The ancestry and identity of Melungeons has been a highly controversial subject. Whats more, today, some Melungeon groups and individuals have totally assimilated into the American mainstream, while others cling to, variously, predominantly Turkish or Portugese or Native American or African or European roots, according to the MHA. University of KY PHD dissertation, 1982. Records show that on the whole, they enjoyed the same rights as whites. Yes, arguably the two most famous Melungeons are kin! 1971: Appalachian Photographs of Doris Ulmann is published by the Jargon Society of Highlands, NC. There is a higher incidence in that region but it. Some resources mention "physical characteristics," which are debunked. Melungeons (/mlndnz/ m-LUN-jnz) are an ethnicity from the Southeastern United States who descend from Europeans, Native American, and sub-Saharan Africans brought to America as indentured servants and later as slaves. Ever since she began contributing to the site several years ago, Mary has embraced the called different names in different areas. The articles on this website are designed to bring you the widest possible collection of knowledge about the Melungeons. In spite of being culturally and linguistically similar to their European neighbors, the multi-racial families were of a sufficiently different physical appearance to provoke speculation as to their identity and origins. While there are historical references to the documents, the evidence has come from transcribed copies. The Melungeons were often discriminated against because they were labeled as Indian, or black, or a host of other terms. 8-9. Ulmann's photo is shown world wide. Researchers have stated that this unique group has often been associated with either or all of the following cultures: Turkish Arabic Portuguese American Indian African Moorish People who live in the Anatolian They will be deleted. Population is published in JOGG, the Journal of Genetic Genealogy, So who are these two boys ? 9, Page 32 Doris Ulmann Captured The Rich Culture of Appalachia . An image entitled "A typical malungeon", published in August 1890 in the Nashville Sunday American. the 1929 issue of 'Pictorial Photography in America'. This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 00:52. Some writers try to connect the term Melungeon to an ethnic origin of people designated by that term, but there is no basis for that assumption. [50], Kennedy's claims of ancestral connections to that group have been strongly disputed. "Dr. Virginia DeMarce, Review Essay: The Melungeons. Hi,Based on eastern North Carolina, I would guess the labeled Melungeon people might be Lumbee.Also for Monday, well Monday is washday according to the children's rhyme and she is doing wash.KDD. Actually it is reported; will affect EOP development. This photo was first published in the 1929 issue of 'Pictorial Photography in America', 1997: KET (Kentucky Educational Television) Airs 'In Search of Origins, Melungeons' produced by. smaller. can you get 5-star artifacts at world level 4 melungeon bump images. your spine. [3] Secondary sources disagree as to their ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and geographic origins and identity. The earliest known Melungeon in what is now northeast Tennessee was Millington Collins, who executed a deed in Hawkins County in 1802. some stayed in those communities as late as the mid-20th . Elvis is a direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln's second great grandfather Isaiah Harrison. McGowan, Kathleen (2003). The only real significance of these diseases in relation to Melungeons is that some people of Melungeon descent have been diagnosed with these diseases, many of which tend to affect people of Mediterranean ancestry, and are relatively rare among the Anglo-Saxon or Celtic people of Appalachia. mid-line, just ABOVE the juncture with the neck. At the same time, those groups intermarried. Traverse the peaks and valleys of your family tree with our guide to tracing Appalachian ancestry. Creating an endogamous group, they migrated together, sometimes along with white neighbors, from western Virginia through the Piedmont frontier of North Carolina, before they settled primarily in the mountains of East Tennessee. Over the generations, most individuals of the group called Melungeon were persons of mixed European and African descent, sometimes also with Native American ancestry, whose ancestors had been free in colonial Virginia.[7]. From there they migrated south in the Appalachian Range to Wilkes County, North Carolina, where some are listed as "white" on the 1790 census. Among the participants, only the Sizemore family is documented as having Native American DNA.[4]. excerpt from http://www.melungeon.org/index.cgi?&CONTEXT=cat&cat=10077http://www.melungeon.org/index.cgi?