The Melungeon Question Again

[Blake Slayton]

It's been a couple of years since I've posted on this Forum and I am sorry I have not been more active until now.

The reason I am posting this thread is because I believe I may be of Melungeon ancestry and I needed some opinions on the subject.

I read as many of the threads on Melungeons on this Forum as I could in preparation of posting this thread. I noted that there are many different opinions on what makes one a Melungeon, for example, physical characteristics such as the "bump on the back of the head", the "ridge on the base of skull", "shovel teeth", and "the second toe being longer than the big toe." All of which, by the way, I happen to possess.

Another item of interest I found that supports (in my mind) my theory of having Melungeon ancestry is the fact that I've always been told that my maternal great-grandmother was a full-blooded Blackfoot Indian. This family legend is what first brought me to Saponitown two years ago.

The possibility that my great-grandmother was more likely a Saponi leads me now to the possibility that she was a Melungeon. She has always been a mystery to our family. Her daughter - my grandmother - claims not to know anything about her mother and flatly refuses to discuss her. Now I think I know why.

I've read on many different websites that Melungeons would change their names to more "English" names to avoid discrimination. Some websites say that they would even make up stories about being orphaned so that no one would know of their heritage.

Well, my great-grandmother's name was Tennie York and she died around 1923 about two years after my grandmother was born. On the 1900 census, she was listed as an "orphan" living with a white family in Paragould, Arkansas. Tennie was also listed as being white, but could that have been a cover up of sorts? Maybe the Buchanan family that she was listed with were sympathetic with Melungeons so they took her in as a white person?

This would also explain why my grandmother refuses to discuss her mother with anyone. She was of course only about 2 years of age when her mother died, but she had several older brothers and sisters who would have known about their mother's heritage so they could have told her that no one was to speak about their mother. Maybe my grandmother is still trying to protect her mother's secret?

I plan to discuss this with my mom in the near future and get her opinion. She has the same problem trying to get information from her mother as well. I've not yet told her of my thoughts on Melungeon ancestry, but if she (as well as her sisters and brothers) has all the characteristics of a Melungeon as I do, I think I may be on the right track.

Sorry this post is so "all over the place" is because it's late and I'm tired. I promise the next time I post I'll be more coherent!

Thanks,


Blake

[techteach]

Have you tried DNA? You can do either AncestrybyDNA which provides an estimate of percentage of NA blood. Or, if you have straight male or female lines, you can try familytreeDNA.

Techteach

[Dan Akin]

I know just bringing this this subject up is liking opening a giant can-of-worms, but I lean toward the purist approach to the Melungeon question. "Who are the Melungeons?" I take the opinions of Jack Goins on answering just who should be concidered Melungeon and of Melungeon descent. They were those folks and families living in the area of Blackwater Creek and Newman's Ridge in present Hancock County TN. with the surnames Collins, Goins, Minor, Bunch, etc. Physical characteristics have nothing to do with it. JMHO.
Dan.

[granny8]

Blake, Hang in there!! My family has all the things you speak of but none of the last names match! But I am going to keep on digging. I am a little bit stubborn that way. Darlene

[Blake Slayton]

Have you tried DNA? You can do either AncestrybyDNA which provides an estimate of percentage of NA blood. Or, if you have straight male or female lines, you can try familytreeDNA.

Techteach

Actually, I am planning on having an mtDNA and NA DNA test conducted soon. I have already had a Y-chromosome analysis done through Relative Genetics for another family site to which I belong. My predicted haplogroup is I1b with 100% confidence, which of course doesn't give me answers on the NA/Melugeon connection. I am hoping that the mtDNA and NA DNA tests will, though.

I appreciate your reply.


Blake

[Blake Slayton]

I know just bringing this this subject up is liking opening a giant can-of-worms, but I lean toward the purist approach to the Melungeon question. "Who are the Melungeons?" I take the opinions of Jack Goins on answering just who should be concidered Melungeon and of Melungeon descent. They were those folks and families living in the area of Blackwater Creek and Newman's Ridge in present Hancock County TN. with the surnames Collins, Goins, Minor, Bunch, etc. Physical characteristics have nothing to do with it. JMHO.
Dan.

