DNA study seeks origin of Appalachia's Melungeons

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.....

I attended high school with many people sharing my surname. I was related to all the white ones, possibly related to some of the black ones and had a black male student in my graduating class with the same full name, whose ancestors were owned by my third great uncle. Oddly enough, we got along well, were even on track team together.

My own direct line married Moravian and Quaker women who frowned upon slavery, so there was little of it in the direct line, but other branches didn’t have that moderating influence. That third great uncle was next door neighbor to Peter Hairston on the Dan River, who was one of the largest slaveholders in Virginia or North Carolina, and he followed suit. They named children after one another.

>> I see you refer to the autosomal angle at ftdna which is relatively new. Have seen many with any successes yet? <<

I’ve seen a few cases of success here and there. But nothing like the successes that have occurred in the Y-chromosome (exclusively-male DNA) area. Now on the one hand, the number of successes should increase as more and more people have this new type of test; but on the other hand, I don’t think it will ever be as useful as Y-DNA testing.

>> I have only gone ydna route trying to extend my surname, but I wonder how good the claim to link relatives to the “gg gp level”. <<

The autosomal tests definitely work. If you and a bunch of your third cousins all have these tests, you will have some degree of matching with ca. 90% of them. But you will match only about 50% of your fourth cousins, and maybe only 15% or so of your 5th cousins, 1% of your 6th cousins, and so forth. Therefore, the test is definitely limited in usefulness.

You ARE likely, however, to find literally hundreds of autosomal matches with people who are your “probable” 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th cousins. But these matches almost never pay off, because virtually nobody can identify more than just a fraction of their hundreds of GGG, GGGG, GGGGG, GGGGGG and GGGGGGG grandparents.

(I calculate that you have 1060 of the above sorts of grandparents, assuming there have been no close-cousin marriages among your ancestors. Moreover, somebody has said that if you walk down the street in most parts of the USA, at least half of the folks you meet will be your 7th or 8th cousins. There truly are millions of them!)

>> It is interesting how some in the genealogical community are not embracing the trend toward dna research. <<

There used to be a lot of outright hostility. For example, some Rootsweb list administrators would ban you if you even MENTIONED the subject of DNA testing! But nowadays, that attitude seems almost to have disappeared among serious researchers.

>> In fact a distant cousin who wrote a genealogy of our common ancestor became outright disgusted when the Haplogroup of a desc. was established. This genealogical work of this individual was well done, and in fact quoted by NEHGS in one of their articles. When I emailed him, wanting his thoughts, he responded, “I don’t beleive in this Haplogroup” bs. And this guy was a college professor no less. <<

Obviously a jerk. Looks to me as if you need to do a better job of selecting your distant cousins!

“Melungeons are the offspring of sub-Saharan African men and white women of northern or central European origin”

I have no science at hand to dispute the writer’s assertion of the origins of Melungeons, only a lifetime of observations. I grew up in an area with whites and blacks, and white/black mulattos. I have also traveled in areas with Melungeon populations, principally Sneedville and Newman’s Ridge in Hancock County, TN, and across the line in the Blackwater, VA area.

In those areas I have not seen any white/black mulattos. The people I have seen, who I believe would claim to be Melungeons, were swarthy, but not as in black ancestry (white/black mulatto). Furthermore, the hair color and texture of Melungeons I have seen, while dark, was straight.

I see white/black mixed people almost every day and they do not look like the Melungeons I have seen. Some American Indian descent I would believe. If African is an admixture, and perhaps it is, it would seem to me to be very minor.

Perhaps others’s experiences are different and possibly isolated groups of Melungeons have completely different racial heritages.

Can someone help me understand this caption from the story:

“Jack Goins poses with a photo dated to have been taken in 1898 of his step-great-great grandfather George Washington Goins, who died in 1817, left, and great-great grandmother, Susan Minor-Goins who died in 1813 at the Hawkins County Archives Project building Wednesday, May 23, 2012 in Rogersville, Tenn. “

I think MSNBC is off by 100 years on the dates of death, or those photos show excellently embalmed relatives...

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