Melungeon Surnames

[Brenda Collins Dillon]

Melungeon=Portuguese (Caucasian)/Amerindian hybrid, probably first
appearing in the New World 50 years before the arrival of the English at
Jamestown, VA.

According to journals recorded by the first exployers sent out of Jamestown to explore the lands to the south the men came upon a group of people living among friendly Indians in log cabins and speaking a broken Elizabethan English. The people wore black clothing and the men had long beards. At a certain time of the day a bell would toll and the people would stop whatever they were doing and bough in prayer. These people identified themselves as Portagee. (source: Brent Kennedy said he found the info in the archives of NC)

NOTE: If this is correct, and I believe it was, then the people that landed at Jamestown was not the first settlers to reach the colonies as the textbooks so state.

ADAMS ADKINS ALLEN ALLMOND ASHWORTH *

BARKER BARNES BASS BECKLER BELCHER BEDGOOD BELL
BENNETT BERRY BEVERLY
BIGGS BOLEN BOLLING BOLTON BOONE BOWLIN
BOWLING BOWMAN BRADBY BRANHAM BRAVBOY
BRIGER/BRIDGER BROGAN BROOKS
BROWN BUNCH BULLION BURTON BUTLER BUTTERS
BUXTON BYRD *

CAMPBELL CARRICO CARTER CASTEEL CAUDILL CHAPMAN
CHAVIS CLARK CLOUD COAL
COFFEY COLE COLEMAN COLES COLLEY COLLIER COLLINS
COLLINSWORTH COLYER
COOPER CORMAN COUNTS COX COXE CRIEL CROSTON
CROW CUMBA CUMBO CUMBOW
CURRY CUSTALOW *

DALTON DARE DAVIS DENHAM DENNIS DIAL DOOLEY
DORTON DOYLE DRIGGERS DULA
DYE DYESS *

ELY EPPS EVANS *

FIELDS FREEMAN FRENCH *

GALLAGHER GANN GARLAND GIBSON GIPSON GOINS
GOINGS GORVENS GOWAN GOWEN
GRAHAM GREEN(E) GWINN *

HALL HAMMON(D) HARMON HARRIS HARVIE HARVEY
HAWKES HENDRICKS HENDRIX
HILL HILLMAN HOGGE HOLMES HOPKINS HOWE
HYATT *

JACKSON JAMES JOHNSON JONES *

KEITH(E) KENNEDY KISER *

LANGSTON LASIE LAWSON LOCKLEAR LOPES LOWRY LUCAS
*

MADDOX MAGGARD MAJOR MALE MALONE(Y) MARSH
MARTIN MAYLE MINARD MINER
MINOR MIZER MOORE MORLEY MOSELY
MOZINGO MULLINS *

NASH NELSON NEWMAN NICCANS NICHOLS NOEL NORRIS *

ORR OSBORN OSBORNE OXENDINE *

PAGE PAINE PATTERSON PERKINS PERRY PHELPS PHIPPS
PRINDER POLLY POWELL
POWERS PRITCHARD PRUITT *

RAMEY RASNICK REAVES REVELS REEVES RICE
RICHARDSON RIDDLE RIVERS
ROBERSON ROBERTSON ROBINSON RUSSELL *

SAMMONS SAMPSON SAWYER SCOTT SEXTON SHAVIS
SHEPHARD SHEPHERD SHORT
SHORTT SIZEMORE SMILING SMITH STALLARD STANLEY
STEEL STEVENS STEWART
STROTHER SWEATT SWETT SWINDALL *

TALLY TACKETT TAYLOR THOMPSON TIPTON TOLLIVER
TUPPANCE TURNER *

VANOVER VICARS VICCARS VICKERS *

WARE WATTS WEAVER WHITE WHITED WILKINS WILLIAMS
WILLIAMSON WILLIS WILSON
WISBY WISE WOOD WRIGHT WYATT WYNN

[CoheeLady]

Hello Brenda,
I read the list of surnames & noticed that the Custalow name was listed as being a Melungeon surname. The Custalow family are Mattaponi Indians. They still have a reservation, which is known to be the oldest one in the USA.