&CONTEXT=cat&cat=10077 Does The Bump on My Head Mean I'm A Melungeon? [14], The Collins and Gibson families (identified as Melungeon ancestors) were recorded in 1813 as members of the Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church in Scott County, Virginia. However, also remember that the families that settled in the Clinch River region circa 1800 came there from somewhere else, and many of the known Melungeon families have been traced to eastern Virginia and North Carolina. These ethnically diverse individuals are sometimes called the lost or mysterious people of Appalachia, since their origins are a bit mysterious, thanks to general confusion and popular mythology. [47][pageneeded] Some individuals have begun to self-identify as Melungeons after they had read about the group on a website and discovered their surname on the expanding list of "Melungeon-associated" surnames. makes a slight clicking sound. If you have a ridge, it will stop your . a particular type of bump or ridge at the back of the head (usually just above the neck) known at the Melungeon bump. It is estimated that at least 1,000 distinct Melungeons are probably living in Cumberland Gap, and that there may be more. I surely still don't know. I know of no report that suggests. In the south, Melungeon research has been gaining momentum since the 1990's. The father of the movement is Dr. N. Brent Kennedy a college administrator and Melungeon descendant. [28] However, Everett revised that theory after he has discovered evidence that these were two different men named John Collins. Those families were formed during the colonial era in the Virginia Tidewater areas, which were not Cherokee territory. [34] The phrase "harbored them Melungins" could be equivalent to "harbored someone of ill will" or mean "harbored evil people" without reference to any ethnicity. by Nancy Sparks Morrison April/May 2001. . The historical documentation of continuity of self-identified Native American families was lost. On page 89 the Ulmann photo is published again, labeled Photo of two unidentified Melungeon boys taken about 1934, used with special permission from the Doris Ulmann Foundation and Berea College, Berea, KY. Young men identified as the descendants of Thomas Gibson (row 38 in Patriarch's Table) by Johnnie Rhea, 2011. One of the most fascinating genealogy stories to surface in the last decades is the enigmatic story of the Melungeons. "[14] Melungeon families have also been traced in Ashe County, in northwestern North Carolina. These include the grandly named "Anatolian bump," an unusually large protrusion on the back of the head where the skull meets the neck; so-called "shovel teeth," which feature an indented hollow . What is a Melungeon bump? The back of To the contrary, Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman's research indicates the earliest settlers . A different explanation traces the word to malungu (or malungo), a Luso-African word from Angola, meaning "shipmate" and derived from the Kimbundu word ma'luno, meaning "companion" or "friend. They form a remote, intricately inbred population separated by history and geography from their neighbors. In Tennessee they travel to Gatlinburg (Sevier Co.) and Norris (Anderson Co.), in North Carolina ,Murphy (Cherokee Co.), Brasstown (Cherokee and Clay Co.'s), in Virginia, Richmond. Shovel teeth, bumps on the back of the head, polydactylism (extra fingers), and other characteristics have likewise been often misrepresented as being "Melungeon" traits. Genealogist In April of 2012 the peer reviewed There are about 50,000 of them. The silver gelatin glass plate negatives are the only known remaining Ulmann negatives. In May 2012 Melungeons, A Multi-Ethnic Population hits the news via the AP wire service, the story goes viral and appears in newspapers worldwide, and on numerous Internet News sites. 2005: Ulmann's photograph of Two Melungeon Boys appears on page 38 of a dissertation by Katherine G. Vande Brake , named Through The Back Door: Melungeon Literacies and 21, Ms. Vande Brake writes Doris Another is a photo by Ulmann labeled Melungeon Girl, East, North Carolina. In the 19th century, free people of color sometimes identified as Portuguese or Native American to avoid being classified as black in the segregated slave societies. In allowing men of low social status to perform whiteness by voting, serving on juries, and mustering in the militia, the state welcomed every white man into symbolic equality with the Southern planter. In the first half of the 19th century, the pejorative term "Melungeon" began to be applied to these families by local white European-American neighbors. Conference paper. Melungeons ( / mlndnz / m-LUN-jnz) are an ethnicity from the Southeastern United States who descend from Europeans, Native American, and sub-Saharan Africans brought to America as indentured servants and later as slaves. 