BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons

Subject: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 05:57 PM

http://www.melungeons.com/articles/apr2004.htm

On history of Sephardic Jews, Moors and Native Americans in Melungeon culture. Very interesting. Remember, DNA studies are confirming what they have said for centuries..and the DNA comes from maternal as well as paternal lines, so it is not only shipwrecked sailors, escaped soldiers etc....mg

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: CarolC
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 10:27 PM

I came across another article by the same author in a very roundabout way just a few days ago. It was very interesting. It tried to make the case that Abraham Lincoln had Jewish ancestry by virtue of his Melungeon ancestry. If it's true, Joe Lieberman would not be the first president with Jewish ancestry if he ever realized his dream to be president. I also read that Eisenhower had Jewish ancestry, as did a couple of other presidents, although I can't remember which ones right now.

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: Janie
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 01:22 AM

mg,

You may want to look at http://www.melungeon.org/.

There is also a very good article at wiki.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melungeon.

Kennedy has a very particular point of view and is not the most objective source of information regarding research and scholarly exploration, as he seems pretty determined to make the research fit his theories, rather than to allow the research to inform his theories. At least that has been my impression from what web research I have done regarding melungeons. He was one of the first sources I ran across, and there was "something" about his writings that made me wonder about his objectivity, and that is what lead me to look at other sources. Not saying he should be discounted, but I don't think he is a good sole or primary resource to use to inform yourself about melungeon ancestry.

Through my father, who agreed to be tested, I am a participant in the Williams DNA project. Genealogical DNA is pretty complicated. www.familytreedna.com is a good resource to understand haplogroups, Y-DNA and mtDNA, and how to interpret the results.

I have not done significant research on melungeons. What led me to do what research I have is that a distant cousin (with whom we came in contact through the Williams DNA project) is researching whether her branch of the family is part of the group from the southern Appalachians who were originally called melungeons. (We have several x great grandfathers who were brothers.) She has found some circumstantial and inclusive references in her genealogical research that suggests some of her ancestors, while in this area, were referred to melungeon, but what she has found is merely suggestive. She does know that she has both Saponi and Cherokee in her ancestry, and possibly Occhaneechi (whose tribal office is located in my town.) Many, if not most of the members of the small local tribes here on the Piedment of NC also have African ancestry. She is a very serious and experienced genealogist and has been president of more than one genealogical society. Reading what she had posted to our genweb family website was interesting, and particularly intrigued me because I now live in Orange Co., NC, though am not from here, and her ancestors lived in this area. This is one of the areas identified as associated with melungeons. She thinks the argument that the original group(s) referred to as melungeon as stemming from mideastern, portugese, or moorish or sephardic (sp?)jewish people is quite weak. The first people referred to as melungeon also made no claims for that to be the case.

Other than Kennedy and his followers, most other sources find his theories to be the least plausible, based on what evidence is available. All sources do seem to agree, however, the history of melungeons is still largely a mystery.

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: MarkS
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 01:31 PM

Aren't we all, at the end, a little bit of everything?

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: CarolC
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 01:54 PM

Probably not. For instance, I don't have any of the genes that developed in the Americas after these continents were settled by what we call "Indians" because I am only a second and third generation American and none of my ancestors had offspring with them.

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: open mike
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 04:09 PM

it seems as if the south west would have some blended populations..

with spanish, indian and white ancestors.

they might speak spanglish...

new mexico, arizona, california, texas...

see this dna test site http://www.dnatribes.com/index.html

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 12:26 AM

There are instances of first and second generations of USA people who do have mixed blood, even so. My Rog is a first gen American on his father's side and second on his mom's. They have First Nations ancestry which, one would suppose, might have mingled with Native Americans who were in the US area with migrations and all.

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: CarolC
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 12:44 AM

Where did the mingling take place, katlauging?

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: Janie
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 12:49 AM

There are many blended populations. I think it is a mistake to view the term "Melungeon" as designating either a distinct ethnic group or cultural population, or to apply the term to all tri-racial populations in the USA. I think it s probably best understood, at this point in time as a regional term that is nebulous in what it signifies, even within the region (upper and middle upper south, ranging from the Piedmont area of North Carolina, the southwest Piedmont of Virginia, and the southern Appalachians,) although it does appear to have been most often used, locally, within the region, to signify people of tri-racial ancestry, or possibly bi-racial ancestry of Caucasian-Native American.

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: beeliner
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 01:34 AM

" I also read that Eisenhower had Jewish ancestry, as did a couple of other presidents, although I can't remember which ones right now."

According to my wife, who is Dutch, Jewish, and also something of a genealogical buff, three consecutive presidents, FDR, Truman, and Ike, had some Jewish ancestry; of course, Teddy Roosevelt would be included too.

Barry Goldwater was, of course, half Jewish and, according to the man himself, when once denied admittance to an exclusive golf course, protested that he should be allowed to play nine holes!

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: Janie
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 02:08 AM

Although I have Native American ancestry stemming from two consecutive generations, it is a long way back, I was completely unaware of it until about 18 months ago, and you sure can't tell it from looking at me. While most of my ancestors migrated to America from Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland, I doubt there is any Celt in me. Talk, big boned, blue eyed, and still blond even at age 58, I look as northern European as is posslbe.

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: IanC
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 07:28 AM

Oh ... damn ... I thought it was a new kind of squeezebox. Was looking forward to playing one!

:-(

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 10:54 AM

With my Rog, it was in Quebec where he still has a lot of relatives one of whom shares his name, Roger LaFrance, and is the mayor (or was) of Isle Verte in the St. Lawrence river.

Along what we know of as the US-Canadian border. With my Rog, it was in Quebec where he still has a lot of relatives one of whom shares his name, Roger LaFrance, and is the mayor (or was) of Isle Verte in the St. Lawrence river which is where my father-in-law was born.

In my case it was a greatX2grandmother who married an ancestor in upstate New York right on the St. Lawrence river. The Native Americans in the Dakotas went north, esp. when they were fighting for their lives with western expansion. I've read of other tribes which went back and forth.

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: CarolC
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 11:19 AM

I take your point. And I didn't consider myself how my ancestors could have intermingled in Canada. But it still isn't accurate to say that we all have a little bit of everything. We all go back to the same ancestor at some point in the history of mankind, but as populations moved and spread, new genetic information developed, and someone in Norway whose ancestors never left that part of the world could easily be entirely without the genetic information that developed, for instance, among indigenous Australians, and vice versa.

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: Acorn4
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 11:48 AM

It had me scared when I read this thread title - though it was a new super breed of melodeons!

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: mg
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 05:41 PM

I know that I have French Irish ancestry and most likely Spanish Irish as well. Mother's family was a melange of Welsh, Cornish, Dutch, Native American..and I am now thinking Melungeon. mg

Subject: RE: BS: 2010 Year of Melungeons
From: mg
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 05:44 PM

Well, that went tot he wrong thread..I agree that many different grouping of people..bi or tri were called Melungeons. But there is a distinct group of them bearing distinct physical traits, calling themselves Portugee over the centuries, with very interesting stories and DNA to match..and DNA coming from both maternal and paternal lines, meaning it could not just have been shipwrecked Portuguese sailors intermarrying..there were women as well...too much Syrian blood and not enough Native American to fit the dismissive statements about them...mg