g"), and since people fitting the romantic gypsy image are not actually encountered in real life, the real population goes unnoticed. In Texas, the two main Romani populations are Vlax and Romanichal. Their main centers are Houston and Fort Worth, though significant numbers of families live in Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and El Paso. Nearly every large town has some Romani residents. Various occupations are represented among the Romani Texans; some are traditional, such as stove and boiler repair or fortunetelling, but other Gypsies include musicians, teachers, university professors, and a documentary filmmaker. Their principal festivals are, for the Vlax who are Eastern Orthodox, Christmas (Kri_uno) and Easter (Patrad_i), celebrated by the old calendar, and various slavi or saints' days. For the Romanichals, many of whom are now Born-Again Christians, the main Protestant holy days are observed. Born-Again Christianity has also made considerable inroads into the Vlax community, and there are Gypsy churches throughout Texas. This has caused some conflict with those who maintain the older traditions, who see the new church as opposing and ultimately destroying various aspects of cultural behavior such as arranged marriages, dowries, and fortune telling. An effort was made in the 1970s to establish a mobile Romanilanguage school in Texas that would travel between Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth to bring literacy in English and Romani to the community, but changes in the national administration curtailed those plans. Today, the University of Texas is the only institution of higher education in the country that regularly offers a course in Romani language, history, and culture, and it attracts scholars from as far away as India. The university also has an extensive collection of Gypsyrelated materials; both the famous Rupert Croft-Cooke collection and the library of the International Romani Union are located on its campus, making it a world center for Romani Studies. by Ian F. Hancock BIBLIOGRAPHY: Rena C. Gropper, Gypsies in the City: Culture Patterns and Survival (Princeton, New Jersey: Darwin Press, 1975). Ian F. Hancock, The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Gypsy Slavery and Persecution (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Karoma, 1987). Anne Sutherland, Gypsies: The Hidden Americans (New York: Free Press, 1975).
>From the Handbook of Texas Online: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/ Is this your Lorenzo Dow? DOW, JAMES LORENZO (1878-1958). James Lorenzo Dow, pioneer journalist, was born on September 25, 1878, near Evant in Hamilton County, Texas, the third of five children of James and Margarete Goodall (Nisbet) Dow. His father, a retired sea captain, had immigrated to Texas from Scotland in 1871 and settled initially near McKinney. The family moved to Lampasas, then to Gail in Borden County, where Dow completed his elementary school education. He attended high school in Colorado City and there learned the printer's trade by working after hours and on weekends as an apprentice to his brother-in-law, C. W. Simpson, editor of the Colorado Spokesman. After graduating in 1897 he worked for the Stockman Publishing Company, which put out the West Texas Stockman, the first official mouthpiece of the Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas (see TEXAS AND SOUTHWESTERN CATTLE RAISERS ASSOCIATION). About 1900 Dow returned to Gail and edited his first newspaper, the Borden Citizen. On September 22, 1901, he married Leitha Smith, daughter of Charles (Scalper) Smith, an area surveyor and bounty hunter. Soon afterward, Dow sold the Citizen and moved with his bride back to Colorado City, but within four months Leitha died and was buried in the cemetery at Gail. Dow conducted a weekly paper and commercial printing operation, initially with a partner, in Colorado City for a few years and then moved to Sweetwater, where he purchased the Weekly Review. After a fire destroyed that paper's plant, he worked as a journeyman printer for the papers in Merkel, Brownwood, and Stephenville. On May 1, 1904, he married Lila Dorn in Colorado City; they had three sons and a daughter. With his savings Dow moved to Lubbock, then a tiny frontier settlement, in December 1905 and became foreman and associate editor of its weekly Avalanche. In 1909 he bought out the company and sought to increase the paper's size and circulation. By 1921 he had developed the Lubbock Avalanche from a one-man, five-column, four-page, hand-set weekly to a daily with modern, updated machinery and a staff of twenty. As editor of the Avalanche, Dow became an original booster of South Plains agriculture and of Lubbock as the area's industrial and distribution center. His advertisements served to bring in more railroad connections and attract more farmers and businessmen. He played in Lubbock's first brass band, served on the Lubbock school board, and was instrumental in organizing the annual Panhandle-South Plains Fair, one of the largest in the Southwest. He also served the Lubbock First Methodist Church as a board member and Sunday school superintendent. One of his last crusades was to secure the location of Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) in Lubbock in 1925. The town of Lorenzo in Crosby County was named for him. In 1926 Dow sold the Lubbock Avalanche to a competing firm, the Evening Journal, which subsequently published it as the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.qv Dow owned the Wink Times-Telegram until 1936 and then published the Winkler County News in Kermit before retiring from journalism in 1943. From 1943 to 1946 he served as manager of the Phillips-Dupre Hospital in Levelland. Afterward he moved to Seminole in Gaines County, where his father had moved in 1904. In Seminole, Dow managed the Gaines County Clinic and Hospital until his death, in 1958. He was buried in the City of Lubbock Cemetery. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Borden County, Texas: The First One Hundred Years (Gail, Texas: Borden County Historical Commission, 1976). Gaines County Historical Survey Committee, The Gaines County Story, ed. Margaret Coward (Seagraves, Texas: Pioneer, 1974). Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, June 15, 1967. H. Allen Anderson LORENZO, TEXAS. Lorenzo is on U.S. Highway 82 twenty miles east of Lubbock in Crosby County. It was named for Lorenzo Dow, an employee of the C. B. Livestock Company, who secured title to the townsite on April 2, 1910. In July 1910 the Crosbyton-South Plains Townsite Company acquired the title from him, and during the next year the company employed H. E. Smith to survey the town and begin the sale of lots. The first train passed through town in 1911, over track laid by the Crosbyton-South Plains Railroad, and in September of that year Viola Ellison conducted the first school classes in a store built by the C. B. Livestock Company. Also in 1911 the post office was established and Alice McGuire became postmistress, a position she held until 1920. In 1914 W. E. McLaughlin established the community's first bank, and Clay Dunlap built its first garage. Lorenzo was incorporated on April 2, 1924. In 1930 it had a population of 739. Though many residents left during the Great Depressionqv and Dust Bowl,qv in 1940 the population was 616. In 1950 Lorenzo had 935 residents and fifty-seven businesses. Between 1940 and 1962 the school districts of Pleasant Hill, Estacado, Robertson, and Farmer were consolidated with that of Lorenzo, increasing the land area of Lorenzo Consolidated School District to 226 square miles. The community's population was 1,188 in 1960 and 1,206 in 1970. In 1980 the town had a population of 1,394 and thirty-four businesses. In 1990 its population was 1,208. The local economy is supported by cotton farming. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum, A History of Crosby County, 1876-1977 (Dallas: Taylor, 1978). Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis, Through the Years: A History of Crosby County (San Antonio: Naylor, 1952). Edloe A. Jenkins KARLA KT SHAHAN wrote: > Looking for history, stories, accounts of > gypsies/preachers/peddlers/tinkers in the South... > > Does anyone have a Lorenzo Dow, or LD in the family? > > Did anyone's family go to a campmeeting of Gypsy Smith Wigglesworth? > (1860-1947) > [email protected] > ************************************************* > From: Eagle > Date: Sun, 30 May 1999 11:34:46 -0500 > Subject: Re: names > > "Oh I forgot to mention. The Person who carved the Gypsy flower was not > in > this line. He was a Woodroof (that it the correct spelling) His father > was an itinerant preacher and they travelled around in a covered wagon > preaching. This was in Tennessee also. In tracing his roots I find his > father rumoured to be married to Cherokee and having come to Tennessee > with > a band of travelling carpenters in early 1800's. That's all I know now." > > ___________________________________________________________________ > Get the Internet just the way you want it. > Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! > Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. > > ==== Southern-Trails Mailing List ==== > If someone sends a warning about an email virus or asks you to send ANY > message to everybody you know, check out these site to see if it's for real: > IBM AntiVirus Home Page > http://www.av.ibm.com > McAfee: Virus Hoaxes > http://www.mcafee.com/support/hoax.asp > or one of these sites which are very good about virus and > chainletter hoaxes or myths: > http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html > http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACChainLetters.html > http://kumite.com/myths/myths/
Judi, interesting story to me as I do live in Texas. But I wonder how this Lorenzo Dow was related to the old preacher out in Ky shortly after the turn of the 1800 century? Many people in Ky lines were named after him. I have some in the McCoy and Turner families with the name. Jean [email protected]
Looking for history, stories, accounts of gypsies/preachers/peddlers/tinkers in the South... Does anyone have a Lorenzo Dow, or LD in the family? Did anyone's family go to a campmeeting of Gypsy Smith Wigglesworth? (1860-1947) [email protected] ************************************************* From: Eagle Date: Sun, 30 May 1999 11:34:46 -0500 Subject: Re: names "Oh I forgot to mention. The Person who carved the Gypsy flower was not in this line. He was a Woodroof (that it the correct spelling) His father was an itinerant preacher and they travelled around in a covered wagon preaching. This was in Tennessee also. In tracing his roots I find his father rumoured to be married to Cherokee and having come to Tennessee with a band of travelling carpenters in early 1800's. That's all I know now." ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.
