Results of the Controversial Melungeon DNA Study

#ancestry #findingyourroots #melungeon #dnatest #louisiana#creole #familyhistory #genealogy
Can Melungeon ancestry be determined from DNA? A massive genetic study looks at the community, and people are not happy with the results. I also look at our family DNA communities: does Melungeon show up?
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[@nytn]

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[@dplj4428]

Not all genes are surface evident/visible face, limbs, eye color, hair texture, etc. Year by year, too, genetic reports change because there are more and more people getting tested and that refines or redirects the results. For, instance, the company “African Ancestry” in the past 10 or more years has focused on data parsed directly from the people who are still of the continent of Africa. - Their focus is African tribe origins. If a person’s admixture has a low percentage of match with data related to a specific tribe, they do not issue the person a certificate pinpointing a specific tribe. Could be because data is from more than one region/ tribal location and or high percent of data from other regions of the world. - This makes me think differently about any DNA results if we consider how people migrated for work (mariners, etc.); married between tribes (etc); were nomads; experienced displacement or capture due to war, famine or were wiped out by disease or infighting. - Imagine this: Some black Americans who were upset because their test results had European DNA. They wanted their money back or swore that it was not their tests. Especially puzzling to them because they (just like most humans) assume that dark or white skin is the absolute truth of their racial lineage. - African Ancestry website forewarns: If you’re gene pool is mixed, there might not be enough DNA to statistically point to a specific tribe. No refunds. They test DNA but do not give you the full DNA results, only the tribe. Also supposedly 😮 unlike Ancestry and 23me, they emphasize privacy, not sharing/ keeping your data. Race is a human construct that serves some people’s intent. It is linked to culture and heritage because belief in it as real influences how we react or interact with each other.

[@caniceedward]

The Spanish brought the filipinos to the Americas.

[@ReshonBryant]

☕

[@tomwilliams7773]

Those of us who live in Appalachia and those of us who graduated from Appalachian State University, really appreciate your attempt to pronounce it correctly. Thank you very much!

[@Life101_mindset_makeover]

I’m from Kentucky and appreciate your insight. My family is from the KY/VA/WV borders…with family records going over seven generations back. The challenge with Appalachian history stems from the fact that everyone has their family’s version of history imo. Appalachian culture is a unique mix of cultures and communities from pre-civil war demographics, which adds a layer of complexity which most don’t acknowledge. For example, if you look at the definition of the word “American” in a Websters Dictionary from 1828…it says “originally applied to the aboriginals, or copper colored races, found here by the Europeans; but now applied to the descendants of Europeans born in America.” Based on my family’s oral history, Melungeon culture did not begin with the mixing of other cultures but it expanded because of it. I was taught that original Melungeons were simply another one of the Pre-civil war, aboriginal, copper colored races that always existed in America before Europeans got here. But once census records became more prominent, the racial caste system evolved, and “paper genocide” began in throughout Virginia…which forced many of those pre-civil war, aboriginal, copper colored races to reclassify themselves in order to keep land, maintain land rights, etc. In my family it was called “passing for white”, which is the original reason that mixing began in these pre-civil war communities. There was no other way to keep land in the family…unless you looked like the desired phenotype of the day. After the civil war and leading up to the Great Depression…many so called “white people” had no where to go and national poverty was a major issue…so many of these impoverished people migrated to “poor farms” located throughout Appalachia. Many of them would pass Melungeons homes/communities on their way to the poor farms but instead of going to the poor farm, the Melungeons families would take them in and begin teaching them the ways of Melungeon culture (there’s an article online from Murray State University that speaks in depth about these rural poor farms of the 19th and 20th centuries). My great grandmother literally was one of the Melungeons who allowed someone into her home, while they were on their way to the poor farm in Appalachia Virginia. And this was a copper colored woman who had a home on acres of land in rural Virginia in the early 20th century. She wasn’t mixed with European blood but was Melungeon and Aniyunwiyah aka Cherokee, with no record of slavery. My grandfather once told me “I was about 10 when Roxie (my great grandmother) let the white folks stay wit us, it was after she gave me my first corn cob pipe..” Obviously there are many layers of mystery about this topic but as someone directly connected to it, just wanted to share what I was taught (not just by my family but by so called “white people” from Appalachia as well). The civil war is why so many things get lost in translation because pre-civil war America wasn’t like the movies portray. Pre-civil war America was filled with the last remnants of pre-colonial America…and that was the America of aboriginal, copper colored races prior to the mixing of Europeans. It is important to keep this in mind when connecting dots of old to dots of now. ✌🏾💙