Dan, I have read some of your past posts on the subject of physical characteristics and respect your opinion. Rest assured, I do not by any means consider myself to be of Melungeon descent simply because I have most of the "accepted" physical characteristics. I plan to have DNA testing done to determine my path.

By the way, I have contacted Jack Goins by email about joining his Melugeon DNA Research. He has requested that I send him copies of my genealogy charts back 4 generations so that he can determine if I belong in the "core" group of the study, or in the "related" group.

I appreciate your reply.


Blake

[Blake Slayton]

Blake, Hang in there!! My family has all the things you speak of but none of the last names match! But I am going to keep on digging. I am a little bit stubborn that way. Darlene

Granny,

Thanks for the words of support. I will keep digging, too.

Thanks,


Blake

[Dan Akin]

Blake; That sounds great. Good luck on that. I have those characteristics too, but I'm not related to the Melungeons. Just neighbors.
Dan.

[Blake Slayton]

I should also add that my maternal grandfather was a Barnes, which is another surname I have found that has "possible" Melungeon ancestry.

My grandfather's family originated in North Carolina in the early 1700s around the Bertie and Northampton County areas. Around 1810 the family was located in Trigg County, Kentucky and eventually ended up in the Ripley County, Missouri around 1920. My grandfather was born in 1921.

Again, coincidence on the states (NC/KY) even though none of these counties are near the Cumberland Gap area.

I have attached a photo of my grandfather, Blake Baker Barnes and also one of my g-great grandfather Joseph Futrell Barnes, Sr. It appears to me that both look like they have some NA blood in them, especially old Joe.

Just another mystery for me.


Blake

[Linda]

There was a good post recently pretty much debunking the 'Melungeon physical traits,' which seemed believable to me. I've got some of those traits, but I got them from my dad, whose lineage was out of the Balkans, so I've always felt a little skeptical. If you search on the word 'melungeon' using our search feature at top, it should come up.

Northhampton and Bertie counties were last known addresses for both Saponi and Tuscarora people. The 'Portugeuse Settlement' in Northhampton has good documentation for its links to Fort Christanna (search the forum for info on that). Before the remnants of the Saponi nations went to Fort Christanna in Brunswick county, VA they spent ten years in Bertie County. There's a Saponi Creek that runs in between Northhampton and Bertie Counties.

Those Tuscarora who remained in NC were last noted in Bertie County. Your family photos do indeed look familiar, a lot like the Indians in my family (www.saponitown.com/Blackfoot.htm). Happy hunting.

[Blake Slayton]

There was a good post recently pretty much debunking the 'Melungeon physical traits,' which seemed believable to me. I've got some of those traits, but I got them from my dad, whose lineage was out of the Balkans, so I've always felt a little skeptical. If you search on the word 'melungeon' using our search feature at top, it should come up.

Northhampton and Bertie counties were last known addresses for both Saponi and Tuscarora people. The 'Portugeuse Settlement' in Northhampton has good documentation for its links to Fort Christanna (search the forum for info on that). Before the remnants of the Saponi nations went to Fort Christanna in Brunswick county, VA they spent ten years in Bertie County. There's a Saponi Creek that runs in between Northhampton and Bertie Counties.

Those Tuscarora who remained in NC were last noted in Bertie County. Your family photos do indeed look familiar, a lot like the Indians in my family (www.saponitown.com/Blackfoot.htm). Happy hunting.

Linda,

Thanks so much for your post.

I didn't know that Bertie and Northampton Counties were once homes to the Saponi and Tuscarora people. That makes my family research even more interesting. Perhaps my grandfather and grandmother both descended from the same people! Wow.

Now I'm really looking forward to my DNA testing.

Speaking of NA DNA testing, has anyone on this forum ever had such testing done? Does it tell you what your percentage (if any) of NA blood you have? Does it give you an idea as to where your NA roots begin?

