About us
The purpose of this project is to gather Y DNA information on Gower family groups.
The name has a number of roots.
Saxon, Old English, and Norman - Go(h)ier - Old German Godehar = gode (good) heri, hari = army.
Norman and French (came to England with the Normans)
Gohiere - a district north of Paris
Guoy - name of various places in northern France
Gallo-Roman name Gaudius
Gower (Gwr) peninsula in southern Wales.
The surname Gore has partial entymological overlap with Gower, but also has several roots not in common with Gower. Gore has its own Y DNA project. Generally there doesn't appear to be alot of shared lineages between the two names; though once they often turned on the spelling of a name, like "Goer", they typically went one way or the other during medieval times. "Goer" often came from Flanders, and the name Gore could also come from Gara, old English for a triangular piece of land.
Several aristocratic families in England have the name Gower. One family lived in Sittenham, Yorkshire. They were descended from Alan Gower, Sheriff of Yorkshire about 1066, and Lord o fStittenham, from Goher, Normandy. This according to assorted Internet pages on surname history. The Worcester family is sometimes confused with them.
The Worcester family lived in the next county north of Worcester (whatsitsname) by the 14th century. They were soon gentry, intermarrying with gentry and minor aristocrats among them. They were believed to have intermarried with a major aristocratic line but probably didn't. Some branches of them moved to the vicinity of Worcester. There is some speculation that the family may have come from the Gower peninsula in Wales, as they'd have likely travelled through the west midlands if they did so, but the Y DNA is Saxon, and the name could have Saxon derivation. Later one branch became prone to repeating the names Abel and William in every family unit in every generation. Atleast half a dozen of this family were early settlers in Virginia. A group of relative latecomers of this name have rise to a line of William's and Abel's, and two lines. One line went to South Carolina and Georgia, and the other line intermarried with the Robertson family who founded Nashville, Tennessee.
My brother, a Smith, descended from a Scotch Irish settler in Chester County, Pennsylvania, from Ireland in the 1790's, is a close Y DNA match to a member of the Nashville, Tennessee Gower family whose people still live in Nashville. My particular interest in this project is to try to demonstrate whether the Y DNA lineage is Smith or Gower. The nearest common ancestor of these two people appears to have lived most likely in the 17th century, possibly before either line came to America. Testing a member of the South Carolina/ Georgia line of the Gower family is one good way to begin to investigate this. I would like to know whether Jim Gower's line is really Smith, or my Smith's hale from Worcester. 20% of the Scotch Irish did not originate in Scotland, but became Presbyterian on account of Calvinistic (in England, Puritan) theology or intermarraige, and many people went to both Ireland and the Atlantic colonies from the west midlands of England. A Smith youngster who was illegitimate might have gone to Ireland for that reason.
I researched the Gower family of Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia in some depth. When trying to pin down a nonpaternity event it pays to know who was where when. My work is in a database at Rootsweb Worldconnect, at
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=virginiagower&id=I3 . The roots of this family were poorly kept track of in its first generations. Online it is most commonly reported that Abel Gower Sr, who intermarried with the Robertson family and accompanied him to found Nashville together with his family, was the son of Abel Gower, a gentleman of Abel Gower of Henrico County, Virginia, and his wife Jane Hatcher/ Branch. That family was interesting; they were wealthy planters and international traders based in London and Viriginia, and personal friends with the leaders of the Virginia colony. However I proved that Abel Gower Sr was not his son, and I think that Jim Gower, my brother's Y DNA match, proved that before me, based on what he said. Abell and his brother who went to South Carolina were the sons of William Gower and Anne Huckabee, of Brunswick County, Virgnia, unless William had a brother Abel and they were actually his sons. Much information reported by Abel Sr's grandchildren was vague and garbled and has been proven wrong. This William was most likely, but not necessarily, on of a family that came from England in 1725, which included I think a William, an Abel, a George and a Letitia. Alternatively he may have been one of as many of a half dozen William Gower's who settled in that part of Virginia. It is not necessarily true that he was not immediately related to Abel Gower of Henrico County, who had a brother William who settled not far from where William Gower the father of Abel Sr. later turns up. It doesn't help that the counties kept changing names. There is however strong circumstantial evidence in the naming pattern that both the Henrico County family and the family of Abel Gower Sr were ultimately of the Worcester family. Gower isn't that common a name and the use of Abel as a given name was unusual. The repetition of the names William and Abell in every family unit, generation after generation, is very distinctive.