[@Sky-yh3ml]

Copper colored ppl found whites not other way round…

[@sararampton654]

Thank you for sharing! I feel like you just have me a piece of my history…great grandmother early 1800s born in Tennessee moved to Louisiana…her descendants look “exotic” or mixed …reading your comments I see my grandma in your ancestor. We don’t know the family history before 1820’s in her line but your comment feels like home. Must have similar family history in that line

[@karphin1]

It staggers the imagination, that so many went through these machinations bc they didn’t want to be thought African in any way. So sad! But that is history of our tribal human species. Anybody a bit different was suspect. We are trying to get past it, but it is deeply embedded in the culture.

[@createanon8733]

if you look at the NY/PA/NY tristate border area, it's shaped like that to get rid of our northern Appalachia tri-racial/mixed communities. One of our communities that developed because of these displacements was marked "moor" in many records. I have Ancestors from the channel islands - there was a Portuguese Jewish Governor in the channel islands in the 1500s. One of the greatest lies in the world is that we don't travel and we don't mix.

[@batcactus6046]

Well written, interesting, I'll buy your book.

[@Keonny77]

Exactly. I'm from Kentucky. Many of these families were made up of Irish indentured women and African Servants in the 1700s. Before the black code made it ILLEGAL this is how two disenfranchised people were able to come up economically and socially. Only men could get land. So these couples had children and later when the racist planters created codes and laws that made African ancestry a sign of perpetual chattel slavery, they left the Coastal Virginia and ran into the mountains away from authorities. Later after the Revolutionary War, when former colonials started to come into Kentucky and other areas west of the Alleghanies, they started running into these people who suspiciously looked black. Remember the law then said if you did not have papers in places like Virginia any white man could claim you and make you into his legal slave. So the people started to LIE. They said they were not black. They said they were Portuguese, or French, or Indian. ]When did the Portuguese start to migrate to North America and how did they land in post-colonial Kentucky? They were forced to deny African ancestry or they could be put into slavery based on the one-drop rule! This is still kind of the case today with people who claim Indian ancestry. It's usually black or white as the Indians were not readily intermingling with European encroachers to their territories and they didn't have a desire or ability to do this with enslaved Africans either. If you go into the hills of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia you will still find evidence of this from the past or recently.

[@MrChristianDT]

The Kentucky thing doesn't really work. West Virginia was settled before the rest of the south or the region we generally think of as Appalachia & the first Kentuckians were coming into the area from West Virginia, Ohio & Pennsylvania. No one connected to the colonies was moving into West Virginia before that because it was hotly contested between several different tribes for decades & the tribes who lived between the colonies & the mountains themselves (like the Saponi) say they were taking in runaway slaves.

[@MrResearcher122]

Most accurate post. Thanks.

[@traeucity6087]

Thank you for sharing. That was really interesting history.

[@cht2162]

Excellent!!!

[@gabbysch2625]

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@user-jf9zz2jl5q]

I don't understand why anyone would be upset about you researching your roots. To me it's nothing less than fascinating. 🤩

[@Cloudy_Jones]

Because some people are still bigots or idiots, and nowadays people are extremely sensitive to racial topics.

[@olg06]

They were upset because it was Black...

[@chesterdonnelly1212]

​@@olg06 yes because their ancestors were African and not these other fictional dark European races. Denying African ancestry was sensible back in the day but it has created this weird situation now where many Americans think native Europeans are not white.

