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Archiver > Melungeon > 2002-06 > 1024654908


From: "Dennis Maggard" <>
Subject: Re: [Melungeon] Melungeon DNA Study Results
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 06:21:48 -0400
References: <76.1e0b83c2.2a437c04@aol.com>


From: <>

> I oppose very strongly the definitions of "hard liner". I have always
> acknowledged that Melungeons are capable of having multiple ethnic DNA.

I did not mean to imply that Tim Hashaw is hard-liner! I wasn't very clear
about what I mean by a hard-liner -- someone who effective denies any
possibility of there being a non-Northwest European contribution to the
white component of the Melungeon tri-racial mix -- and for that I do
apologize.

But
> I maintain that Melungeons ORIGINATED in the early to mid 17th century in
> tidewater Virginia as northern Europeans intermarried with West Africans
and
> native Americans of the Atlantic seaboard of the eastern US. I have
> repeatedly and constantly said that Turks, Portuguese, Spaniards, or
anyone
> else under the sun could have LATER merged with these Melungeon ancestors.
> If I am being lumped as a "hard liner" I protest.

Tim is not being so lumped by me!

> Furthermore, reading the groundless conjecture in this AP story about
Santa
> Elena I must take issue with such comments as "I can honestly say I would
not
> change anything in the article except for including that the females that
> were in those Spanish colonies must have contributed to the mix." There
> remains absolutely positively NO direct genealogical or DNA descent
between
> an individual of Santa Elena or other pre 1607 Spanish colony and a single
> Melungeon.

From what I know of the DNA evidence, I see no reason to think it supports
Brent Kennedy's Santa Elena conjecture or any other pre-1607 conjecture. I
have asked a few people to explain the rational behind that aspect of the
MHA press to me and will report back if they do.

> Furthermore I would like Dennis to clarify what he means when he talks
about
> hardliners and "about Melungeon origins." What time span does he mean by
> "origins"? Does he mean a general time before 1800 during which
Melungeons
> originated,

Yes.

> or does he mean before 1607?

No.

> I most
strongly disagree that
> anyone other than American Indian ancestors of Melungeons lived in
Virginia
> or the surrounding area before the Jamestown settlement in 1607. The only
> extremely remote possibility of such non-Indian intermarriage prior to
> Jamestown are the English survivors of Roanoke and I believe I effectively
> rule out that possibility in my new research.

I've yet to see any evidence of a pre-1607 white, or black, component.

>Tim Hashaw

I think it is well worth noting that the DNA results presented by Dr. Jones
are entirely consistent with Tim's research.

Dennis

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