Roma in Fort6 Worth
Started by Owen, Sep 25 2008 07:53 PM
10 replies to this topic
#1
Posted 25 September 2008 - 07:53 PM
I have read that Fort Worth is one of the major Texas gathering places for Roma (Gypsies). I remember seing a Romany family once (well, part of one) in the old Medical Arts building when I was a kid. They gather here periodically for a Kris (Romany court of law), and I think the Rom Baro of the local Kumpania lives here somewhere. Does anyone know where the Roma here live?
#2
Posted 25 September 2008 - 08:38 PM
Not recent news, but in September 1976, there was a Dallas Morning News article about the death of Queen Rosa Evans of the Evans gypsy clan in Fort Worth. Funeral was at the Greek Orthodox Church. Also says the Evans clan settled in FW 30 years before.
There is also an article in the DMN about the Evans on 5-16-76. I got to the scans through UTAs library, so I don't think I can legally post them here...but if you can search the DMN archive online you should find it.
There is also an article in the DMN about the Evans on 5-16-76. I got to the scans through UTAs library, so I don't think I can legally post them here...but if you can search the DMN archive online you should find it.
#3
Posted 26 September 2008 - 12:30 AM
QUOTE (SDiver @ Sep 25 2008, 07:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Not recent news, but in September 1976, there was a Dallas Morning News article about the death of Queen Rosa Evans of the Evans gypsy clan in Fort Worth. Funeral was at the Greek Orthodox Church. Also says the Evans clan settled in FW 30 years before.
There is also an article in the DMN about the Evans on 5-16-76. I got to the scans through UTAs library, so I don't think I can legally post them here...but if you can search the DMN archive online you should find it.
There is also an article in the DMN about the Evans on 5-16-76. I got to the scans through UTAs library, so I don't think I can legally post them here...but if you can search the DMN archive online you should find it.
I got a one-day pass to search the DMN historical archives, and found both stories you mentioned. Thanks.
#4
Posted 26 September 2008 - 05:23 AM
QUOTE (SDiver @ Sep 25 2008, 09:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Not recent news, but in September 1976, there was a Dallas Morning News article about the death of Queen Rosa Evans of the Evans gypsy clan in Fort Worth. Funeral was at the Greek Orthodox Church. Also says the Evans clan settled in FW 30 years before.
There is also an article in the DMN about the Evans on 5-16-76. I got to the scans through UTAs library, so I don't think I can legally post them here...but if you can search the DMN archive online you should find it.
There is also an article in the DMN about the Evans on 5-16-76. I got to the scans through UTAs library, so I don't think I can legally post them here...but if you can search the DMN archive online you should find it.
I think alot of the Evans clan are/were on the East side. In high school I worked at Smith's Gifts and Crafts (a former Ben Franklins) on East Lancaster and they use to come in the store quite a bit (it was a big deal...they were big spenders). I know there are alot of the Evan's buried at Rose Hill in pretty ornate above ground tombs. I remember the tombs because it's the first time I had seen photographs on a grave, which most of them have.
#5
Posted 26 September 2008 - 09:37 PM
801hme,
In what year did you work at Smith's? Do you remember the first names and/or descriptions of the Evans clan? I am 54 and my grandparents first told me about the Evans clan, so I am quite curious.
In what year did you work at Smith's? Do you remember the first names and/or descriptions of the Evans clan? I am 54 and my grandparents first told me about the Evans clan, so I am quite curious.
#6
Posted 27 September 2008 - 09:01 AM
I rember back in early 1940's on way to school at W.J. Turner seeing a Gypsy horse drawn wagon come over the crest of the hill on Azle Av. It was an impressive site with the wash tubs and pots and pans hanging on the sides. Later years saw a family on W. 7th downtown Fort Worth. Girl about my age wearing bright colored silk bandana large gold earrings and bright color long dress. She was pretty cute.
In recent years I read a story about the pomp of a Gypsy funeral where they propped the deceased up and party for several days.
Sorry, I don't know where the Gypsies live in Metroplex area.