[@HANUMAN7454]

The various Mediterranean Europeans can get very dark idk what yr talking about. Been back and forth migration going on across that sea for ages.

[@chesterdonnelly1212]

@@HANUMAN7454 yes they tan. If they live somewhere that isn't sunny they're white.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

It is possible that the name "Melungeons" comes from the French verb "mélanger" = to mix, through a neoformation "Mélangeons." Thus, it would be the definition of a people who are inherently "mixed," that is, derived from interbreeding between very different populations.

[@rahorakhty369]

Melungeon derives from the Angolan word malungu which is what they called themselves in America while indentured in Virginia.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

It's a hypothesis. I've read it. But the Kimbundu word "Malungu" means "watercraft", not "shipmate", like the hypothesis suggests. So the shifting to "close companion, compatriot, or friend" is a little bit difficult. It is true that, not in portuguese, but in portuguese "brasileiro", the term "malungo" (not "melungo") means " person breastfed by the same woman" and as a consequence "friend/companion", but this word is of unknown origin. It could derive from a completely different language of the Bantu group. The "malunga", in Brasil, is the "cachaça" (alcoholic beverage made from the distillation of fermented sugar cane juice). This suggests that "milk" is also involved in this case (liqueur equated to milk). In Angola, the "malunga" is a sort of mantel gift (used as a badge of honor) and a shackle too. So, it could just be an assonance of terms. The fact that there is a word malungu in the languages of the Bantu group (and that "malungo" means "friend/companion" in Brazil) does not necessarily mean that the word Melungeon derives from the first. The presence of two Angolan slaves in Virginia in the early seventeenth century does not make the question any more real. In French colonial documents, people of various origins are referred to as "métis" (in the singular) and "mélangeons" (in the plural). "Mélanger" means "to mix" and the formation "-on" is normal in French. See "compagnon/compagnons". Even today, in some French dialects, "Mélimelon" means mixture or confusion. I speak this language. Even phonetically, it is clear that the "u" in Melungeons is an Anglophone attempt to pronounce the French nasilized "a". In French, there is the saying: "mélangeons serviettes et torchons!" that means "we mix together incompatible things such as wipes and rags to wash the floor". Look: Appalachian Journal, Volume 26 ( 1998 )

[@rahorakhty369]

@@giorgiodifrancesco4590 they also report that it was a term commonly used in brazil to denote shipmates on a common vessel as they were transported from Africa. It also states that this was a term they called themselves and not an external name.

[@rahorakhty369]

Just seems most logial

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

@@rahorakhty369 This is said by wokes, but not by dictionaries.They have misrepresented the reality.

[@jcaesar9683]

🤣 It's mysterious because folks were lying to hide their African ancestry...

[@TheHoodVoice2024]

They had too

[@hwgray]

@@TheHoodVoice2024 Well, they didn't have to, but they were smart to!

[@purplepanther2771]

I have Melungeon ancestry through both of my paternal grandparents, and I'm descended from Black slaves with White wives. Some of these families worked together on the Byrd plantation in Virginia. The Black slave's White father-in-law ran off from the plantation before he fulfilled his terms of indentured servitude. I had the wanted poster for "the old Welsh runaway's" capture, but I lost it.

[@user-uv1lq4bl4p]

You got it wrong the black relative was the indentured servant and the pale relative was the slave. Black Europeans from Scotland and Wales were here in the 1300s as the catholic church imposed its will black Scots Welsh sailed to America and settled most people called black or AA have English surnames from Europe as they mixed with the coppered aboriginals here. A slave is someone of Slavic descent.

