I am an illustrator and art director and I have been researching my family history for sometime now. We hail from Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma and Kentucky although I am still finding out more.

Our surnames are Goins, Goings, Gowens, Barrett, Miller, Clark, Porter, Kell and Kimber.

Apparent the Goins name was a predominant surname of Melungeons found in Tennessee and I'd love to find out more and where the connection lies.

My great, great grandfather George Washington Miller (Kell) was on the Dawes Roll as Eastern Cherokee heritage. Members of my family were on the trail of tears. We have a couple of books written about our Barrett family in Texas specifically regarding the founding of a town by an ex-slave of the same name there.

i'm trying to nail down lore with facts and welcome any additional info which may help. Thanks for reading!