Thanks,


Blake

[Bev Stayart]

Lisa Alther, who is Brent Kennedy's cousin, has written an excellent book on her search for her Melungeon roots. This is her first nonfiction work (copyright 2007). It is a "must read" for anyone seriously interested in researching his or her Melungeon ancestors. Lisa Alther reveals both her own and her immediate family's DNA testing results. She finds these results both astounding and provocative. "Kinfolks, Falling off the Family Tree: The Search for my Melungeon Ancestors" is a well-researched, beautifully written, and fascinating look at this mysterious subject.

[Wachinika]

I didn't know that Bertie and Northampton Counties were once homes to the Saponi and Tuscarora people. That makes my family research even more interesting. Perhaps my grandfather and grandmother both descended from the same people! Wow.

Now I'm really looking forward to my DNA testing.

Speaking of NA DNA testing, has anyone on this forum ever had such testing done? Does it tell you what your percentage (if any) of NA blood you have? Does it give you an idea as to where your NA roots begin?

Thanks,


Blake

Blake,

I thought you might like reading this DNA conversation that took place here not too long ago.
It starts with Roca's post #99 on pg.7 and goes on. I found spilleddi's posts #106 and #108 extremely interesting and informative.
http://www.saponitown.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1707&page=7

I enjoy your avatar :D :D and thanks for sharing your pictures with us.

[melungeon]

With regards to Melungeons, the best website around that is just full of historical documents, no hearsay and crazy diseases etc etc.

http://tinyurl.com/9ev8a:p :p

[melungeon]

Sorry, here is the url that works

www.geocities.com/ourmelungeons/front.html

[Bev Stayart]

One of Lisa Alther's most critical insights is that America was a melting pot from the moment the very first European set foot on her shores. Historians have largely ignored this fact.

As Alther points out in her book, "The famous American melting pot that historians portray as commencing with the nineteenth-century immigration from Ireland and from southern and eastern Europe actually existed here right from the start. It's a shame our founding fathers chose to portray the fledgling United States as an outpost for wayward Anglo Saxons, rather than as the panglobal mosaic it really was. Our resulting history might have been less grim.

It's particularly ironic since, as one example from many, Thomas Jefferson's Y chromosome has been classified as haplogroup K2, which is believed to have originated in the Levant. His political enemies taunted him with having a mulatto father and a half-breed mother. In fact, his mother was a Randolph, one of the families associated with descent from Pocahontas.

Several books have been written, accurate or not, tracing the genealogies of five American presidents to African and/or Native American ancestors -- Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Harding, and Coolidge. Some researchers maintain that Lincoln was of Melungeon descent via his mother, Nancy Hanks."

[Linda]

Where is the Levant?

[Bev Stayart]

The Levant is a geographical designation for the region at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing the countries of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

[Linda]

So, they're saying Jefferson was Semitic. How reliable is that DNA marker, is that trait distributed throughout Europe to some degree, in non-Jewish families?

[Bev Stayart]

According to a website at http://www.geogene.com/news-2.html "the rare haplotype known as K2 is shared by only 1% of men worldwide. It is most prevalent in Africa and the Middle East but is also found scattered around Western Europe. Although researchers cannot be certain, some believe that the dispersal of this lineage is best explained by the Jewish Diaspora in which Jews expanded throughout large parts of Europe. It is this that has created excited speculation among both Jewish and Jeffersonian communities in the U.S.

The report, titled 'Thomas Jefferson's Y chromosome belongs to a rare European lineage,' was published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology."

The above-referenced website also discusses another topic of great interest: "Did your ancestors live in Jamestown?" Quoting from this article, "This year is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in Virginia. . . To mark the occasion, the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Society (SMGF) is inviting people to search its free online database to discover if they had ancestors in Jamestown . . . We know by reviewing the Register of 17th Century Ancestors provided by the Jamestown Society that more than two-thirds of the family surnames in the register are also in our database." The link for the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation is http://www.smgf.org/ According to their site, "The Sorenson Database is the foremost collection of genetic genealogy data in the world. Search by DNA results or surname in the worldwide genetic family tree."