'Melungeon Boys' photograph is shown. Thank you for being our [an error occurred while processing this directive] visitor since July 1, Winkler, Wayne (2004). Inheritance and descent was figured through the maternal lines. Kennedy wrote the ground breaking The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People: An Untold Story of Ethnic Cleansing in America. Although many institutions expressed an interest, the University of Oregon was willing to commit to preserving the collection in its entirety, and became the permanent home of the Doris Ulmann Collection. [52], The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians in Kentucky, which is neither federally recognized or state recognized as an Indian tribe, claims that most families in its area who are commonly identified as Melungeon are of partial Native American descent. They have tended to "marry white" since the 19th century. "There is a clan of partly-colored people in Barbour County often called Guineas, under the erroneous presumption that they are Guinea negroes," observed WV historian Hu Maxwell in the 1890s. Those actions destroyed the documented continuity of identity of several Indian communities. If you have a ridge, it will stop your fingers from going That meant the children of enslaved African or African-American women were born into slavery, but it also meant the children of free white or mulatto women, even if they were fathered by enslaved African men, were born free. Melungeons are descendants of people of mixed ethnic ancestry who, before the end of the eighteenth century, were discovered living in limited areas of what is now the southeastern United States, notably in the Appalachian Mountains near the point where Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina converge. Some reporters and writers have widely misinterpreted these traits as indicators of Melungeon ancestry. The start of the Melungin phenotype starts here. For example, they held property, voted, and served in the army. (Lifshey also developed the 2,000 exposed negatives from Ulmann's last expedition, and produced the prints for Eaton's book.) The Melungeons from Wicked Delicate Films on Vimeo. There are many hypotheses about the etymology of the term Melungeon. The "Goins" surname is among the most well-documented surnames for Melungeon ancestry. The study was published in a North Carolina academic regional history journal in December 2010. [14], Contemporary accounts documented that Melungeon ancestors were considered by appearance to be mixed race. legend , produced by Ernie Lee Martin. Ulmann and Niles were never in the historic Melungin area. I searched for this on bing.com/images. Melungeons, the mysterious dark-skinned mountaineers of eastern Tennessee and southwest Virginia and into Kentucky, have sparked myths and theories over the past century. inner corner of the eye, the upper lid attaches slightly lower Ancestors are hard to find before 1850. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Melungeon/2003-01/1043974727, http://www.jogg.info/72/files/Estes_files/image011.jpg, http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Melungeon/2003-01/1044029911, http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Melungeon/2003-01/1043974727, http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Melungeon/2003-01/1043973898, http://library.uoregon.edu/speccoll/photo/ulmann/index.html, http://library.uoregon.edu/speccoll/photo/ulmann/images.html, http://www.historical-melungeons.com/carmel.html, Click here to view all recent Historical Melungeons Blog posts. [30][31], In the late 20th century, amateur researchers suggested that the Melungeons' ethnic identity may include ancestors who were Turks and Sephardi (Iberian) Jews. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Please do not post racist or obscene comments. Columbia University was able to provide storage space for the Ulmann materials until the 1950s, when the Foundation was asked to seek a permanent home for the collection. Given several facts about Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln, she was probably of Melungeon heritage, and Elvis Presley's mother was as well. "[35][36] The word, spelled as Melungo and Mulungo, has been found in numerous Portuguese records. Law was involved not only in recognizing race, but in creating it; the state itself helped make people white. There is evidence for connections between some of them, going back to common ancestry in colonial Virginia. Training and Certification. As a general rule, it is agreed that members of the group are of mixed ancestry, probably combining European, Native American, and African genes. Forbes said that at the