As soon as the Gourdin(e) Reunion became a focal point in my life, I began to wonder how the Greenes fit in among the Gourdin(e) families. The extended Gourdin(e) family consists of the Greenes and a number of other families, including the Alstons, Bennetts, Brunsons, Burroughs, Coopers, Grissets, Harvins, Johnsons, Maxwells, Middletons, Moyds, Parkers, Pinos, Princes, Prioleaus, Simths, Sumpters, Timmonses, Toomers, Washingtons, Wilsons and certainly others.

As a boy growing up in Baltimore I was always aware of the Gourdin(e) name as it related to the Greenes but I never knew much beyond that. I knew my late paternal grandmother Florence's maiden name was Gourdin, and I would often hear the Gourdin(e) name from time to time just overhearing bits and pieces from my late father, James I. Greene, or uncle David Greene or my aunt Anna Bell Greene Morton and others.

It was not until the Gourdin(e) Family Reunion in 1995 in Myrtle Beach that I began to make a connection with the Greenes and Gourdin(e)s. Of course, to my delight, the connection has been there for well over 100 years in Andrews and Oceda in Georgetown County, South Carolina.

Just as the Gourdin(e)s can be traced to the area over an extended number of years, it seems that so can the Greenes. While the origin of the Gourdin(e) family in America is well documented in Raymond Gourdin's book, "Gourdin: A French-African-American Family From South Carolina," how far the Greenes go back in Georgetown County is little known by me. If only for my personal interest, I hope to find out.

At the Myrtle Beach Reunion, I bought a copy of Raymond Gourdin's book. While thumbing through the names, I came across the name of Monday Greene. Who was Monday Greene I immediately wanted to know.

As it turned out, Monday Greene was my great, great grandfather. Seeing the name Monday Greene was quite a revelation. As it turned out, it was already clear, from the book, that on the Gourdin side my great grandfather was William Issac Gourdin, grandmother Florence's father, and my great grandfather was William Perry Gourdin.

But again I wondered, who was Monday Greene and did he fit into the larger scheme of things that is the Gourdin(e) Family.

Through discussions with Raymond Gourdin since Myrtle Beach I have learned much about the connection between the Greenes and Gourdin(e)s in the Andrews area. The connection was a strong one.

First, around the 1870s, both Monday Greene and William Perry Gourdin were both pillars of the community, according to "Gourdin: A French-African- American Family From South Carolina." Both were churchmen. Around that time they became trustees of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, which was the foundation for an African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E) church in the area. In 1873, as trustees of the church, they were conveyed land from the estate of Theodore Louis Gourdin (deceased) to establish a church that gave blacks a place to worship.

Witnessing the land conveyance was Paris G. Gourdin, William Perry Gourdin's youngest of six siblings. Interestingly, Paris G. Gourdin was the great grandfather of Raymond Gourdin.

The documented relationship between Monday Greene, William Perry Gourdin and Paris G. Gourdin and the church offers a glimpse of the ties between the Greenes and Gourdins.

The connection was further tightened when grandmother Florence, William Perry Gourdin's granddaughter, married my late grandfather Thomas Greene, who was Monday Greene's grandson. Both were born in Oceda and they were married on Sept. 17, 1915, when grandmother Florence was 22 years old and grandfather Thomas was 23.

The other part of the Greene-Gourdin(e) connection involved David Greene. Not my uncle David Greene, but David Greene, son of Monday Greene and father of Thomas Green. In the early 1900s on several occasions it was David Greene who signed the death certificates for Gourdin(e)s and others in the community as an informant, or provider of information.

This suggests that my great grandfather David Greene also was a pillar of the community and someone the Gourdin(e)s and others trusted to perform such a duty. It also meant he had intricate knowledge of the Gourdin(e)s.

I still hope to learn more about the Greene-Gourdin(e) connection, and I encourage other Gourdin(e) extended families members to do the same. The challenge to the extended families is to look for similar connections that really do bring us together as a family. I'm sure there are examples of the connections among the various families in family bibles, on birth and death certificates, in newspaper, clippings, journals, deeds and personal papers.