Posted on 05/27/2012 4:49:30 AM PDT by Renfield
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For years, varied and sometimes wild claims have been made about the origins of a group of dark-skinned Appalachian residents once known derisively as the Melungeons. Some speculated they were descended from Portuguese explorers, or perhaps from Turkish slaves or Gypsies.
Now a new DNA study in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy attempts to separate truth from oral tradition and wishful thinking. The study found the truth to be somewhat less exotic: Genetic evidence shows that the families historically called Melungeons are the offspring of sub-Saharan African men and white women of northern or central European origin.....
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Ping for genetic study that might be of some interest...
Ping...Melungeons DNA Appalachia
ping
Is that a Melungeon in the White House?
Boy, you could stir up a hornet’s nest by pursuing that one...
Dinah Shore?
The article mentions 200 such communities in the eastern US. One of the larger ones, the “melange” is from southern WV was not mentioned. Scots/Irish, freed slave, and some Native American is the mix I have been told (family lore as it pops up in one branch of my family tree). Alot from WV came north to PA to work in the mills and surmanes were “Italianized” to “pass” and gain employment. It really is a fascinating story.
Now...i mentioned Family lore!?! Maybe I can now run for the Senate...OR get a sweet job at Harvard:)
No, Melungeons are Americans, you racist.*
(/irony)
My greatgrandmother’s family came from Switzerland in 1849, arriving in New Orleans that year from Genoa, Italy. Her father, who was Italian-Swiss, was very dark complected and his wife was fair, blond and with green eyes.
My greatgrandmother was divorced in the state of Ohio by her husband in 1890, who claimed she was colored, and of negro descent. She had her father’s coloring, with dark brown eyes and black, straight hair.
This was a devastating event for my grandfather, who at age 6 was sent to a boardinghouse in western Massachusetts, his father’s home state, to live among strangers while his father served with the U.S. cavalry elsewhere. My grandfather was blond, with very pale blue eyes.
Greatgrandma sought her son, reclaimed him, and they went to live in East St. Louis, where her parents maintained a business. Eventually they migrated to California. She eventually remarried happily in California to an emigrant from Austria.
My grandfather never had education beyond the 4th grade, but he eventually joined the U.S.Navy out of San Diego, taught himself to type and became the youngest CPO in WWI.
Our nation is made up of many different peoples, and their stories aren’t always happy ones or end well. Fortunately for my family, it did end well.
This is my gg-grandfather's sister on mom's side. She obviously ain't white. My g-grandfather on dad's side was very dark complected too, very Indian looking.
There has never lived on this earth a person who could vouch 100% for the morals of his great great grandmother. No one knows what he is ethnically for certain except perhaps for some remote tribe and even then paternity is uncertain.
Obama’s a Melungeon Jim.
Are you implying the Sheriff is near?
Why would MSNBC run this article now?.....hmmmmm....Elizabeth Warren......the old media is better at providing cover fire than a division of tanks.
Your paternal grandfather (your father’s father) had the same Y-chromosomes as you do. You could do a Y-DNA test at Family Tree DNA or one of those, and learn more about your paternal line.
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