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Archiver > Melungeon > 2003-03 > 1047875210


From: Twanda Smith <>
Subject: Re: [Melungeon] Heritage
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 04:26:50 +0000 (GMT)
In-Reply-To: <ac.3be77318.2ba6552c@aol.com>


It is written in the Boss's book "to go to all the world and multiply."
Now this being the case, people were mixed a long long time ago, much longer than anyone today would possibly imagine. I believe that we all come from the same area, that being the Lower Mediteraen area. Even so, people can be traced as moving to the Bavarian area, to the Siberian area, and even crossing the land bridge.
Lets take a trip. If the Shephardic Jews were running to find freedom, and they went to Portugal, they intermarried with those in Portugal.
If they went to Turkey they intermarried with those in Turkey.
When the Moors were being persecuted and they were running for their freedom, they went in a northerly, easterly, western direction, marryng all along the way.
This being the case, our ancestors were mixed in many different blood groups long before they reached the shores of America.
Just the way that I choose to think about it all
Be safe
Twanda
wrote:This is correct. To the best of my knowledge not a single "pure" Angolan
African, or "pure" Negro person ever appeared in Hancock/Hawkins County in
any context with appearance of the Melungeons there. It may have happened,
but I have no knowledge of it. I believe "pure blacks" (including mostly
Angolans) and "pure Indians" and "pure whites" (if someone wants to use those
terms to describe relatively unmixed ethnicities) were all mixed in the
tidewater Virginia, where the ancestors of many tri-racial groups are
documented, and later continued mixing in the piedmont Virginia and North
Carolina before arriving in Tennessee. Ethnic mixing (that led to nuclear
families anyway) began in English North America with Pocahontas and John
Rolfe, and within the first generation of English settlement of Virginia in
the early 1600s...nearly 200 years BEFORE Hancock County fell into the path
of White American migration. Marriages between black men and white women
also began in Virginia in the same 17th century...nearly 200 years BEFORE the
name Melungeon was documented.

As for these Siddhis, I see no evidence yet of them (as a conspicuous group)
in the picture, though I do not rule out Siddhi individuals. I don't know of
Siddhi individuals, and I don't not know of them. Several months ago on this
forum I reported evidence of East Indies captives being brought to North
Carolina about 1700 by certain pirates, as slaves. However, I have not been
able to document them in any connection with Melungeon ancestors. And this
is not to say that they were not. To be honest there are other possibilities
I earlier also raised, but am reluctant to do so again because of the
tendency of some to over-react and make unsubstantiated claims not based on
solid research. Melungeons are basically tri-racial people in origin, with
other ethnicities piled on haphazardly in following years.

I will also say, that the origin of the Mullins family in particular
continues to puzzle me. Aside from the blatant attempt to make a Portuguese
name out of a perfectly good Anglo Mullins name just to support the
"Portuguese Melungeon" theory, if anyone has thoughts on the Mullinses
origin, or sources, I would be glad to hear them.

Tim Hashaw
Houston, Texas



"Hidy Cousins
I truly love the exchanges on this list. They certainly gve one food for
thought as Tim suggests.
I talked with many many people in the Hancock, Hawkins, Tenn. areas and was
told many times that African American peoples did not come to live in that
area until about 1929. Tomy knowledge up until about two years ago, only one
African American family liveson the Ridge even now.
Twanda



==== Melungeon Mailing List ====
Research of Interest
http://www.multiracial.com/readers/nassau.html
http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/12_heing.html
http://www.multiracial.com/readers/hashaw.html


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