[beeleaf]

Some researchers maintain that Lincoln was of Melungeon descent via his mother, Nancy Hanks.

Interesting stuff. Here are a couple tidbits from my gatherings:

1. Nancy Hanks is claimed by a tribe in Virginia (Ani Stohini Unami).

2. One of Thomas Jefferson's grandmothers was Mary Branch (also one of my grandmothers), which is another surname said to be related to Pocahontas. It was apparently a small world back then. ;~)

[Bev Stayart]

My great-great-great-great-grandmother was Jane Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson had a sister Jane but she never married and died in 1765. Still, there is speculation in my family that my ancestor Jane Jefferson may have been a cousin to Thomas Jefferson.

I didn't know that Nancy Hanks was descended from a tribe in Virginia. I also didn't know about Mary Branch. Thanks very much for this info!

[Wachinika]

by beeleaf: Nancy Hanks is claimed by a tribe in Virginia (Ani Stohini Unami).


Hey, beeleaf,

I was taught in IN in the 50's that Abraham Lincoln was thought to be part Indian. IN claimed him as having spent a portion of his boyhood in southern IN. Both of these assertations are most often not written up or a part of general knowledge. This is the first I've seen regarding his Indian heritage. Can you elaborate on where that information is to be located regarding the tribal connection? It seems interesting to trace her birth, locations and marriage and how she came to be in IN. Perhaps this was part of a larger migration pattern or smaller one of certain Indian peoples.

[beeleaf]

Hey Wachinika,

I got that info from a paper entitled "Researching Native American Genealogy in Southwestern Virginia" by Charles Howard Thomas, Copyright 1998.

Years ago, the tribe had a decent web site with herbs (Charles is an N.D. & film-maker), the paper I mentioned, etc. But they don't seem to have much of a web presence anymore.

There are several interesting points in his paper, many that contradict what has been written about Indians in that area. It may be of interest to folks looking at Saura or Tutelo or SW VA Cherokee clues, as these are names the tribe has been called by other people. They were also called the New River Indians.

I'll type more about this if anyone is interested.

Several researchers online have Nancy Hanks' birthplace as being Campbell Co., VA (or that area). Think she lived in West VA later (or where she lived became West VA). Here's a Google book that has info about the Lincoln side:

http://books.google.com/books?id=OvYtAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA703&lpg=PA703&dq=nancy+hanks+pittsylvania+county+va&source=web&ots=NX14gEVm0K&sig=RUe5MBjo-53eeX8YYvVh5Ewvg_8

[Wachinika]

Thanks Beeleaf, you know I'm interested if you find the time at your convenience.:)

[beeleaf]

Hmm. Charles' paper states that Nancy Hanks was born "either in the Hanks family home place in what is now called Pipers Gap in Carroll County or on a creek in what is now Grayson County, VA."

However, here is yet another idea:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvminera/nancyhanksmem.htm


Ahh, don't ya just love research?
:~O

[beeleaf]

Here's a little bit about the tribe (some of which reflects what is in the paper):
http://www.answers.com/topic/ani-stohini-unami

Will post some more as we go. One of the most interesting things to me is that the language (Tla Wilano) is still spoken. According to the tribe, they have never migrated to or from anywhere else. This would mean they have lived in the area of present day Patrick, Grayson, Floyd, Carroll, Wythe, Smyth, & Washington Counties in VA and Surry County, NC for about 14 thousand years, give or take 50. But no recognition, not even from the state of VA, despite trying for many years.

There is a story about the deliberate burning of tribal records by the War Department, aka Bureau of Ethnology.

[Wachinika]

for about 14 thousand years, give or take 50.

:D I chuckle at your humor.

But no recognition, not even from the state of VA, despite trying for many years.