Another thing is that a person that is Melungeon, must also have African American ancestry, along with Indian & European, as I understand it to be. This is how it is describe by Brent Kennedy. Some of my family surnames do match this list, but since I have no African American ancestry, I can't claim to be Melungeon.

Thanks for posting the list of names, as it will be of help to many people! I too know about the bell & prayer time of the Melungeons, through reading about it. Thanks again. God Bless.

Coheelady

[Brenda Collins Dillon]

CoheeLady,
The name above was taken from Kennedy's book on Melungeons, however, As I see it, the number of names have expanded over the years. I would be more interested in seeing the names of the origional "People" found living among the friendly Indians. I doubt there were more than perhaps a dozen families.


The origional "People" said they were Pourtugee. I have a son in law and grandson that are Pourtugee and they are dark complected with dark hair and eyes. If you stop and think......these "People" were here before Jamestown, mid to late 1500's . At that time there were no slaves. These "People" intermarried with the Indians so that in a few generations they would have been mostly Indian. (Melungeons...a mixture) It would be years later that the African Americans were introduced to the friendly Indians. So, as I see it, a Melungeon could be a mixture of Pourtugee/Indian/ black/white/Spanish or any combination thereof.

According to several researchers and authors of material on the Melungeons, they were "friendly Indians , who had once lived in Virginia" Kennedy's book says that COLLINS and SHEPARD borrowed the names from the settlers in Virginia. In my research I discovered an Indian commissioner named John Collins that also served as interperter. Indians aften took the name of somebody they admired. Is this where our COLLINS began? Perhaps we may never know.

[-cr21-]

Actually the DNA tests are pretty accurate and does make sense that the Melungeons decend from Turk and Syrian slaves. To explain the praying, Muslims pray 5 times each day, It's been documented that the Moors were trading with ndns long before Columbus set foot on this side of the world. His navigators for the trip were Moors. It's also documented that Islam was practiced by some ndns as well, old treaties with a signee having a Muslim name. It makes sense they would say Portuguese or Spanish. They wouldn't have to worry about being harassed for being Arab and Muslim. Remember they came here not too long after the crusades. It's still an issue today, so it was pretty fresh in their minds almost 400 years ago. Just putting in my thoughts.

[Linda]

One other thought, Portugal isn't much of an issue these day on the world stage, but in Columbus day they were significant as a maritime nation. People could have been reporting they were Portugeuse because they were Portugeuse. It seems in that day and time, if there were Moors here, there would have been Portugeuse as well. Wasn't Portugal a Moorish colony for a good long while? The Moorish conquest of southern Europe is another issue white culture has been in a lot of denial about. It didn't end for the Serbian side of my family till the first world war, and one of the reasons western culture was so mystified by the ugly outbreaks over there in the last decade. They're in total denial about the supremacy of the Arab world over their own butts in the not too distant past.

[Tom]

Hello All, well the portuguese issue is interesting, keep in mind that the MAY Flower stopped in New Found Land , early Canada, to replenish suplies and then go on to VA.
Alos these " Newfies" have always had ties to Portugal, perhaps the Melungeons are just a branch of those people that settled farther south.
From what I gather the history books in the USA are just as incomplete as ours are here in Canada.
Don't forget about the early Vikings in N.F. l. either they were there 1000 years prior to 1492!
For a controvercial look at pre-sponsored voyages to America see the books by Berry Fell, I don't hold with all of his theories but some may have something to them, HO HO HO. Tom

[Dan Akin]

