Origin of Appalachia's Melungeons

[Pedaling Fool]

Interesting article about the Appalachian region.

http://news.yahoo.com/dna-study-seek...201144041.html

DNA study seeks origin of Appalachia's Melungeons

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) —

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.

And that report, which was published in April in the peer-reviewed journal, doesn't sit comfortably with some people who claim Melungeon ancestry.

"There were a whole lot of people upset by this study," lead researcher Roberta Estes said. "They just knew they were Portuguese, or Native American."

Beginning in the early 1800s, or possibly before, the term Melungeon (meh-LUN'-jun) was applied as a slur to a group of about 40 families along the Tennessee-Virginia border. But it has since become a catch-all phrase for a number of groups of mysterious mixed-race ancestry.

In recent decades, interest in the origin of the Melungeons has risen dramatically with advances both in DNA research and in the advent of Internet resources that allow individuals to trace their ancestry without digging through dusty archives.

G. Reginald Daniel, a sociologist at the University of California-Santa Barbara who's spent more than 30 years examining multiracial people in the U.S. and wasn't part of this research, said the study is more evidence that race-mixing in the U.S. isn't a new phenomenon.

"All of us are multiracial," he said. "It is recapturing a more authentic U.S. history."

Estes and her fellow researchers theorize that the various Melungeon lines may have sprung from the unions of black and white indentured servants living in Virginia in the mid-1600s, before slavery.

They conclude that as laws were put in place to penalize the mixing of races, the various family groups could only intermarry with each other, even migrating together from Virginia through the Carolinas before settling primarily in the mountains of East Tennessee.

Claims of Portuguese ancestry likely were a ruse they used in order to remain free and retain other privileges that came with being considered white, according to the study's authors.
The study quotes from an 1874 court case in Tennessee in which a Melungeon woman's inheritance was challenged. If Martha Simmerman were found to have African blood, she would lose the inheritance.

Her attorney, Lewis Shepherd, argued successfully that the Simmerman's family was descended from ancient Phoenicians who eventually migrated to Portugal and then to North America.

Writing about his argument in a memoir published years later, Shepherd stated, "Our Southern high-bred people will never tolerate on equal terms any person who is even remotely tainted with negro blood, but they do not make the same objection to other brown or dark-skinned people, like the Spanish, the Cubans, the Italians, etc."

In another lawsuit in 1855, Jacob Perkins, who is described as "an East Tennessean of a Melungeon family," sued a man who had accused him of having "negro blood."

In a note to his attorney, Perkins wrote why he felt the accusation was damaging. Writing in the era of slavery ahead of the Civil War, Perkins noted the racial discrimination of the age: "1st the words imply that we are liable to be indicted (equals) liable to be whipped (equals) liable to be fined ... "

Later generations came to believe some of the tales their ancestors wove out of necessity.

Jack Goins, who has researched Melungeon history for about 40 years and was the driving force behind the DNA study, said his distant relatives were listed as Portuguese on an 1880 census. Yet he was taken aback when he first had his DNA tested around 2000. Swabs taken from his cheeks collected the genetic material from saliva or skin cells and the sample was sent to a laboratory for identification.

"It surprised me so much when mine came up African that I had it done again," he said. "I had to have a second opinion. But it came back the same way. I had three done. They were all the same."

In order to conduct the larger DNA study, Goins and his fellow researchers — who are genealogists but not academics — had to define who was a Melungeon.

In recent years, it has become a catchall term for people of mixed-race ancestry and has been applied to about 200 communities in the eastern U.S. — from New York to Louisiana.
Among them were the Montauks, the Mantinecocks, Van Guilders, the Clappers, the Shinnecocks and others in New York. Pennsylvania had the Pools; North Carolina the Lumbees, Waccamaws and Haliwas and South Carolina the Redbones, Buckheads, Yellowhammers, Creels and others. In Louisiana, which somewhat resembled a Latin American nation with its racial mixing, there were Creoles of the Cane River region and the Redbones of western Louisiana, among others.

The latest DNA study limited participants to those whose families were called Melungeon in the historical records of the 1800s and early 1900s in and around Tennessee's Hawkins and Hancock Counties, on the Virginia border some 200 miles northeast of Nashville.

The study does not rule out the possibility of other races or ethnicities forming part of the Melungeon heritage, but none were detected among the 69 male lines and 8 female lines that were tested. Also, the study did not look for later racial mixing that might have occurred, for instance with Native Americans.
Goins estimates there must be several thousand descendants of the historical Melungeons alive today, but the study only examined unbroken male and female lines.