:(


I'm afraid that age old Manifest Destiny, deluded into saving First Nations from themselves and thus justification in possessing their land when they defend themselves goes on with each continuing generation. "The Powers That Were" had no foresight that Indians would remain Indians, that slavery would end and racial equallity begin, that all would vote. Conciously or not it appeared they had successfully swindled First Nations out of their land. If all races are now equal; how can it be that all Indians are not equal? America is an experiment and sometimes the mistakes spring up and bite them like a cornered Black Snake, that not enough for amends the slow constriction option kicks in. Since we're all voters what are we going to do?


Could the US afford to give benefits to all Indians? Right now they have Indian against Indian, Black against White and Whites against everyone fighting for material survival. Actually that grapic would go in all directions, everyone against everyone else makes us all easy to control and take advantage of...powerless in our grapppling and poverty. If basic needs were provided everyone and minimum wage increased and corporate execs wages lowered, well, people could quit this darn bickering.


Could there be a way to eliminate all of this keeping track of and classifying race without losing ethnic identity????? If everything were equal and fair everywhere why would we need to keep track. How many billions of $$ could be saved if we stopped this counting?


Now we all know the value of census records. Could it be okay for that but nothing else? They are so inaccurate and non-inclusive anyway. If they take our personal word for race now, future generations won't have a need for it. They'll say, "Oh, GGGGrandma looked European, had blonde hair, and blue eyes but she self-identified as a black person, Blackfoot to be exact." Which would probably be easier to figure out than the Melungeon question, huh? :) :p


I just read Melungeon's Pee Dee links over on another thread. They seem right. They say they are determining tribal membership based solely on tracable links to families they know are Pee Dee even if your ancestors moved away and not to blood %. They seem nice. Because, you guys have me thinking our only hope of pow-wowing in the SE will be by having an ornamented pouch with our regalia in which to carry our DNA% papers.:)

[cthorpeky]

Blake,
There is so much mis-information about Melungeons on the internet that it is hard to determine just who is or what is a Melungeon. A good book with lots of documentation was written by Jack Goins. Google his name and you will be able to see his web page. Certain descriptions you have made can very well be used to describe some American Indians. Gibsons, Collins, Bunchs, & Sextons are some good Melungeon names but FPC (free people of Color) in the census, especially in Hawkins Co. Tennessee is a pretty good indication.

[beeleaf]

Because, you guys have me thinking our only hope of pow-wowing in the SE will be by having an ornamented pouch with our regalia in which to carry our DNA% papers.

Hehe. Thankfully, that would apparently only be the case at a small number of places. Come on over!

I enjoyed reading your insight.

Oh, and too bad I have not found a Pee Dee link in my family...yet.

There's another little remnant incorporated "tribe" in Patrick Co. that has very lenient tribal requirements. Well, they took me in easily enough. ;~) I know that can veer into sticky subject area, though, so that may be all I should say here. I think it would be quite possible to show an unbroken history in that area (my own family has lived there over 200 yrs), but it seems to be a long history of intertribal dancing. ;~)

[Wachinika]

beeleaf: (my own family has lived there over 200 yrs)
Or about 14.000 years?

Until I met those of you here whose families have stayed on there, I never even thought about what that would feel like. You are equivalent in some respects to the Hopi and Navajo, very much apart of all the life and land there.

I certainly hope I can come one day. I especially want to see the flora described here that I’ve never seen.

[JeffDB]

Hi Everybody, You guys were talking about Presidents with Native American blood. I was surprised to find out President Clinton is 1/16th Cherokee. His GGGrandmother was Cherokee. I heard him talking about it on TV and looked and there was a lot about it on the Internet. I'm not sure if its true , but I have heard that Hillary Clinton has Native blood from a tribe in Canada, Barak Obama is part Cherokee from his Mothers side and that John Edwards is part Indian? I'm not sure about this but I am about President Clinton being part Cherokee. I just thought it was interesting? Thanks for letting me listen in on all your interesting and informative online coversations!!! Jeff in STL

[beeleaf]

Or about 14.000 years?

