Posted on 08/02/2005 10:20:13 AM PDT by hispanarepublicana
FRANKFORT, Ky. - (KRT) - When S.J. Arthur started tracing her lineage more than 20 years ago, a fellow researcher stammered as she noticed recurring family names.
Was she connected to a unique group of people known as Melungeons, the researcher timidly asked, afraid Arthur might slap her. The reference was once considered a racial slur.
"I could be," Arthur replied. "I just don't know yet."
This weekend Arthur was one of dozens of Melungeon descendants who gathered in Frankfort, Ky., to shed the stigma that plagued their ancestors and try to grasp their mysterious heritage.
The Melungeons have been described as a "tri-racial isolate," with a mixture of white, black and Native American ancestry. Others have claimed Portuguese and Turkish lineage.
Often, they had olive skin, black hair and blue eyes, setting them apart from Scotch-Irish settlers in their native Appalachia.
The group has been there for more than two centuries, enduring discrimination until recently.
There are thought to be 50,000 to 100,000 Melungeons living in the United States today, still concentrated in Appalachia.
Because Melungeons tried to escape their ethnicity and the prejudice attached to it, their descendants have faced difficulty learning about their roots.
"Melungeons have been extremely misunderstood through the years. Some people don't even think they exist as a group," said state historian Ron Bryant.
Wayne Winkler, president of the Melungeon Heritage Association, said this weekend's conference, "Melungeons: Fact or Fiction," will help people understand better where they come from.
"A big part of Melungeon history is folklore," Winkler said. "Nobody was ever listed on a census record as a Melungeon. There isn't a Melungeon DNA marker."
But, Winkler said, last names such as Mullins, Goins, Collins and Gibson were common to Melungeons. Anyone encountering a relative with one of those names from Appalachia probably shares Melungeon heritage.
Until the past 20 years or so, such a branch in the family tree might not have been welcomed.
Ill-behaved children in eastern Tennessee and western Virginia were told the Melungeons would come for them.
Winkler's uncles weren't allowed to attend public school. Instead, they were forced to attend a Presbyterian mission - the Vardy school - in Sneedville, Tenn., for Melungeon children. The school, which opened in 1902, closed in the 1970s.
Most researchers say the word Melungeon - once a pejorative - comes from the French "melange," meaning mixture. Using the epithet against someone was likely to start a fight.
"There's no pure ethnic group," Winkler said. "There was a lot more to it than genetics. It's how people looked at you."
After a successful 1970s play about Melungeons in Hancock County, Tenn. - the center of Melungeon heritage - they became more accepting of their ancestry.
"Nobody would even say it before, and suddenly people were proudly putting it out there," Winkler said.
The Internet brought greater opportunity for Melungeons to trace their genealogy. But records on them were still murky.
"If you find a census record that says someone is a free person of color, that doesn't necessarily mean they were black," the historian Bryant said.
"They really didn't break it down so nicely in the old days. Now, people are embracing subject matter that was taboo. They're looking at it in a historical context. Even if their heritage is mixed, it doesn't matter anyway."
Arthur, vice president of the Melungeon Heritage Association, brought this year's convention to her hometown of Frankfort. The association meets every two years in Wise, Va., and holds its off-year meetings around the South.
"We're looking to discuss some of the migration patterns, some of the history that explains why we're so diverse," she said.
Arthur found her Melungeon heritage through the Mullins line.
"My people are who they are, whatever the combination may be," Arthur said. "It's only recently become acceptable to have a mixed-race heritage. But my personal journey started long before."
Having the convention in Frankfort also provided access to state archives.
The Kentucky Historical Society keeps a file of research for thousands of last names and books with records from surrounding states. The history center holds three files on Melungeons, including letters from 1942 between the secretaries of state for Tennessee and Virginia trying to figure out who the Melungeons were.
Bobbie Foust of Calvert City, Ky., combed court records at the history center Friday in search of information on her great-great-grandparents.
Their children married wealthy European sisters. Foust has had no trouble tracing that side.
But her great-great-grandmother was a Gibson from Appalachia. Records on her are scant.
After she went to the Melungeons' "Second Union" in Wise, Va., five years ago, she learned why: Her forebears were Melungeon.
Johnnie Rhea from Sneedville looked through marriage records Friday. She had difficulty finding information before the first U.S. Census in 1790.
"They didn't leave a paper trail," she said. "A colored person in our area was low, but Melungeons were even lower. We weren't protected."
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© 2005, Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.).
Visit the World Wide Web site of the Herald-Leader at http://www.kentucky.com
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
There are also physical characteristics of Melungeons. One has to do with teeth. I forget what it's called. While I don't buy a lot of what has been written about the Melungeons, they come from the area where I research my own genealogy and they're fascinating people. They tend to get darker in the sun than their neighbors and they often have oral traditions in their family of being Black Dutch or Black Irish, which can mean anything. In many cases, it's just an explanation for being a lot darker than your fair neighbors.
Interesting. My deceased father told me that my maternal grandmother was referred to by the family as being "Black Dutch", but was really a Choctaw.
The family lived in western Arkansas, near Danville.
Anyway to prove it? Dunno. Most of those who would know the trurth are long gone.
The Pics painted their faces blue, IIRC.
