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Subject: Re: [DNA] Native American and Melungeon Blood
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003 11:40:42 EST


Hi Ernie and DNA-listers,

The Melungeon data are being transferred to the www.Melungeons.com
website, but it is not there yet. May take a week or so; I will have to check
with Helen Campbell. Also, MEA CULPA, I did not mean to list the Sizemore
family as Melungeon, but rather as Native American, my apologies.
Also, to clarify, the data which are being transferred are NOT Kevin
Jones' data. Rather, these are data which 'began' as my own ancestry study
for persons living in Wise, Augusta, Washington, and Lee counties in VA and
Sullivan, Carter, Hawkins and Hancock counties in TN (which is where my
ancestors came from). These lineages were then supplemented with additional
lineages from the area and from the very earliest settlers in the region.
Added to them have been specifically identified Scottish Clan samples which
included those clans which migrated to Scotland from France around 1100 with
William the Conqueror, and some Huguenot lineages and some Pennsylvania Dutch
lineages which migrated to Appalachia. The reason for these specific
inclusions is to test hypotheses about the ethnic and religious origins of
the earliest settlers in Appalachia.
Also, to put my cards flat on the table, I want to make clear that I view
"Melungeons" as constituting persons living in the Applachians who reasonably
would have described themselves as "Portuguese", "Spanish", "Moors" or been
so labeled by others. The local understanding of Melungeons where I grew up
(Kingsport, TN, Norton, VA) was that they were "Dark-haired, dark-skinned,
European featured persons" (and specifically not equated with being "Indian"
or "Negro", as we understood those terms) who had "been living in the
mountains since anyone could remember". They were "thought to be the
descendants of Portuguese/Spanish sailors who were shipwrecked and married
Indians" or alternatively, the "descendants of the Roanoke Lost Colony". --
All of these quotes coming from what I was told by my parents, High school
biology teacher and friends growing up. Notably, none of us had ever seen
what was considered a 'real, live' Melungeon, so they seemed somewhat like
mythical creatures to me.
Hope this helps, Beth

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