by Phillip G. Goff, GGFA Director of Genetic Genealogy
Membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) requires thorough documentation. When an ancestor with previously unrecognized service is proposed, the applicant must go beyond proving descent from a patriot, but also establish that ancestor’s residence and service during the Revolutionary War. Recent discoveries related to John Turton Goff offer valuable lessons on approaches to these research challenges.
John Turton Goff was one of four brothers who were born in the 1730s and 1740s who established claims on land in Monongalia County, Virginia in the 1770s. This area today is in Preston and Tucker Counties, West Virginia. The DAR has previously recognized James Goff (DAR Ancestor A046030), Thomas Goff (A046079) and Salathiel Goff (A046062) as Revolutionary War patriots. The DAR has flagged Thomas Goff’s service as requiring additional documentation from future applicants and has also noted that descendants of Salathiel Goff through his son John will requirement clarification of his tree.
The DAR requires that proof of service and residency during the American Revolutionary War (1775 – 1783) come from different documents. Proof of John Turton Goff’s service is primarily from the oaths of fidelity he made to the Committee for Adjusting Land Claims in order to obtain land grants. In addition, John Turton Goff served ran a public auction, which could only be performed by those who made an oath of fidelity. These two sources cannot also be used to prove residency. Looming over the need to prove John Turton Goff’s residency during the period 1775 – 1783 is the 1796 Monongalia County, Virginia court house fire, which destroyed records dating to the formation of the county in 1776. A very rare instance of a record from the Monongalia County courthouse that was transcribed before the 1796 fire has been located and provides the key evidence of John Turton Goff’s residence.
As of April 2025, two DAR applications under John Turton Goff are pending the DAR’s acceptance of the residency proof. The assembled documentation appears to meet the DAR’s requirement that documentation of residency during the Revolutionary War period be mutually exclusive of documentation of patriotic or civil service.
Phillip Goff is the co-author, along with Roy L. Lockhart, of The Four Goff Brothers of Western Virginia. Since 2004, he has run the Goff/Gough Surname DNA Study, which today has about 500 participants.
For more information, please check our GGFA DNA Surname Study pages or email Phil at dna@goff-gough.com. Each new participant helps to fill in the history of the Goff/Gough families.