Hehehe. Guess I should have said 200+ years on records that have not been burned. ;~)

Hey, Jeff. Now you've got a "Washington crossing the Delaware" native joke formulating in my sick mind. Oh, I'd better not...

[saj]

Beeleaf,
I wonder if the Ani Stohini Unami claim Nancy Hanks, do they claim other Hanks like Pittman, Chichester and Turner? All related. Very curious. These are all part of the Hanks clan out of Va and listed on census on the Melungeon website. These men share a father/grandfather with Nancy and are mixed into the Allen line, also Dale and Bond in Ky. Saj

[beeleaf]

Hey Saj,

Interesting question. Have no idea. Nancy was the only Hanks mentioned in that writing. His wording about her is, "Nancy Hanks was one of our people".

Um, I should also backtrack and give credit to Charles for the "give or take 50" humour. Boy, until I just re-read the paper, I really thought I had said that. ;~)

[beeleaf]

Here is another interesting snippet--don't think I posted it yet:

"The majority of confusion however seems to be the continued effort of writers to try to lump us in with the Cherokee or Shawnee in VA or the Catawba in NC, none of whom would have ever dared to reside within the boundaries of our lands. It is true we share a common kinship with both the CHerokee and the Shawnee throughout their histories as marriages took place between our peoples, but that kinship only went so far."

[beeleaf]

let me back up a tad to the paragraph before that, as it may be of interest to several folks here:

"...when we were written about, we have been called the New River Indians, the Turtle Indians, the Salt Indians, The Sault Indians, the mysterious ones, the fierce ones, the Mondongachate Indians, the Chinodachaytha Indians, the Little River Indians and almost as many names as there were writers who wrote about us. George Washington referred to some of our people as "Giants".

Those who had no idea about who they were writing about gave us some labels which definitely did not fit such as Tutelo, Tutera, or Mohetans. Some historians lumped ALL Indians in this part of the east as descendants of a people they called the Xualans or the Hanthaskies and a historical artist and some map makers even took one of our village sites on the North Fork of the Holston River and proclaimed it a Yuchi Village. This village was there during colonial times by the way and is documented at Fort Benning Georgia."

[Akhasa]

Peace To All

The term Melungeon as associated with Hancock County seems to have deeper roots in Va and NC where those people were from. It also seems that some branches went to Louisiana- although they had good reason to be both open (in community) and closed (records, outsiders) about their heritage.

I think that Tim Hashaw's research on the subject is hard to dispute, and it matches the Blackfoot/ Sapponi socio- politics of being Indian/ Artisan respected communities on the edges of core Colonial towns, see history threads on this site.

Although they may have been tri-racial in fact; the culture of the small closed communities seemed to have retained and adapted many NA and African customs (often similiar)that are key to survival "as a community" (even if not called a tribe).

community governance
family naming practices
land selection and intergroup travel
farming, food, music and crafts

Check out http://www.eclectica.org/v5n3/hashaw.html and take it from there. He begins with the African side, maybe in light of the fact that they (indentured and then free Africans who married white and NA.) bought the land (as opposed to other parts of the family on tribal land and therefore considered tribes and not Melungeons). It seems that they all came to be known as FPOC (Free People of Color). There's lots of good traceable info.

Let me know what you think!

Sincerely,
Akhasa

[melungeon]

Please be aware that there are a lot of descrepencies in Hanshaws theories. Not the part that there is no doubt some AA admixture in some NOT ALL of the Melungeon families, the DNA testing being done is showing this. The names being used by Heingg and Hanshaw are not all considered Melungeon, they might have developed other groups elsewhere called by different names, Turks, free issues,redbones, brass ankles etc. The core Melungeon names for Newmans Ridge are Collins, Gibson, Williams, Minor, Goins,with later Bollings, Mullins,Moore, Sextons and Bells. I am also a Sizemore desc and this is just a melungeon related line. Most of the early families are tracing themselves to the PEEDEE river area in SC. For the best historical research on Melungeons see:

http://www.geocities.com/ourmelungeons/genealogy.html

This site also has information on other groups called by other names, Croatans, Carmel Indians etc. Some of the core tribes and or families might have had a common ancestor, but the Melungeons were a specific people in a specific area. I am not trying to be exclusionist, but we need to be careful not to group every tri-racial group in the same category as they have different histories.

