Ping for genetic study that might be of some interest...
Ping...Melungeons DNA Appalachia
Is that a Melungeon in the White House?
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:)
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.
Why would MSNBC run this article now?.....hmmmmm....Elizabeth Warren......the old media is better at providing cover fire than a division of tanks.
I believe Elvis was of melungeon ancestry
If they swabbed Lizzy Warren’s High cheekbones what would they find? Her DNA would show she is a dummy with the distinct proclivity to lie.
Holy mackerel!
This was one of those stories that circulated around the campfire back in the 70’s. Rumor was that in Western PA was this group (I heard it pronounced “Melosians”) to whom was attributed all sorts of, shall we say, backwards/backwoods behaviors.
Always took it as one of those “scary tales” like the hook in the car door thing.
Funny how stories tend to morph and propagate, eh?
“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...