[@kolepate7057]

@@user-uv1lq4bl4p there’s a lot of claims of pre-colonial egresses. Not just black Europeans, but with Viking Greenlanders pushing, Portuguese priests and shipmen escaping the Saracens to Atlantic islands with maps from ancient Carthage, and even modern yayoi/East Asian populations reaching the California coast. I will take your postulate as plausible. I just want you to continue to explain why you think culturally Scottish Africans migrated to America. Where was the knowledge of ships and sailing? Who assisted? If no one assisted because it was small egress of solely Africans, then how did they survive? What tribes do you think they merged with? And how can pinpoint that possible historical reality with a genetic basis of proof? A lot of intermixing has happening in America since the colonial age began, and it’s led the most impoverished populations to make up fanciful origins or at least stretch the truth, about how they came to America. Of which the greatest I think is the “pre colonial African in America”. Tell me why you think Africans were in America coming from Europe, or Africa for that matter of you think that, when they did not show great knowledge of seamanship?

[@kolepate7057]

⁠@@user-uv1lq4bl4pa slave is not just a Slavic person. I find the tendency in the nook of the internet to misrepresent the connection of definitive terms to situational conditions. If everybody ever was slave had to be of Slavic descent, because the word slave originates from a term regarding them, then everybody who is lazy is of Greek descent, since they have the word τεμπέλης (Lathay in Latin lettering) which is the derivative for the word lazy. It just doesn’t make sense. Are you then going to say that Africans were never enslaved because they are not Slavic? This is foolish. There was word for “slave” 10,000 years ago, before the Indo-Aryan language family even crystallized. You assertion lacks substance. And literally what makes you think Africans in America don’t have Europeans surnames because they were renamed by slave owners? You are doing lots of gymnastics to avoid/distortion the plight of the African in America because you can’t accept our position in this society. A theme that underpins all Afro-centrism - refusal of accepting the semi-animal/primitive origin of the Western Sub-Saharan African and the natural way that comes from that, being born from archaic times. Truly, I think you are the one of the most colonized for thinking that way you do. Because you show that the experiences of our ancestors was so traumatic that people will make out outrageous fantasies, or stretch idiosyncratic ideas/events to support your own agenda.

[@user-uv1lq4bl4p]

@@kolepate7057 all history has been told in reverse and backwards the only way you will know the real history is go into the Smithsonian and library of congress, for instance what is the emblem of america?

[@kolepate7057]

@@user-uv1lq4bl4p you’re not just speaking indistinctly, but foolishly. Yes our American seal has a conglomeration of ancient symbols used before, but what has that got to do with the melungeon conversation? And reading history in reverse? This is the issue to begin with! History is not a line, it is not linear, it cannot be interpreted this way accurately, it is a WEB. A web of INTERACTIONS. That comes with nuance. There’s more directions than just one, and they collide, you can’t “go in reverse” you just analyze historical interactions. A wooo boy you think the Smithsonian and the congress will tell you the true history. They do not divulge the things they have discovered which disrupt history as it is commonly accepted. To go to the Smithsonian or the Library of Congress is to look at what we have access what resource we have already. My real issue is talking like most Africans in America spring culturally Scottish African ship men exiled in the 1300s by a catholic edict. Not saying it’s impossible, as I’m here to ponder obfuscated history, but you need to support such a claim directly.

[@jessikamoore5033]

I am Appalchian and my great grandma was likely mixed race. I am 4% African on Ancestry, my uncle 7% and our half cousin is 12%. I am from Maryland that borders WV and PA. I have shared my story before, similar to yours. My great grandma was " white passing" I believe.

[@Calhorsey]

I was always convinced that the Melungeon people didn't have Portuguese and it was just a ruse to avoid mistreatment. The earliest blacks in Virginia were often indentured servants. Once free, they formed communities and intermarried with whites. The mixing and re-mixing has been going on for many many generations. The fanciful story of a bunch of shipwrecked Portuguese settling by the Virginia/TN border seems an obvious foil to avoid loosing rights, and avoid horrible mistreatment. They had a huge incentive to NOT be (any part) black. I think the story was told for so long that it became their truth.