Gypsies are originally from India. When they migrated to Europe they did so from Egypt hence, the name Gypsies. (BTW, they steal babies, or so, my mother said when I was young.)
You just can't make this stuff up.
Fugate.
In an American context, mixed race people passing for white would tell others that their darker coloring was due to a Black Dutch or Black Irish ancestry, rather than an African or American Indian grandparent.
As for the Melungeons, researchers have found genetic markers from the Middle East and the Mediterranean in some of them. Middle Eastern ancestry is not found among a surrounding population of British Isles, West African, and American Indian origin. It is probable that at least some of the stories relative to Turkish or Portuguese origin are true.
Well, according to the book the Davinci Code. The holy grail was the daughter of Jesus....she was the challis that held his blood. She was smuggled into France and the Merovingians were her descendants.
My guess would be that the Melungeons are actually the Holy Grail because they now carry the blood.
Hahaha....let's see if we can get this urban legend to fly....pass it on.
The majority of the Scots arrived in and around North Carolina in the mid-1700's after a battle supported by 'Bonnie-Prince-Charles' which they lost. Many fled to America where they made their living by boiling down pine-rosin for pitch used on the ships of the king of England. The term 'tar-heels' comes directly from these people who were always mucking around with pitch, tar and etc.
I had a fascinating opportunity to observe an extended family of gypsies recently. It was outside the Vatican. Three of us had gotten a sandwich and were eating it in a grassed traffic circle near a family of these folks. It was really interesting. The younger women repaired the musical instruments (with tape) while the men took a nap. The smaller children were obviously happy and well-cared for. One little girl needed to go to the bathroom and was in transition to being potty-trained. Her need became a family event that everyone seemed interested in. It wasn't hard to see how these children grow up into lives of crime. They are an integral part of their extended families and cared for there. Yet they remain aloof from the rest of society who shun them because they don't want to loose their wallets...
Near to where I live there are similar people who live in a village called Hillburn and up in the Ramapo Mountains. They are a mixture of old Dutch, black slaves, and Indians. Many of them have Dutch surnames, like Van Dunk or DeFreese. Went to school with quite a few of them.
Lately, they been trying to form a casino by claiming they are a legitimate Indian tribe - the Ramapoughs.
There are a number of tri-racial groups. The Ramapos are one of them. There are some in NC who are not Melungeons and there are some out of Louisiana. Heather Locklear is a descendent of the NC group and I have read that Steve Martin is a descendent of the LA group. I forget their names. Apparently Locklear is a common name in her group and she has publicly said that she is a descendent.
Yes! The TV special discussed that. They were called shovel teeth or scoop teeth or something like that. I was berating my cat for some misdeed at the time and wasn't paying attention.
"The Roma people originally lived in north west India, and migrated to Persia from 224 to 642 CE. They lived under Arab rule in the Middle East from 642 to 900 CE, and eventually arrived in Constantinople. 17 Some authorities believe that there may have been additional migrations at a later date. By the 14th and 15th centuries, they had drifted into western Europe. Some emigrated from Europe to the US and Canada in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Following World War II, and lately the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, there has been an additional westward migration. "
Is the NC group you mentioned the Lumbees? They are prevalent in Robeson County, where the county seat is called Lumberton. The Lumbees have tried in vain to be recognized as an Indian tribe.
Also when the Dutch moved in to South Africa there was already a tribe of Cape Coloreds who were part Portuguese and part Hottentot.
I agree . . . . .fascinating. Here is a link to a number of forums, articles, etc. concerning the Melungeons that you might find interesting to peruse when you have time.
http://www.nativeamericans.com/Melungeon.htm
I live up here in East Tennessee, near Hancock County. I have read about the Melungeons for years, have seen many, and used to work with one.
A Melungeon man wrote a book about them several years ago, and I read a fascinating newspaper article about his book, but can't remember the title or author.
I would be willing to bet there would be some indepth information
about them available from East Tennessee State University or Lincoln Memorial University, both located in east Tennessee/Kentucky area, in the location where the Melungeons are concentrated.
By the way, Lincoln Memorial University is named for President Abraham Lincoln, and has a great deal of information (a great museum) about the president. Lincoln had strong ties to east Tennessee, including family members who lived in Greeneville, TN. President Andrew Johnson was from Greeneville, was a strong Union supporter, and was Lincoln's vice-president, as you know. So some great information is available from these universities for any Civil War buffs out there.
I live up here in East Tennessee, near Hancock County. I have read about the Melungeons for years, have seen many, and used to work with one.
A Melungeon man wrote a book about them several years ago, and I read a fascinating newspaper article about his book, but can't remember the title or author.
I would be willing to bet there would be some indepth information
about them available from East Tennessee State University or Lincoln Memorial University, both located in east Tennessee/Kentucky area, in the location where the Melungeons are concentrated.
By the way, Lincoln Memorial University is named for President Abraham Lincoln, and has a great deal of information (a great museum) about the president. Lincoln had strong ties to east Tennessee, including family members who lived in Greeneville, TN. President Andrew Johnson was from Greeneville, was a strong Union supporter, and was Lincoln's vice-president, as you know. So some great information is available from these universities for any Civil War buffs out there.
This term is usually associated with Asians. SE Asians have Sundondont teeth and North Asians have Sinodont teeth. American Indians have Sinodont teeth and Kennewick Man had Sundodont teeth.
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