William & Annester are not from Goochland County!

The timelines and the factual information between the couples in Goochland and Bedford Counties have been thoroughly evaluated and it is our opinion, and the professionals that we’ve worked with, that these two couples ARE NOT the same couple.


For the purpose of this document, I will use the term “Goochland Couple” to reflect that of William Gowan & Annastasia/Honesty/Aunotice (Sullivan) and the “Bedford Couple” to reflect William Gowin/Going and Annester (Unknown).

The work collected within the Gowen Research Foundation and the statements made by Dr. DeMarce have caused many to consider the Goochland couple the same couple as the Bedford couple. This belief is based solely on an opinion due to similar forenames of both of the wives of the William. Ana Stacia/Honesty/Aunotice are more similar to one another than they are to Anister/Anester/Annester phonetically and I have conferred with many historical and professional researchers of this period who concur.

We have solid evidence that our ancestor, William Gowin/Gowen/Going, resided in Bedford County in 1752, 1757, 1758, 1759, 1762 while at the same time the Goochland couple and/or a “William Going/etc.” was recorded. It is very unlikely that the Bedford couple or the William of Bedford was in Goochland County during this period. A separate post will demonstrate that these two couples were not the same.

Based on the evidence provided, we have asked that the Gowen Research Foundation modify the manuscript records to reflect that there was a William Gowan and Annastasia/Honesty/Aunotice Sullivan in Goochland County but little else is known other than the information confined to Goochland County during from 1740 forward which includes the information as recorded by Paul Heinegg, and the Goochland County tax lists, land deeds, court documents, etc. This change will also mean that the children born to the Goochland couple (Anna Stasia and James) along with all other references in Goochland are only included with the Goochland couple. One of the manuscripts requiring modification is located at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gowenrf/Gowenms136.htm.

Further, we have asked that the Bedford County couple, who are the ancestors of those copied, are separated from the Goochland County couple and parsed into a separate manuscript that begins on 10 Jun 1752 in Lunenburg/Bedford County in the district of John Phelps and continues within Bedford County until they are in Madison County KY in 1799. If a new manuscript/record is required for the Bedford County couple, the descendants of this family will be happy to rewrite it to provide the factual information using the timeline and events recorded in Bedford County from the period 1752 to 1799 and include the counties their descendants traveled to.

Some have inferred that the Bedford couple, or at least William, may be related to the surrounding Gowen families in Lunenburg County. Through the use of Y-DNA, the descendants of the Bedford County couple have proven that William Gowin/Going is part of a subclade that is believed to be indigenous to the British Isles and specifically to Scotland. This likely means that his ancestors were on the British Isles prior to his or their arrival to the colonies. It also demonstrates that he and his descendants did not belong to the mulatto GOWEN family believed to have descended from Mihil (a freed slave) and that also resided in Lunenburg and surrounding areas in the same period. The male descendants of Mihil belong to a different Y-DNA haplogroup. Parents of the Bedford County couple have not been identified. However, we have enough information to believe that William was likely born between 1725-1734 and Annester was likely younger based on the timeframe in which we infer she died.

I appreciate all of the work provided by those involved who have helped us sort through the factual information within historical archives to successfully reach this conclusion. Additional work is ongoing to determine more about the Bedford County couple and their prolific family.