The name has a number of roots.
Saxon, Old English, and Norman - Go(h)ier - Old German Godehar = gode (good) heri, hari = army.
Norman and French (came to England with the Normans)
Gohiere - a district north of Paris
Guoy - name of various places in northern France
Gallo-Roman name Gaudius
Gower (Gwr) peninsula in southern Wales.
The surname Gore has partial entymological overlap with Gower, but also has several roots not in common with Gower. Gore has its own Y DNA project. Generally there doesn't appear to be alot of shared lineages between the two names; though once they often turned on the spelling of a name, like "Goer", they typically went one way or the other during medieval times. "Goer" often came from Flanders, and the name Gore could also come from Gara, old English for a triangular piece of land.
Several aristocratic families in England have the name Gower. One family lived in Sittenham, Yorkshire. They were descended from Alan Gower, Sheriff of Yorkshire about 1066, and Lord o fStittenham, from Goher, Normandy. This according to assorted Internet pages on surname history. The Worcester family is sometimes confused with them.
The Worcester family lived in the next county north of Worcester (whatsitsname) by the 14th century. They were soon gentry, intermarrying with gentry and minor aristocrats among them. They were believed to have intermarried with a major aristocratic line but probably didn't. Some branches of them moved to the vicinity of Worcester. There is some speculation that the family may have come from the Gower peninsula in Wales, as they'd have likely travelled through the west midlands if they did so, but the Y DNA is Saxon, and the name could have Saxon derivation. Later one branch became prone to repeating the names Abel and William in every family unit in every generation. Atleast half a dozen of this family were early settlers in Virginia. A group of relative latecomers of this name have rise to a line of William's and Abel's, and two lines. One line went to South Carolina and Georgia, and the other line intermarried with the Robertson family who founded Nashville, Tennessee.
My brother, a Smith, descended from a Scotch Irish settler in Chester County, Pennsylvania, from Ireland in the 1790's, is a close Y DNA match to a member of the Nashville, Tennessee Gower family whose people still live in Nashville. My particular interest in this project is to try to demonstrate whether the Y DNA lineage is Smith or Gower. The nearest common ancestor of these two people appears to have lived most likely in the 17th century, possibly before either line came to America. Testing a member of the South Carolina/ Georgia line of the Gower family is one good way to begin to investigate this. I would like to know whether Jim Gower's line is really Smith, or my Smith's hale from Worcester. 20% of the Scotch Irish did not originate in Scotland, but became Presbyterian on account of Calvinistic (in England, Puritan) theology or intermarraige, and many people went to both Ireland and the Atlantic colonies from the west midlands of England. A Smith youngster who was illegitimate might have gone to Ireland for that reason.
I researched the Gower family of Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia in some depth. When trying to pin down a nonpaternity event it pays to know who was where when. My work is in a database at Rootsweb Worldconnect, at
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=virginiagower&id=I3 . The roots of this family were poorly kept track of in its first generations. Online it is most commonly reported that Abel Gower Sr, who intermarried with the Robertson family and accompanied him to found Nashville together with his family, was the son of Abel Gower, a gentleman of Abel Gower of Henrico County, Virginia, and his wife Jane Hatcher/ Branch. That family was interesting; they were wealthy planters and international traders based in London and Viriginia, and personal friends with the leaders of the Virginia colony. However I proved that Abel Gower Sr was not his son, and I think that Jim Gower, my brother's Y DNA match, proved that before me, based on what he said. Abell and his brother who went to South Carolina were the sons of William Gower and Anne Huckabee, of Brunswick County, Virgnia, unless William had a brother Abel and they were actually his sons. Much information reported by Abel Sr's grandchildren was vague and garbled and has been proven wrong. This William was most likely, but not necessarily, on of a family that came from England in 1725, which included I think a William, an Abel, a George and a Letitia. Alternatively he may have been one of as many of a half dozen William Gower's who settled in that part of Virginia. It is not necessarily true that he was not immediately related to Abel Gower of Henrico County, who had a brother William who settled not far from where William Gower the father of Abel Sr. later turns up. It doesn't help that the counties kept changing names. There is however strong circumstantial evidence in the naming pattern that both the Henrico County family and the family of Abel Gower Sr were ultimately of the Worcester family. Gower isn't that common a name and the use of Abel as a given name was unusual. The repetition of the names William and Abell in every family unit, generation after generation, is very distinctive.