Brenda; I would really like to discuss Melungeons. My greatgrandmother on my mom's side was Sarah Margaret Stone. Although she had red hair she looked like a full blood indian. She said she was "Black Irish." Her mother was Emma Elizabeth Barnes. Emma's sister was Levicia Ann Barnes. She was my great great grandma on my dad's side.
Other names on this Melungeon list in my family are Green, Wynn, and Robinson.
Other names related to and married in with my family here in Boone Co. Mo. are Collins, and Wyatt.
An interesting figure related to my Neal family is Charles Harmon (Harmon is also on the list) a.k.a. Mag the Greyhorse. He was supposed to be 1/2 cherokee and led some cherokee men to fight for George Washington in the Rev. War.
It is said that the first Sizemore to come to America was listed as a Portuguese Jewish endentured slave in the Jamestown Colony in the early 1600's.
I've got all of the Melungeon physical characteristics on Dr. Brent Kennedy's list for what it's worth. The bump on the back of my head, eye folds, and shovel teeth.
I don't know much about my Barnes line. Emma and Levicy's father was William and his father was John Barnes. They came through Ky. from Va. I think. Dan Akin.

[Brenda Collins Dillon]

Dan,

I am not an expert on the subject. My search began when I followed the basic rule in genealogy and that is to start with your own parents and document birth,death, & Marriages going backward. Trouble was that on my father's side I couldn't get past my great grandfather with documentation for the longest time. I spoke to a librarian in Pike County Kentucky and she ask if I was searching for a Melungeon. I didn't want to sound like the "dumb hillbilly" that I was so I just said I didn't think so. After that I set out to find out what a Melungeon was.

I honestly believe the TRUE Melungeons probably numbered no more then a dozen families living among the friendly Indians . They could have been a group shipwrecked off the coast of NC and taken in by the Natives of the area. You have to remember at that time the Indians didn't have anything to fear from these people. They weren't after their land they just wanted to survive.
Decades later they started intermarrying so the children would be half blood, then by the second and third generation they were mostly Indian.

Of the surnames listed above I have Allmond/Allman, Bennett, Bell, Collins, Jones, Patterson, Perry, Taylor,Williams and Wood in my family tree.
Collins is one of the core names found in the Melungeon community along with Gipson, Shepard, Mullins, Johnson, and Goins. When Vardy Collins first moved to Newman's Ridge in Tennessee he was said to have come from Virginia where he lived as an Indian. In 1797 Wilkes Co. NC my Meredith Collins lived on a small parcel of land that adjoined Vardy Collins. Vardy was the son of Samuel Collins son of Old Thomas Collins of Flatt River. Also living in the same area in Wilkes Co. NC was Lewis Collins and David Collins who also appears in Captain James McDaniel's Company with my Meredith. David & Lewis followed Vardy to Tennessee abt 1800 and Meredith settled in across the border in Russell County,Virginia. Within just a couple years David and Lewis were also in Russell county.
For those that claim ancestry to David Collins 1750 I have often wondered if the David from McDaniel's Company could be David 1750. If so then I could at least prove the connection. I can't find any documentation on McDaniel's Fincastle Militia except the roster list which I found at Christianburg,Va. The forth Collins on that list was George Collins who settled in Peachbottom (Grayson county) in the year 1767.
In 30+ years of research I have never found Meredith's parents. Of Meredith's children they married into Mullins, Coats, Johnson, Toner/Stoner,Roark, Sizemore, Holloway, and Ray out of Bertie Co. NC

I am not familiar with the Barnes name but it is interesting you mention HARMON. There is a rumor that has been passed down through the family that the Collins name had been changed from Harmon. Perhaps this is why I have never found the parents of Meredith.....At first I thought the name change might be caused from Meredith deserting from the REVWAR or something kind of disgrace but Meredith is listed on McDaniel's roster as a Collins so the name change had to be before Meredith,perhaps his father.

You mention Missouri.....Several Melungeon families left Tennessee between 1820 -30 for Indiana. There they took up grants on parcels of land but only stayed long enough to make improvements and sell it for a profit. Most of these families then migerated to Missouri. The David Collins 1750 line was one of those families.

I hope something in this has been of help.