[@MrChristianDT]

It gets really confusing. I worked out the West Virginian/ Kentuckian part was various people of mixed race trying to fudge their ancestry & move up the racial tier list, but eventually, I think everyone got tired of them & forced everyone who looked like they might be mixed with anything non-white into their own little racial community & the only whites who would mix into these groups for a long time were first generation immigrants. I guess the part blacks claiming to be part Native were the most vocal explanation that won out. I still have a lot of questions about what was going on between the Carolinas & Georgia, though- especially considering that both West Virginia & Georgia seem to have come up with the Blackfoot claim independently of one another.

[@user-ex2ff5io7o]

I also have to point out that Portugal is where eurocentric spain pushed a lot of "undesireable" mixed people for a long time, and it's not far from the coast of Africa at all. Rather than assuming less cultural and racial mixing, I've begun to assume more.

[@aar1843]

100% Truth....My Research shows same...They formed their own mixed communities & many could "pass" in "White Society"...(with risks..) 💯🤔👀🙈

[@aar1843]

​@@MrChristianDTWell actually there may have been a few native American ancestors in there but likely people put that out their so fewer questions were asked... because of their "exotic look"...Many wanted to self identify as "black" or "other" more than "white"...for social reasons..💯📰🇺🇲🤔👀

[@MrChristianDT]

​@@aar1843Well, Yeah, I've been able to identify a handful that we know for sure were Native, but not very many. So far, only three families connected to West Virginia (Delay, Harris & Mitchell) & one connected to Kentucky (Owens). We know a few of the Lumbee were able to show proof of Native ancestry, too, as well as a few claims of Cherokee ancestry that were actually near Cherokee territory, but other than that, it's been extremely difficult to prove that aspect in most cases.

[@peachygal4153]

What I heard was Indentured servants and enslaved worked together side by side, they mixed, had children together in the late 1600's in Virginia. The wealthy planter class considered indentured servants (or former indentured servants) not much better than enslaved people, the dregs of society. (many being former felons was why they were indentured) The indentured servant when they served their time, received a gift of acreage from the colony of Virgina, many traded that acreage to their former masters for their partner's and children's freedom and the family moved up into the mountains away from the settled areas of the Virgnia colony.

[@shaunlove7293]

Why does the goal post keep moving? Is this what you were taught as a child? Use common sense then tell me if this really makes sense to you. Why is it that slave is black while indenture is white? Why is it that owner is white and slave is black?

[@shaunlove7293]

Many prominent people in American history portrayed as pale skinned terrible colonizers and or great and powerful leaders were brown / copper skinned terrible colonizers and or great powerful leaders. How do I know? Because I stay in my lane and my ancestry unless I am asked to go into someone else’s and the people connected to me, I find out about and the people connected to others that asked for my help, they find out about. Is Abraham Lincoln or Mansa Musa, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner or any other made up person connected to any of you? All of these stories are given to you to make you feel submissive, subservient and like a victim. I see that it has completely worked in most cases.

[@hwgray]

"children's freedom" The children of indentured servants were _born_ free. Then the law was changed. Black indentured servants were made "servants for life," i.e. slaves, and any children of a black mother, regardless of the race of the father, were born "servants for life," so that owners could continue to fuck their female slaves without having to worry about questions of inheritance and such, any longer. The problem of dealing with the mixed offspring of white fathers ultimately led to the one-drop rule: there is no such thing as a person who is "part-black." There are only some _black_ people who are part-white.

[@mousiebrown1747]

Heartbreaking. America, the land of Commerce! 🤬 Unspeakable immorality.

[@ownpetard8379]

@@shaunlove7293 How does one become an indentured servant? They start off as free men/women then (usually) incur a debt that they cannot repay. They swap the status of indentured servant for debtor's prison. And the indenture is likely to a third party: the third party pays the one owed the money for rights to the labor of the indebted person. So, one gets their money quickly and the other gets the labor from the debtor for a lengthy time. (Sometimes a person would be indentured to learn a trade. I think that was rare in the colonies.) Okay, so at that time, a white person is far more likely to be free, and far, far more likely to be able to get a loan so as to incur a debt. So indentured servants were white. You're joking about why a slave is black, right? If you are not joking, then you are incredibly stupid or you have a bizarre agenda.

