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Archiver > QUICK > 2001-07 > 0995737725


From: "Jean Skogland" <>
Subject: [QUICK] Mom's Letter
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 12:48:45 -0500


I thought since all this Melungeon stuff has been brought up I would send in
a letter that my Mom wrote to Mr. Brent Kennedy several years ago. I am
curious as to how many of you can relate to what she has to say.

Mr. Brent Kennedy has done a lot of research on the Melungeons, and has
several books on the subject.

Here goes:

Dear Mr. Kennedy,
>
> My name is Marian Turnage Stark, and I owe you a debt of gratitude. When
> you found your ancestors, you also found mine.
>
> Many of the things that puzzled you, also puzzled me. Many of the
questions
> you asked, I also asked.
>
> My fathers people are Scotch-Irish. I have blonde hair and blue eyes, and
> at my mothers family reunions I stuck out like a sore thumb. They all had
> black eyes, straight or wavy thick black hair, and skin tones from pale
> ivory to brown. Neither do they have black features. They all have
English
> sur-names. Rainwater, Usher, Walters, but mostly the name, Quick.
>
> Until my mothers generation they were extremely clannish, and tended to
> marry within the clan. My great-grandmother was a Quick and married a
> Quick. My step-grandmother was a Quick and married a Quick. My great
Aunt
> was a Quick and married a Quick. Several of my cousins have Quick blood
on
> both sides or their families.
>
> My mothers name is Lillian, and she has sisters with the names, Veda,
Lina,
> Rosa. It was so strange just before I cam upon your article one Aunt gave
> me a cigar box, filled with old papers. Letters, promissory notes etc.
On
> one was the name, Mahala Brigman. I called my Aunt Rosa, who is in her
> eighties and asked her if he was our relative, since I knew a Brigman had
> married our great Aunt Bell. She said she didn't know about Mahala
Brigman,
> but we had an Aunt, long deceased, by the name of Mahala.
>
> My cousin once asked my great grandmother about her ancestors, as she was
> making a report about it in school. My great grandmother said she had
> always been told that they were Portuguese. Now my g-grandmother thought
> the Portuguese were Indians as she knew nothing about Europe or foreign
> lands.
>
> I remember my family using old English words, but at the time I didn't
know
> they were rather strange. We said privy for private, kiver for cover,
coomb
> for comb, and hoom for home. We children use to say, "Plak on you"
meaning
> a "plague on you."
>
> Now my ancestors did not settle in the highlands, but along the banks of
the
> Pee Dee River in SC, and in Marlboro County. How did they come to be
there?
> Well, you said that they were put off somewhere on the SC coast. If you
> will look at a map of SC you will see that the great Pee
> Dee River runs from the coast, at Georgetown, SC to Winston Salem and
> beyond. Did you know that many people believe that a Spanish settlement
was
> located somewhere along the coast near there. Could it have been a
> Melungeon settlement? After all everything they possessed would have been
> Spanish.
>
> I was born in Cheraw, SC on the Pee Dee. Why did my ancestors settle
there,
> and not go on to the highlands with the others? I only wish I knew. What
a
> great story this would make. I have never heard of a history of a people
so
> tragic, so interesting, so mysterious.
>
> The saddest thing is that they are so forgotten, even by their
descendents.
>
> Thank you for caring enough to find them, not only for yourself, but for
me
> too.
>
> Did you know that these people keep cropping up in books? In "The Tall
> Woman" by Wilma Dykman, they were known as The "Bludsoes". In the
> "Wilderness Road" by Robert Kincaid, we are told they story of the awful
> Roberts. Also the very good Elisha Walden.
>
> Now that I know about them, and know that their blood runs through my
veins,
> I can spot them easily. What a thrill to know that not only am I a
> spiritual child of Abraham, but a physical one as well.
>
> Thank you very much,
> Marian

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