okay, this is southern trails, but I found a great webpage to share. http://homepage.rootsweb.com/~maggieoh/mfranklin.html almost to the bottom of the page (this is for Franklin Co Ohio - which is where Columbus is located), there is: Ohio Migration Trails. Click on that and see the trails across Ohio used in early times. I am searching for a man born ca 1787 in VA. I think his family might have come out of Patrick Co VA but not sure, they were in Smith Co TN ca 1806, it is easy to figure from that going across KY to Ohio river and into Ohio. So I am following a man born in south who died in Columbus Ohio in 1827. Think this is going to help me on the southern part of the family - who stayed in TN till about 1827 when they went to Illinois, then by 1850s were in Texas. Remember our families went back on forth in early years, a stop in Ohio or southern Indiana or Illinois was not that odd. Scioto trail - would be the way my man probably traveled. (he was coming out of southwest VA, central TN). But there is Zane's Trace across the state - built in 1796-1797 from Wheeling (now West VA) to Limestone, KY on the ohio. Anyone goint into KY from western VA and PA might have used this route. Mary [email protected]
Sorry, I dont have the address for the list owner, could someone please send me the address? Dont shoot me, thought I had saved it but I sure cann't find it now. Mary [email protected]
http://home.beseen.com/cultures/northernwinds/
The Chicago Tribune of Sunday, July 18 carries the following notice: "Living History Weekend: Metropolis IL July 24-25. Experience the 18th Century as reenactors demonstrate the life of early settlers at Fort Massac State Park. (618) 524-4712." Fort Massac is the point at which many migrants from the East left the Ohio River to begin overland travel. It is almost directly across the Ohio from Paducah, KY.
At one time you could buy this book from Southern Historical Press. It is run by a Rev. Lucas. I don't have their address, but it is in SC, and I don't think they have a website. "Barbara A. Brown" wrote: > > > >I am wondering if anyone knows where I could buy the book "History of Records > >for Orangeburg District, SC, 1768-1865" > > ________________________________________________________ Cynthia Genealogy World http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~genworld Rockwall County TX GenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~txrockwa
> >I am wondering if anyone knows where I could buy the book "History of Records >for Orangeburg District, SC, 1768-1865" The current issue of IIGS newsletter has an article about finding resources ( especially books) on-line. I found it to be amazingly well-written and informative. <vvbg>. http://www.iigs.org/newsletter/9906news/index.htm.en
myrone capstu wrote: > > What is your website address at Southern Trails? I seem to have lost it > somehow. ------------ Whose address? Phylliss SMITH Davis - Glendale [email protected] I am trying to find SMITH's that moved from PA - MA- VA - WV and maybe KY Researching: SMITH SITES REIMEL (RYMEL) KOPP ZIMMERMAN All with connections in Rockingham Co, VA
What is your website address at Southern Trails? I seem to have lost it somehow. _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com
I am searching for a Robert Edward or Ebard Timmons who married Sallie Van (no date). Can anyone help? _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com
I am searching for the James Henry Capps, Sr. family from this area. He married Minnie Lee Mozelle("Zel") Crosby date unknown. Capps was from Salem, North Carolina area. Can anyone help in this search? _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com
someone said Amazon.com - books has a lot of this stuff, which I did not know. You might try the SC genweb page - whatever county Orangeburg District would have been in. Often books are listed, or can be purchased from local historical society, etc. Sometimes someone with the book is listed to do look-ups. That helps a lot, expecially if you find your ancestor is not listed - saves you money. Or if there is a big listing, then you know you want that book. Mary >X-From_: [email protected] Sat Jul 17 22:03:39 1999 >Resent-Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 03:55:41 -0700 (PDT) >From: [email protected] >Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 06:54:52 EDT >Subject: Re: book > > >Hi, > >I am wondering if anyone knows where I could buy the book "History of Records >for Orangeburg District, SC, 1768-1865". I tried Sistlers but they do not >carry it. > >Thanks for any help. >Bonnie > > >==== Southern-Trails Mailing List ==== >Please remember that real people read the messages you post. >Got a problem? Got a gripe? Don't take it to the list! >Send me a message, and I'll try to take care of it: >mailto:[email protected] > > >
I am searching for my mother's family. Her maiden name was Hardman possibly from Columbus, Georgia. These Hardmans were kin to the Houston family of Macon, Georgia or someplace in that close vicinity. Can anyone shed any light on these families for me? _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com
Phylliss Davis wrote: I need your help, please. Looking for a SMITH family in the time period of 1770-1800 that would have been in the South East Pennsylvania area. They or their children/other relatives would have moved on possibly to MD, VA/WV. Their son, William SMITH, was born in the Virginias or Ky, returned to Rockingham County, VA. There he married to Christina SITES, daughter of Christian SITES & Elizabeth REIMEL (RYMEL). Her families came from the Lancaster Co, PA area. I have information regarding William & Christina, but have clue to the parents or siblings for William SMITH. William B. or Barnum SMITH, b. 15 Mat 1793 married 29 Dec 1812 in Rockingham Co, VA (he was under 21 yrs & had to have surety who was Benjamin VANCE I believe William SMITH had siblings, but no clue as to their names. If you have any SMITH's in this area & time period I desperately would like to hear from you as I have exhausted every avenue I can think of. Or do you know any group of people leaving PA, I would like to hear from you. Phylliss Smith Davis - Glendale, AZ Names I am researching: SMITH SITES REIMEL (RYMEL) KOPP ZIMMERMAN
SKIPPER FROM wILMINGTON n.c. i THINK they migrated to Florida with the Advent Christian Church movement early 20th century. Can anyone help? _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com
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