[@Pammellam]

There is some evidence that the _Roma_ people (also improperly known as gypsies) were originally descendant from people who came from India during the spice trade days between India and Europe. These people were originally artisans, copper workers, blacksmiths etc who eventually remained in Europe …..

[@Katya_Lastochka]

They were the untouchables in India. Thats why they left and became stonemasons in Europe.

[@catbehindthecurtain]

Okay, personal theory based on my own family history. First, I think it's safe to say that the Americas were settled in waves from different regions of the old world - including Africa and the Polynesians, and explored by alot of people before Columbus (who found dark skinned people on the first islands he landed on) including the Vikings and Welsh and who knows who else. So some of the tribes (like the five southern tribes) were already mixed and that's why they so easily accepted runaway slaves and indentured servants into the tribes during Colonial Times and became even more mixed. I think (again... personal opinion from reconstructed history) the reason why some people have ancentors who were kicked off the Rolls for being 'too black' is because they thought that meant the 'black blood' had been recently added while at the same time, the reason some people were marked 'FPC' or Free Person of Color and taken with the tribes was because they were viewed as having been part of the tribe longer. Because if you went to southern PowWows in the 70s/80s, there were a lot of black Choctaws who were full members of the tribe. Okay, I'm old. I was born in Memphis in 1970. I grew up being called 'white trash' because of where we lived and because my mamaw was 'half Indian' and 'should have stayed out in the country where she belonged'. Out in the country being McNairy County, Tn (middle Tennesse, close to the Mississippi and Alabama borders). Out there, not too many of my cousins looked like me (blue eyes, dark red wavy hair, light skin that gets really tan in the summer). They had straight black hair and were 'tan' all the time. Or they were much darker but sometimes had light eyes and light curly hair. I don't remember any of us ever questioning or wondering how we were related, we were just cousins because our great-great somebody was the same person. I knew who my family was because they were the ones who showed up to help each other out whenever somebody was having troubles. Back then, we'd also go every first Sunday in May to put flowers on the graves at Moores Schoolhouse. I'd always get bored and start walking around. There are a lot, maybe eight, of the Melungeon names, including Goins, and my mamaw's family, in that cemetary, which goes back decades before the Civil War, and the names are on both sides (yes, it was segarated.) Again, this is a personal theory based on the fact that while yes, some of the headstones from the Civil War era are marked as 'slave', there's also a good number of headstones for 'black' people who didn't go north after being freed, who died there decades later. So, there may have been some 'black' people in that area who were not slaves - who were always free. Because I think some of the tribes started sending people out early, maybe sensing that someday their lands would be taken. These families went down in the lowlands and started assimilating into the local cultures - having to choose black or white sometimes but still becoming less 'Indian' - so they couldn't be removed any further. I once overheard my Mamaw, who was ranting about something to her cousin Nell, say 'Effie was born free on this side of the Mississippi'. Effie was their great grandmother. At the time, I didn't understand why that mattered. I'd be interested to know if these families suddenly acquired some new members, out of nowhere, about the time the tribes starting being moved out. And whether these families often tried to stay out of the Civil War. I know some of my people seemed to have tried really hard to NOT get involved, even when the fighting was right there. I think we might find that not ALL of the south's history can't be clearly defined as black or white, or red. Some of us are a mix of all three (and all the varieties of those three). Sorry so long.

[@osiruskat]

Wow. Thanks for sharing in detail such a great story, fellow Memphian.

[@KAH-7]

@kassieparrish3667 Sis, You ain't Old? A year younger than you, Nikki Haley ain't Old⁉

[@mlmichael2791]

I agree. There were definitely Black people in the America's before Columbus. African expeditions certainly sailed here which is why African artifacts and statues thousands of years old have been found in South American, Mexico and in the mid West. Also it is well documented that some European explorers had black people as part of their team.

[@nytn]

Love hearing from a fellow Tennessean! Thank you for taking the time to save all of this for us.