In recent years I read a story about the pomp of a Gypsy funeral where they propped the deceased up and party for several days.
Sorry, I don't know where the Gypsies live in Metroplex area.
#7
Posted 27 September 2008 - 09:18 AM
QUOTE (Phil Phillips @ Sep 26 2008, 10:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
801hme,
In what year did you work at Smith's? Do you remember the first names and/or descriptions of the Evans clan? I am 54 and my grandparents first told me about the Evans clan, so I am quite curious.
In what year did you work at Smith's? Do you remember the first names and/or descriptions of the Evans clan? I am 54 and my grandparents first told me about the Evans clan, so I am quite curious.
This would have been around 1981-1985. I don't remember the names of any of them; to be totally honest I don't know that they were Evans. You'd just hear "the Gypsies are here.." and rush out to help them (lol). I'd heard of the Evans clan and had seen the graves at Rose Hill, so I just assumed they were the same. They bought mostly house decorations, porceline statues, pedestal planters and stuff like that. They always spent a few hours in the store & left with their cars loaded. They were usually pretty elaborately dressed and definitely had a style of their own. If the Cline family still owns Smith's they could probably tell you alot more; they kinda knew them, at least from a professional standpoint. I know the store is still there- southeast corner of East Lancaster & Forby.
#8
Posted 29 October 2008 - 12:46 PM
QUOTE (801hme @ Sep 27 2008, 10:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (Phil Phillips @ Sep 26 2008, 10:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
801hme,
In what year did you work at Smith's? Do you remember the first names and/or descriptions of the Evans clan? I am 54 and my grandparents first told me about the Evans clan, so I am quite curious.
In what year did you work at Smith's? Do you remember the first names and/or descriptions of the Evans clan? I am 54 and my grandparents first told me about the Evans clan, so I am quite curious.
This would have been around 1981-1985. I don't remember the names of any of them; to be totally honest I don't know that they were Evans. You'd just hear "the Gypsies are here.." and rush out to help them (lol). I'd heard of the Evans clan and had seen the graves at Rose Hill, so I just assumed they were the same. They bought mostly house decorations, porceline statues, pedestal planters and stuff like that. They always spent a few hours in the store & left with their cars loaded. They were usually pretty elaborately dressed and definitely had a style of their own. If the Cline family still owns Smith's they could probably tell you alot more; they kinda knew them, at least from a professional standpoint. I know the store is still there- southeast corner of East Lancaster & Forby.
They are buried on the front rows of the cemetary on the Hwy 80 side. They even have pictures of the people on the tomb stones very unusual. They always seemed to have a lot of $$$$$
#9
Posted 29 October 2008 - 03:33 PM
My grandparents used to play bridge with the Owens that owned the Owens' Funeral home and I remember Mr. Owens telling a very interesting story about how a big wig Gypsy died and how the gypsies just took over the funeral home. They arrived weeks in advance of the actual service and he literally had to run them off a week after the funeral and they just trashed the place.
Are the Irish Travellers, which have recently been reported in West Fort Worth, an offspring of Gypsies? I think they both speak a secretive form of Romany so know one else understands what they are saying - when needed.
Are the Irish Travellers, which have recently been reported in West Fort Worth, an offspring of Gypsies? I think they both speak a secretive form of Romany so know one else understands what they are saying - when needed.
#10
Posted 29 October 2008 - 10:41 PM
Dont know what clan they are but most of the mobile home parks in White Settlement have been bought by the gypsies. My daughter use to go to the White Settlement school district and you would see them with their kids, they would drive up behind eachother in expensive suvs and they all looked alike. It was almost twilight zoneish.... A wealthy land owner who owned the mobile home parks told us that he sold them the parks. You can tell too, expensive cars and travel trailers and some live in double and triple wides..All the same color..
#11
Posted 29 October 2008 - 11:35 PM
The Irish and Scottish Travellers are not ethnically Romany, though they do sometimes use a variant of the British Romanichal dialect. Romany itself is quite as mongrel as English, being northwest Indian (Punjabi) at base, with heavy admixtures of Iranian, Armenian, Greek, and Slavic.
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