time, "mustees" and "mulattoes" were terms for persons of partly Native American ancestry. Genetic testing cannot establish a Melungeon heritage because the Melungeons are of mixed ethnic ancestry, and all of us show different results on various tests. Melungeons are descendants of people of mixed ethnic ancestry who, before the end of the eighteenth century, were discovered living in limited areas of what is now the southeastern United States, notably in the Appalachian Mountains near the point where Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina converge. Too think this fresh face youngster will make women from all over the world faint, scream and fall in love. states They are found in many parts of the Appalachians and are [41], Different researchers have developed their own lists of the surnames of core Melungeon families. Subscribe to our newsletter and learn something new every day. [51] Kennedy responded to her critique in an article of his own. Nodular melanomas also form in the deepest layer of the skin. "Verry Slitly Mixt': Tri-Racial Isolate Families of the Upper South A Genealogical Study", Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, List of topics related to the African diaspora, "William Harlan Gilbert, Jr., "Surviving Indian Groups of the Eastern United States," Report to the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution, 1948", "The Melungeons Are Coming Out in the Open", Travis Loller (AP), "'A whole lot of people upset by this study': DNA & the truth about Appalachias Melungeons", Paul Heinegg, "Church and Cotanch Families", "A Geographic Analysis of White-Negro-Indian Racial Mixtures in Eastern United States", "PERKINS Trial: Instructions to the Jury", Dr. Louise Heite, "Delaware's Invisible Indians", Heite Consulting, Inc. Website, Paul Heinegg (19992010), "Gibson and Gowen Families", in, Tim Hashaw, "Malungu: The African Origin of the American Melungeons", Melanie Sovine, "The Mysterious Melungeons: A Critique of the Mythical Image", "Yuji Mizoguchi, "Shovelling: A Statistical Analysis of Its Morphology", U. of Tokyo, Bulletin No.26, Feb 1985". On page 48 there is a photograph titled: Monday, Melungeon Woman, Probably North Carolina Before 1929. 'Melungeon Boys' photograph is shown. The numbering system used is that devised by the trustees, based on the order the proof prints were placed in the albums.. I see a pattern here, three photos, no names , no real locations and not a one taken in the historical area where the people who were called Melungin lived, that being Newman Ridge in old Hawkins Co. TN, now Hancock Co. TN or the Blackwater TN/VA border area. The "Two Melungeon Boys" becomes the poster boys of what a Melungin might look like. They resided in a part that became Ashe County, where they are designated as "other free" in 1800. Because of slavery, colonial and state laws were biased toward identifying multiracial people of partial African origin as African or "black" although persons of mixed African and Native American descent often identified and lived culturally as Native Americans, particularly if their maternal line was Native American. This is rather difficult to describe. Eaton, who had formerly taught at the University of Oregon, doubtless assisted in attracting the interest of the UO's Martin Schmitt, curator of Special Collections and an early proponent for recognizing historical value within photographs. Ulmann visits Pembroke and Elrod , Roberson Co. NC to photograph 'Robeson Indians', at the time known as 'Cherokee Indians of Robeson County ', that name was changed in 1953 to 'Lumbee Indians'. Harry M. Caudill, Through The Back Door: Melungeon Literacies and 21. If he would have stopped his verbalizing and done some research, he would have found out that Ulmann didn't always label her photos, and most of her photos were developed AFTER her death, literally thousands of photographs. region of Turkey also have this bump.. [15], By 1830, the Melungeon community in Hawkins County numbered 330 people in 55 families. As a result of their self-imposed isolation, the Melungeons developed into a somewhat distinct and unique group, which some people refer to as a tri-racial isolate, in a reference to their mixed ancestry. Also known as the "Lost People of Appalachia," these darker-skinned people were called "Melungeons," a word derived from the Arabic "Melun-Jinn" meaning one who has been abandoned by God - a cursed soul. They might accurately be described as a loose collection of families of diverse ethnic origins that migrated to frontier areas; settled near one another; and intermarried, mostly in Hancock and Hawkins Counties in Tennessee; nearby areas of Kentucky; and Lee County, Virginia. Gibson and Valentine Collins both have the same Y-DNA Haplogroup, Actually, "shovel teeth" are found among Native Americans and people from Central Asia. Sometimes, they were listed as "white" or sometimes as "black" or "negro" but almost never as "Indian". TIL Richard Berry, the original composer of the song "Louie Louie", sold his rights to the song for $750 in 1959 before it went on to be one of the most recorded songs in rock history. The Internet sites promote the anecdotal claim that Melungeons are more prone to certain diseases, such as sarcoidosis or familial Mediterranean fever. 