The origin of the word Melungeon is unknown, but there is no doubt it was considered a slur by white residents in Appalachia who suspected the families of being mixed race.

"It's sometimes embarrassing to see the lengths your ancestors went to hide their African heritage, but look at the consequences" said Wayne Winkler, past president of the Melungeon Heritage Association. "They suffered anyway because of the suspicion."

The DNA study is ongoing as researchers continue to locate additional Melungeon descendants.

[WIAPilot]

I was reading about this study this morning. Knowing the region, I can imagine that they were not happy with this new information. LOL. It reminds me of a dear friend that I've known all my life as he grew up next door to my mom. As I became older, I learned that he was quite biased against Jews. That really upset me. About 5 years ago, he learned that he was Jewish!! LOL His parents were Jewish until they came to America. I absolutely loved it! (And he has definitely stopped speaking badly about Jewish individuals.)

[rocketsocks]

Very interesting John,My doctor was reading abook called "Gods Crucible"which was about this very thing,not the Melungeon aspect per se,but the fact that many decended from 4 main factions from northern Africa,basicly that whole Lucy the mummy story.A family decending from Scotland to the Americas,just may have decended from the Turks.

[Majortrauma]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this. I grew up in the Southern Tier of NY and the Vanderpools (Pools) of Towanda, PA were quite well known. Lots of stories about them that no one ever verified but which were frequently repeated.

[Mags]

Common for people of darker complexion to claim they are of Mediterranean background. By quirks of society, culture and history slightly darker skinned people from one side of the Mediterranean are 'white'..those who are slightly darker from another side of the Mediterranean people are 'non-white'. Even if both share common ancestral roots. On the same theme, very pale complected and Cuban? You are Latino. Dark complected and Sicilian? You are white.

So, not surprised a group of people claimed Portugese ancestry as it was a way to get around race law and prejudice.

So it goes with the sticky situation that is 'race'. :O

[Cookerhiker]

And there's another group not cited in the article: When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s in the Northeastern NJ suburbs, I heard of the so-called "Jackson Whites" who lived in the Ramapo "mountains" of Passaic and Western Bergen counties near my Scout camp. They were supposedly backwoods (and backwards) mixed-race folks who had lived there since the Revolution.

Did a little searching now - here's the Wikipedia reference. Unlike the Melungeons, they apparently had much Native American blood, mixed with English & Dutch and possibly some African.

[vamelungeon]

I read that article earlier today, and have quite an interest in the subject as you might guess from my screen name. I was involved heavily in genealogy and in the "Melungeon Movement" of the late 90's and early 2000's. As it turned out after years of research, I'm not actually a Melungeon descendant, but simply a mixture of European and Native American, though I have the appearance that many associate with Melungeons, and often people would use me as an example of what Melungeons look like, and have the same surname as some. I had assumed that I was related but as my research advanced it turned out I wasn't. I am friends with Wayne Winkler, and am acquainted with Jack Goins who is pictured in the article. Melungeons and associated groups are an interesting field of study, but some will react negatively to the DNA results. "You can't handle the truth" applies for many in this case.

[WingedMonkey]

One of my Carolina ancestors was listed as white on the 1810, 1820 and 1830 census. Then on the 1840 census he was listed as "free colored", and in 1850 as "M' for Mulatto.

Different family historians have different explanations for this from claiming he was mixed Indian, or was Lumbee or Pee Dee. None of them however has any research to back those claims up, and so far no direct decedent has had a DNA test (that I am aware of). I hope to find out some day, but for now I enjoy teasing my father about it.

[WIAPilot]

My ancestors are from North Carolina and Virginia and I am big into the researching the family tree. Don't worry Winged Monkey, I am pretty sure we are not related. It is true that in that area that Indians or those of Indian Ancestry, were listed as Mulatto or B for Black in the census. In our case, we are of Indian decent, but it seems Indian slaves were owned, which was rather rare at that time.

[WingedMonkey]

One of my Carolina ancestors was listed as white on the 1810, 1820 and 1830 census. Then on the 1840 census he was listed as "free colored", and in 1850 as "M' for Mulatto.

