Folklore: Melungeons

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 May 12 - 12:03 PM

Sawzaw, in a thread below the line (145108) linked the original article from Journal Genetic Genealogy and quoted from it.

The two threads should be combined.

The DNA Truth about Melungeons

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Alice
Date: 26 May 12 - 11:04 AM

Here is another article on the DNA of Melungeons:
Melungeon DNA Study Reveals

"...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..."

"...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..."

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 25 May 12 - 10:45 AM

Wasn't Abe Lincoln Melungeon?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Goose Gander
Date: 25 May 12 - 10:24 AM

Origin of Melungeons found, according to DNA study.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: GUEST,Sharon Davenport Proctor
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 11:12 PM

I have read that one of the traits of the so-called Melungeons and/or Black Dutch was teeth that were described as "shovel teeth." Some in my family had this characteristic. Most of us had black hair, brown eyes or hazel eyes, and dark skin. Anyone with the name of Davenport??

I've enjoyed reading this site because all of the info fits in with what I had read before.

By the way, my grandfather's nickname was "Dutch." He grew a long fingernail on his "pinkie" finger for some reason. Anyone know anything about that??

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 25 Nov 08 - 08:26 AM

When I opened this thread for the first time I expected it would be another of those "what do we know about this obscure patent accordion from the 1890s" discussions.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Paul Burke
Date: 25 Nov 08 - 04:10 AM

What's the difference between a Melungeon and a Button Acadian?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 21 Nov 08 - 05:59 PM

I'd never heard of Melungeons until this thread came up. Odd that Azizi hasn't checked in on this one.

I am reminded of two other threads about reputed mixed-race groups, one about Acadians in a village in Nova Scotia and one about so-called Black Irish.

Peter Mathiessen's novel trilogy "Lost Man's River" deals with social ambiguities arising in families of mixed Native, African, and European ancestry in post-Civil-War Florida--for example, one character is a nominally White man with a darker complexion than his nominally Black half-brother.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Goose Gander
Date: 21 Nov 08 - 03:43 PM

Elusive Black Dutch of the South article by Jimmy Crane, in Native Peoples magazine.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: fumblefingers
Date: 20 Nov 08 - 09:03 PM

I've heard them also called "Black Dutch."

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Goose Gander
Date: 20 Nov 08 - 12:00 PM

Melungeons were mentioned by Swan M. Burnett,.M.D., in American Anthropologist back in 1889. Hearing of them from his father in eastern Tennessee:

". . . I learned, too, that they were not only different from us, the white, but also from the negroes – slave or free – and from the Indian . . . . They resented the appellation Melungeon, given to them by common consent by the whites, and proudly called themselves Portuguese. The current belief was that they were a mixture of the white, Indian and negro. On what data that belief was based I have never been able to determine, but the very word Melungeon would seem to indicate the idea of a mixed people in the minds of those who first gave them the name."

Source:
American Anthropologist, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Oct., 1889), pp. 347.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Goose Gander
Date: 19 Nov 08 - 04:28 PM

M.Ted - Thanks for posting that link. I suspect that many who would never be identififed as 'melungeons' and indeed who have never heard the word share a similar ancestry.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Nov 08 - 04:05 PM

I have put some pics up on Flickr! Links below:

Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3

Dad and siblings all had coal black hair and either very dark or true hazel eyes.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: M.Ted
Date: 19 Nov 08 - 03:00 PM

DNA Results--
Sorry--this is a very interesting article concerning DNA results and something truly amazing about who the Melungeons, and by extension, all of us, turn out to really be--

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: M.Ted
Date: 19 Nov 08 - 02:58 PM

a href="http://www.melungeons.com/articles/statementfromkennedy.htm">DNA Results--

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 11:45 PM

Very. One of these days I'll put a pic of my dad up somewhere.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Alice
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 11:07 PM

That would be an interesting DNA family tree map.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 10:46 PM

Melungeouns--VERY mixed race. Caucasian, Negro, AmerInd (so some Asian looking things....). Were a 'hide out' group because of the Negro escaped slaves...'mostly' Caucasian looking, but some Negroid and 'Asian' features...My dad had 'Japanese eyes' and coal black hair, but was 'white' to look at. Yes, I've been to the Melungeon 'geneology' page...not much help. Very few actual 'recorded' births, marriages, deaths, etc. They were just too 'secretive' to actually record much.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Will Fly
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 05:20 PM

Hi Bonnie. Bill B describes the Melungeons as a people of mixed race who have several legends or folk takes about them. He sets of in search of them but, when he questions a gas station attendant about them, gets no answers. He makes it sound a little creepy on purpose, I think. The attendant is NOT a Melungeon.

So he gives up and the book continues with no more about the Melungeons.

Hope that helps!

Mike

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 04:48 PM

Somewhere or other, Bill Bryson describes pulling up to a service station in a deserted region, and being attended by someone of (I guess) an in-bred community or something, and the sinister nature of the whole encounter freaked him out. I'm sorry I can't be more specific but I'm writing from memory. Maybe I'm mixing up the Melungeons with some other group? But it was told as a first-hand experience where he was driving in a remote area. The whole atmosphere of the anecdote was quite creepy.

Clarification, anyone? I know I read this - but don't have it to hand to quote from. (Please don't make me spend all night tearing through a zillion boxes of books...)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Cool Beans
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 03:37 PM

This is weird. I'd never heard of the Melungeons until today, and now twice. Here's the first, an interview with Mark O'Connor who mentions a boook about them.
http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/7816.html

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: CarolC
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 03:14 PM

Two Melungeon websites...

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mtnties/melungeon.html

http://www.melungeons.com/

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 03:11 PM

My father 'appeared' to be one....and his ancestry DID come from the Southern Highlands...but it's nearly 'impossible' to actually prove.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Will Fly
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 02:09 PM

Bill had read about them - but never actually met any of them - wrote about it in "The Lost Continent".

Subject: RE: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 02:00 PM

Bill Bryson wrote about encountering them in one of his books, though I can't remember exactly which one (or two?). Probably The Lost Continent: Travels In Small-Town America or else Made In America. Or both. Interesting and also a bit chilling.

Subject: Folklore: Melungeons
From: Goose Gander
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 01:54 PM

Melungeons and Myth an interesting article written by banjo player George Gibson about mixed race populations in the Southern highlands.