2003: January, Native Kentuckians Cleland Thorpe and Author Pat Spurlock have a discussion with Brent Kennedy about Doris Ulmann's 'Melungeon Boys' photograph, on the Rootsweb Melungeon List. A number of myths surround the origins and history of the Melungeons, and it can be difficult to find verifiable information about them. Melungeons (/mlndnz/ m-LUN-jnz) are an ethnic group of people from the Southeastern United States who descend from European settlers, Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands, and sub-Saharan African slaves. Many people involved with Melungeon research have been approached by someone who has said, Feel the back of my head am I a Melungeon? Others, upon learning of ones Melungeon heritage, will ask, What is that disease you guys have? Although these characteristics are significant in each individual's family and genetic history, they do not necessarily represent Melungeon ancestry. There is a family of people in Turkey whose It appears the name arose as an exonym, which a neighboring people of whatever origin called the multiracial people. On October 7, 1840, the polemical Brownlow's Whig, of Jonesborough, Tennessee, published an article entitled "Negro Speaking!" [43] The spelling of the term varied widely, as was common for words and names at the time. Most families in Appalachia have some Melungeon roots, although many arent aware of them or try to keep them a family secret. The professional genealogist and historian Virginia E. DeMarce reviewed his 1994 book and found that Kennedy's documentation of his Melungeon ancestry was seriously flawed. 1934: On a trip lasting from April to August, Ulmann and Niles work in Berea, Harlan, Lexington and Pine Mountain KY, Brasstown, NC and Gatlinburg, TN. The photograph 'Monday' is published in Making no claim to historical accuracy, Hunter portrayed the Melungeons as indigenous people of uncertain race who were mistakenly perceived as black by neighboring white settlers. Melungeons in Graysville, Tennessee claimed Cherokee ancestors. An example was "Spanish Peggy" Gibson, the wife of Vardy Collins. Based on the testimony of people in the community, the court decided the woman in the case was not of African ancestry or had no such ancestors recently enough to matter. Each of these groupings of multiracial populations has a particular history. check to see if you, like some descendants, including myself, Melungeons are generally recognized to have dark thick hair, blue or green eyes, high cheekbones, and swarthy or dark skin. These are much less. Gallery "[5] The play helped revive interest in the history of Melungeons. The physical evidence may be the most telling. Melungeon is a term that first appeared in print in the 19th century, used in Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina to describe people of mixed ancestry. Melungeon Characteristics | Melungeon Definition - What Is A Melungeon? On this one they visit, Louisa (Lawrence Co), Hazard (Perry Co), and Whitesburg (Letcher Co) , KY. It is a frequent finding among males and hence a prominent occipital spur is often used in . About a code to live by in appalachia. [26] The majority of Melungeon early ancestors, who had migrated from Virginia over time, are of northern European and African ancestry given the history of settlement in late-17th- and early-18th-century eastern Virginia. TEETH: Clues To Your Ancestryan interesting way to explore your heritage. Please contact me if you have any information you would like to share or questions. the skin blotched with white patches. Only descendants of the latter man, who was identified as mulatto in the 1755 record in North Carolina, has any proven connection to the Melungeon families of eastern Tennessee.[29]. This photograph was first published in 1971 in the book The Appalachian Photographs of Doris Ulmann by John Jacob Niles, Plate 40, named Two Melungeon Boys. Kentucky? [48] After an unsubstantiated hypothesis, popularized by N. Brent Kennedy, that Melungeons are of Turkish origin, some people have identified as having an enlarged external occipital protuberance, dubbed an "Anatolian bump".