Different family historians have different explanations for this from claiming he was mixed Indian, or was Lumbee or Pee Dee. None of them however has any research to back those claims up, and so far no direct decedent has had a DNA test (that I am aware of). I hope to find out some day, but for now I enjoy teasing my father about it.

I forgot to add that in the 1860 census he was white again.

[rocketsocks]

I forgot to add that in the 1860 census he was white again.

Ah yes,the ol' evolution of the clerical error does have it's roots in earlier times.

[MJW155]

I forgot to add that in the 1860 census he was white again.

I wonder how that went.


1850:

"Are you white?"

"I'm, Portuguese."

"Really? Hmm...Well I'll mark down 'M'. How does that sound?"

"Uhh.. OK."

1860

"It says here you are a mulatto."

"I ain't no n*****! I'm white!"

"OK, sounds good to me."

[vamelungeon]

Multatto was used not just to denote partial African ancestry but any non-white ancestry including Native American.

[chief]

I imagine there are a lot of people now backing off their claims of Melungeon ancestry.

[Pedaling Fool]

Common for people of darker complexion to claim they are of Mediterranean background. By quirks of society, culture and history slightly darker skinned people from one side of the Mediterranean are 'white'..those who are slightly darker from another side of the Mediterranean people are 'non-white'. Even if both share common ancestral roots. On the same theme, very pale complected and Cuban? You are Latino. Dark complected and Sicilian? You are white.

So, not surprised a group of people claimed Portugese ancestry as it was a way to get around race law and prejudice.

So it goes with the sticky situation that is 'race'. :O

Yes, the race issue has been a sticky one for some time...

Since I was young I've always seen very similar traits in people of different races and that has led me to believe that there really is no such thing as race in humans, as opposed to other animals where race can be very apparent; rather in humans it's more of a culture difference. However, if you put all humans in a big room (use a little imagination here) and they were unable to see their physical differences and allow them to mingle they would form groups, based on interests...and if you all of a sudden "turned on the lights" you'd see humans of different physical features mixed, as opposed to "like races" coming together.

Nature has fooled us humans into thinking there are different types of humans -- there are not.

This article seems to support that. http://www.psmag.com/navigation/natu...genetic-82475/


Excerpt:

DNA doesn’t determine race. Society does.

If you glanced around the room at a conference of geneticists, it would be easy to guess where in the world all the attendees’ ancestors came from. Using skin color, hair, facial features, and other physical traits, you could distinguish the East Asians from the South Asians and the Africans from the Europeans. Our broad racial categories appear to be founded on genuine biological differences between people from different geographical regions. And these differences seem to define a set of natural human groups, the product of the last 70,000 years or so when modern humans emerged from Africa to colonize the other continents, acquiring distinct physical traits as they adapted to new environments.

The concept of human races appears to be solidly grounded in present-day biology and our evolutionary history. But if you asked that conference of geneticists to give you a genetic definition of race, they wouldn’t be able to do it. Human races are not natural genetic groups; they are socially constructed categories.

Now, the truth of this claim is not obvious. The idea that humans fall naturally into racial groups is almost universally accepted in all societies. Sure, many people have mixed ancestry that crosses racial boundaries, but there are undeniable physical differences between people native to different parts of the world. Many of those physical differences reflect genetic differences, and over the past two decades, researchers have used those genetic differences to pinpoint the geographical origins of people’s ancestry with ever-increasing precision. Just last month, one group reported that they could use DNA to place Sardinians within 30 miles of their native village. On a larger scale, geneticists will frequently talk about the “populations” of general geographical areas, making these broad populations sound very much like races. And there are clear examples of recently evolved adaptations in different human populations, such as the high-altitude physiology in Tibetans and Andeans.

[rafe]

I was reading about this study this morning. Knowing the region, I can imagine that they were not happy with this new information. LOL. It reminds me of a dear friend that I've known all my life as he grew up next door to my mom. As I became older, I learned that he was quite biased against Jews. That really upset me. About 5 years ago, he learned that he was Jewish!! LOL His parents were Jewish until they came to America. I absolutely loved it! (And he has definitely stopped speaking badly about Jewish individuals.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/29/na...gion.html?_r=0

Persecution of Jews has been so widespread throughout history that many Jews took their faith underground... such that their descendants barely understood the rituals or that they might even be Jews themselves. This phenomenon has been discovered and documented among certain Hispanics in the American southwest, who were impacted by the Inquisition. It even registered in the plot line of Neal Stephenson's trilogy "System Of The World."