[CoheeLady]

Dear Brenda,
Thanks for your earlier reply to my post regarding the Melungeons. I thought I would share with you our family surnames that are on the list, you so kindly provided. Sunames: BURTON, GOING, PATTERSON, & TURNER.
Sincerely,
Coheelady

[Dan Akin]

Thank you for your information Brenda!
I have seen the list of the Melungeon "Tribes" listing the different groups under their patriarch's name. I beleive the real Melungeons were Indians.
I think it was in 1886 that a fellow named Harvey Wyatt came here to Columbia Mo.. He said he was from Indiana and was 7/8ths cherokee. He also said that he had been a coachman for President Harrison at one time. I don't know if that's true but he did have a wagon hauling business in Boone Co. for some time. His children married into my Cherokee Green family and became my cousins. They later went into the grocery business. When Harvey got old he would take kids out for campfires and tell them about the Indians. This was in a series of articles in our local paper.
The first american settler of central Mo. was Ira Nash in 1804. He had gotten a grant from the Spanish government for land in what is now Cooper and Boone Cos. . He had long hair and wore earrings in his ears. One of his descendants said that his first wife was a cherokee. This cherokee bride must have been despondent for she commited suicide. Ira was said to have buried her in the Missouri riverbed so that the whites couldn't dig her up. When Ira died he was buried in an Indian mound standing up so that he could glare at his neighbors who didn't like him. Ira married again and in the list of his descendants are the Wilsons. One of which started the Boone Co. Historical Society another became Govorner Roger Wilson of Mo. and they are the sources of my story.
Dan.

[rosebudsaponi]

What really interests me is the fact that all these "melungeon" names are only known as melungeon in TN and KY. Taylor, for example, in WVA is known as a "white" name. Collins in VA is known as an FPC name as well as Goins. I think alot of people go on a tangent with the category of Melungeon. You have to stop and think about the location of these families and the terminology that is used geographically. Some of the same families that are known FPC's in one part of the country are known as another race in another. Another example, the Brass Ankles, the Portuguese, the Creeks. All these lines in these "racial groups" are considered different according to location but yet, they are all strong NDN names.

[Brenda Collins Dillon]

Crystal, It is great to see you posting. Wishes for a healthy and safe New Year.......
Meredith Collins was listed in Floyd Co. Ky as Mullato on his 1810 tax list and Meredith and his eldest son Bradley were listed as FPC on the 1820 census which also listed Meredith's 3rd common law wife Millie JOHNSON and their son as "slaves" . family oral history says Millie was full blood Cherokee.

At one location in Kentucky between 1810 -20 there were about 45 Collins families all living near each other. The Collins are a difficult tribe to follow as they had large families and named their children the same first names over and over. One researcher told me that he thought they chose a leader that was light enough to pass for white to lay claim to the land. Once they had the land the families or rest of the tribe moved onto it.

[Dan Akin]

Brenda; One of your family names caught my eye. My Benjamin Green while in Henry Co. Ky., ca. 1800 to 1833, signed a marriage bond for Daniel Jones and Elizabeth Hughey. My Benjamin had lived,ca. 1786 to 1790 in the Old n.e.Tn. Sullivan Co..
Could this be part of your family? Some research points to him coming from Newman's Ridge. Dan.

[rosebudsaponi]

that is possible but from what I can gather and what I have seen, they were also known as the hill people. KY was still very young and I don't think they had much of a problem accessing land. You figure by 1810, there were only a few counties and Harrison Co had already been overthrown by Byrd and 600 NDNs.

As far as the communal effect, how long did they live clumped together like that? Did they have a "social" gov't amongst themselves? I would be curious to know if they actually were living as a tribe still?

Would be a good idea to check school records for the local communities. If you can find basis that they functioned as an independent community, you will have quite a few eggs in your basket.

[TuckahoePrincess]

This topic (a favorite of mine) has brought up some interesting questions in my mind.... I've found census records for many of my Tennessee relations, and their racial identity is not specified... Has anyone else experienced that?