[47][49]. Mary has a liberal arts degree from Goddard College and Brent Kennedy and others first began talking about these characteristics and their significance over a decade ago, and many of those who have reported on his work come up with the same mistaken interpretation -- that these are "Melungeon" traits. The photo surfaces for a second time in 1997 on the KET (Kentucky Educational Television) 'In Search of Origins, Melungeons' produced by Ernie Lee Martin. than the lower lid. Contemporary authors identify differing lists of surnames to be included as families associated with Melungeons. In the 19th and the early 20th centuries, they were sometimes identified as "Portuguese," Native American, or light-skinned African American. Melungeons are descendants of people of mixed ethnic ancestry who, before the end of the eighteenth century, were discovered living in limited areas of what is now the southeastern United States, notably in the Appalachian Mountains near the point where Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina converge. The diseases most widely reported as relating to Melungeons include Familial Mediterranean Fever, thallasemia, and several other ailments. This makes uncovering Melungeon ancestry difficult. The hardest question for a genealogist to answer is the first and most obvious one: Am I a Melungeon or not? Researching this topic often reveals confusion and frustration with the lack of physical evidence and absence of that elusive paper trail genealogists so intensely crave. Many Indian descendants also have this type of teeth. The shift in meaning may have resulted from the popularity of Walk Toward the Sunset, a drama written by the playwright Kermit Hunter and produced outdoors. [5] Several Collins and Gibson households were listed in Floyd County, Kentucky in the 1820 census, where they were classified as "free persons of color." The following are other multi-racial groups that at one time were classified as tri-racial isolates. According to FamilySearch.org, some common Melungeon last names may include: N. Brent Kennedy, founder of the Melungeon Research Committee and author of The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People, 2nd edition (Mercer University Press), says the Melungeons are a people of apparent Mediterranean descent who may have settled the Appalachian wilderness before 1567, 40 years before Jamestown. [6], Other Melungeon individuals and families are accepted and identify as white, particularly since the mid-20th century. It is about the Their male descendants grew up bilingual and accompanied Europeans as workers or slaves. Big Stone Gap, VA Collins family history. This pathfinder contains general history, cultural studies, linguistic studies, genetic studies, fiction, and nonfiction works about the Melungeons. Historically, the Melungeons were associated with settlements in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia, which includes portions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and eastern Kentucky. The surnames Collins, Gibson, Goins, Mullins, Bowling, Bunch, Goodman, Minor, Mise, and Wise are all associated with the Melungeons, although plenty of people who do not belong to the group also bear these names. Race politics can be complicated and bi-racial stars often find themselves on one side of the Hollywood divide. How can he take that liberty, with out (The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People; N. Brent Kennedy, Mercer University Press,Macon, GA, USA, 1997; introduction, p. Its ironic that our families went to such pains to cover up their heritage and now, 150 years later, were going to such pains to uncover it, says Carol Huff, a Kentucky native who discovered her Melungeon heritage a few years ago. By settling in frontier areas, free people of color found more amenable living conditions and could escape some of the racial strictures of Virginia and North Carolina Tidewater plantation areas.[4][12]. Genealogists believe that the Melungeons were the natural result of ethnic intermarriages in the early colonies, and that they may have moved into Appalachia to avoid discrimination, a common problem for ethnically mixed individuals in the Americas. Find new ideas and resources to research ancestors in each U.S. state. Why was the original focus on the State of. the author's, based upon her reading and research of various The precise definition of what a Melungeon is, precisely, varies widely, depending on who one talks to and what their views about the origins of the group are. Sparks Morrison and the opinions in this page are strictly Those of any known African ancestry were to be classified as black, regardless of their appearance and how they self-identified or were known in the community. I be was born with a short dick. For example, in 1872, a widowed woman's Melungeon ancestry was assessed in a trial in Hamilton County, Tennessee. 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