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.
I've heard that too, although most Lincoln biographers dispute this claim, showing solid evidence that unless "a dog jumped the fence," Abe was of Welsh and English ancestry. Makes sense as he had the classic Welsh dark haired features (see Tom Jones and Catherine Zeta Jones).
Yes, they're Lumbees! And Locklear is a Lumbee descendent. It's interesting because she is so blonde. But that is a characteristic of these groups. Even children of the same family can be fair and blonde, dark and brunette and red-headed. So you really can't necessarily tell by appearance.
Yes, it's shovel teeth. You can probably find a drawing somewhere on the internet. I have one somewhere in my archives. You can tell by running your tongue along the back of your teeth. This is a characteristic that can carry forward by hundreds of years.
Never expect a movie to teach you history. The "blue" in braveheart was for Hollywood effect.
I saw a show with a British historian, and she said maybe very primitive tribes perhaps did this at one time, but the practice was way over by the time of Braveheart.
They also had a famous bridge battle in Braveheart without the bridge. Cost too much money. LOL.
delviverance alert.
I don't know if she's REALLY blonde. I saw a pic of her sis one time and she was dark haired.
"Even children of the same family can be fair and blonde, dark and brunette and red-headed."
Holy cow ! Don't let the good citizens of Pella, Iowa find out about this.
I've been reading off and on about melungeons for a few years. In terms of DNA, they are closely related to the people who live in Tripoli. The physical characteristics of the melungeons ( a bump on the back of the head) is something they have in common with the turks.The turkish word melungeon means damned people.I find melugeons fascinating.
The documentary (I believe it was from the National Geographic Channel) mentioned that Melungeon descendants often have shovel teeth.
I think I have shovel teeth, but one Uncle has a bump on the back of his head.
Here's a link to a picture (won't let me right-click). Yes, I do indeed have "shovel teeth", but that's probably thanks to the Mexican Indian in me. The info I read said it's an "Asian" or "Indian" trait. So, it's fair to say that if someone has shovel teeth, they are not pure Northern European?
doh! forgot the link: http://www.derweb.co.uk/imgsearch/imglibrary.asp?code=2580&UserID=20601
And... I've got the bump on the back of the head, too. But no relatives with the last names mentioned!
Never knew if he was kidding...
Picts.
(hundreds of FReepers currently sit at computers; one hand on mouse; one hand on back of head feeling for a lump).
That's my understanding, although I haven't read about this for a number of years.
snipped this from a web site:
MELUNGEON PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
There are some physiological characteristics which are called ethnic markers, that seem to
be passed on through the lines of some Melungeon descendants. There is a bump on the back of the HEAD of SOME descendants, that is located at mid-line, just ABOVE the juncture with the neck. It is about the size and shape of half a golf ball or smaller. This is called an ANATOLIAN BUMP, and indicates ancestry from the Anatolian region of Turkey. If you cannot find the bump, check to see if you, like some descendants, including myself, have a ridge, located at the base of the head where it joins the neck, rather than the Anatolian bump.
This ridge is an enlargement of the base of the skull, which is called a Central Asian Cranial Ridge. My ridge is quite noticeable. It is larger than anyone else's that I have felt, except my father's. I can lay one finger under it and the ridge is as deep as my finger is thick. Other ridges are smaller. To find a ridge, place your hand at the base of your neck where it joins your shoulders, and on the center line of your spine. Run your fingers straight up your neck toward your head. If you have a ridge, it will stop your fingers from going on up and across your head. ONLY people who live/d in the Anatolian region of Turkey or Central Asia also have this "bump/ridge.
"
There is also a ridge on the back of the first four teeth - two front teeth and the ones on either side (upper and lower) of some descendants. If you place your fingernail at the gum line and gently draw (up or down) you can feel it and it makes a slight clicking sound. The back of the teeth also curve outward rather than straight as the descendants of anglo-saxon parentage do. Teeth like these are called Asian Shovel Teeth.
Many Indian descendants also have this type of teeth. The back of the first four teeth of Northern European descendants are straight and flat.
What an interesting story! Just last night I was talking with my friend's girlfriend and this very topic came up. Her family is originally from North Carolina and fits many of the characteristics of the Melungeons. When I first met her, I thought she must be at least biracial, probably triracial, but I had no idea what races those were and which ones predominated in her heritage. Turns out, she doesn't know either. Her family has traced back their lineage all the way to mid-1700s North Carolina. They have yet to find a direct ancestor who was not of mixed race. They have searched for an ancestor who was all white or all black, and just cannot find one in 250 years. Most of the time, they can't even tell what races these ancestors were descended from - they just know that they were "mixed" but mixed what is anyone's guess. They theorize that their family is a mix of English, African, and Native American blood, but Melungeon is also a distinct possibility.
Have her do the "tooth & head" test. See my post #78.
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