[Bev Stayart]

Because I am part Swedish, one of my many interests is Swedish history. Beginning in the late 16th century, Walloons from Wallonia in Belgium (roughly the southern half of Belgium) began migrating to Sweden to escape persecution in their own country. The Walloon Society of Sweden was founded in 1938 and continues in existence today. Another group that has close ties with Sweden are the Lapps (or Samis) of Lapland, a country lying to the north of Sweden. Over time, many Lapps have also migrated to Sweden and many of their descendants now live in Sweden.

Some of the descendants of the Walloons and the Lapps in Sweden have intermarried. In the United States, the term "Melungeon" has achieved almost cult status as a quasi-racial group, which is completely unscientific. As an analogy, what if, in Sweden, a Lapp married a Walloon? Would the Swedes simplemindedly refer to the mixed-race children of this union as "Lappoons"? This analogy points out how ridiculous it is for us to refer to mixed-race people in the southeastern U.S. as Melungeons.

Coining the term "Melungeon" is merely a simplistic attempt to deal with complexity and diversity. What we don't understand and hence fear, we simplify by labeling, and this reduces our anxiety. There is no such thing as a "Melungeon," i.e., a synthesized "race," whose composition and origins cannot be proven. The whole concept is scientifically unsupportable.

[Akhasa]

Peace To All

Thanks for the reality check. I hope that we can continue to help each other track individuals; and not stereotypes.

One Colonial era trader or master craftsman can have a real complex history, in and of himself!

Akhasa

[melungeon]

Yes, the label of Melungeon was applied to my ancestors. And you are right it is not a race. But they are a certain people in a certain area that surrounding people, newspapers, magazine articles etc referred to them as such because they were different. Out of fear or prejudice or simply due to culture we cannot be certain. We do know by certain people that used the term used it in a derogatory fashion. That is documented. The more likely origin of the word would be the term malageine which in Elizabethan English meant trickster and full of guile ( refer to Spensers Fairie Queen ) which would be a derogatory term but at the time the term was first used in writing was 1813 would have been a word in use although no longer in use today. Studies have been done to show how mountain/appalachian language held onto an Elizabethan English context and was very similiar.

BTW my husbands maternal side is third generation Swede. His paternal is Cajun. what a mix!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL:eek:

[melungeon]

Sorry for the typo, the word is MALENGINE . If you google it you can find many definitions. :p

[Sky]

Nancy Hanks is claimed by a tribe in Virginia (Ani Stohini Unami).

Then you said quoted the author of the paper you mentioned ("Researching Native American Genealogy in Southwest Virginia") as saying "Nancy Hanks was one of our people". Does he cite anything with that or just make the statement? Any idea where I can get a hold of a copy of that paper?

[DCollins]

Nancy Hanks being a "Melungeon" is another myth. Nancy Hanks has no connention to the Historical "Melungeons" of Newman Ridge/Blackwater area.
She may have had NA blood, but that certainly doesn't make her "Melungeon".

Don Collins

[Sky]

What I am after is her possible Indian ancestry/heritage.

[beeleaf]

Then you said quoted the author of the paper you mentioned ("Researching Native American Genealogy in Southwest Virginia") as saying "Nancy Hanks was one of our people". Does he cite anything with that or just make the statement? Any idea where I can get a hold of a copy of that paper?

Hey Sky. No, he didn't cite anything. He wrote what he believed, I reckon.
If you google Charles Thomas and Ani Stohini Unami, you may find contact info for him. That's about all I know.

[Sky]

I think I found some contact info from him. I'll post what I find out (if anything).