Tow Surname

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Comment by Tony Lee Pope on August 9, 2009 at 12:25am

I am descended from Clarence McKinley Pope, son of Mary Pearl Towe Mathews1 Pope2 who was the daughter of Columbus McDaniel Towe, who was the son of John Jasper Tow, who was the son of William Tow and Rebecca Lance Tow. William and Rebecca came out of the Buncombe County, NC area into the Union County, Georgia area of NE Georgia probably in 1840's. Rebecca was the daughter of Martin B. Lance & Jerusha Fletcher Lance. We have been trying to figure out the parentage of William and believe our mystery may have been solved. We started a Tow/Towe/Tower/Towers DNA project back in May and have several who have joined so far. Clifford "Buz" Towe, Jr. was our known William/Rebecca descendant who participated and last night he came up with an exact match to one of the other submitters. Based on several things, we were looking at William's parents being Jesse and Nancy Haws Tow.

A Lance relative discovered that in one census, Jesse & Nancy Haws Tow were neighbors to Martin B. Lance & Jerusha Fletcher Lance. Naming patterns of Rebecca Lance Tow demonstrated that many of her and William's children were named after her parents and her siblings...but a few were named after no known Lance...including JESSE Martin Tow and NANCY Melinda Tow.

Research indicated that Jesse was born in 1795 to a Mary Tow/Tough and a Bastardy Bond had been signed by a William Wood in Rowan County, NC. The DNA testing has exactly matched Clifford "Buz" Towe to Steve Towe of Asheville, NC. Steve's line goes back to a Charles Tow who was believed to be a brother to Jesse Tow. The DNA evidence seems to be backing this up.