[@osiruskat]

@@mlmichael2791 Mali's Prince Aburikari is thought to have landed in South America or in what is now known as Hispaniola in the 13th century.

[@sglanville2967]

With the rest of the background, Filipino, Austronesian and Indonesian traces most likely means this person has an ancestor that was brought from Madagascar during the slave trade. Look up the Malagasy people for a interesting journey.

[@HANUMAN7454]

Yeah some of them w less Bantu admixture look almost fully s.e. asian. And a little African. Amazing lookin people.

[@EverAfterMinty]

Multigenerational mixed feels like such a good term to hear, It perfectly describes everything that came before me on both sides of my parents families (less on my father's side though lol), I think I'll really find myself identifying with that from here on out, it's quick concise and just how everything worked out here.

[@e.urbach7780]

My understanding of the Appalachian region comes from a friend who was born and raised in the area, and she comes from North Carolina and the Appalachian Mountain range that runs through the area. Apparently, the Appalachians run down into northern Georgia. I could see how the Melungeon people could be a mix of escaped enslaved Africans, Native Americans, and the English/Irish/Scottish people who settled in the Appalachian Mountains; my friend who is from there, said that the people who lived in those mountains were so isolated that they did not get radios and cars until the 1960s, and that when she was growing up in the 1950s, the old-timers spoke an old dialect of English that was like the language used in the original King James Version of the Bible! The "thee"s and "thou"s, included! The same friend told me a story about her dad, who was a historian, and who did a bunch of interviews of the elderly people from the area, driving around all the old mountain roads to talk to them; his notes were stored in a warehouse, ready to be published, but then the warehouse burned down and everything was destroyed! He went back and re-interviewed all of the same people, several years later, and stored his notes in a different place ... and that place also got burned down or flooded or something, and all of his notes were lost again! By that time, it was 20 years after he had done the initial interviews, and most of the old-timers he had talked to were no longer alive, so he couldn't redo the interviews. That just broke my heart to hear that story; all that information lost! I wonder if my friend's dad was part of the Foxfire project, which was happening in the 1960s in the area, using high school students to interview their own grandparents about "the old ways", and writing up the resulting material for the school magazine, which was eventually published as a 12-book series of Appalachian history and culture, which is still being published and sold. My mom has one of the books from the series and it's really interesting.

[@findliza]

The mountains run through PA and into NY/NJ border as well.

[@mp893]

⁠@@findlizaI get what you’re saying and want to add that as a *mountain range* the Appalachian range has a northernmost part in Newfoundland Canada and goes southwesterly ending in northern Alabama US. As a *region* (which is what the channel is looking into and learning more about for their heritage) it’s similar to what you said, starts at the southern New York state and Pennsylvania border down to northern Alabama/Miss border

[@helenepatrick7149]

Agrred

[@user-ex2ff5io7o]

thank you! I'm learning a lot@@mp893

[@JCC_1975]

Sounds like my family. We're in NW Ga. Our genealogy records that we could find show we are Cherokee, Black Irish and Scottish. I'm finding this channel fascinating!!

[@bayyinahzhaxx7620]

People just assumed Portuguese and Spaniards didn't have West African ancestry, bu they did, just the same as they have Arab ancestry or Italian or Greek dna.

[@carolmerlini9971]

Some Portuguese are mixed with East Indian from the island of Goa. They are not African. If they are darker they have a connection to Goa.

[@babyboy562]

@@carolmerlini9971Portugal was Moorish yes they descend from African Moors and Aboriginal Europeans you pink skins are not from Europe you are from Western Asia Caucus Mountains Caucas Asians with pink skin and recessive DNA

[@katchikali9573]

The Portuguese were interacting with West Africans before they made their way to Goa. Spain was under the rule of the Moors originating from North Africa. Knowledge of history is important…Of course we now have the technology that confirms or identifies myths. Genealogy is a field we must approach with great humility.

[@henryperez606]

@@katchikali9573 Spanish here, 1.2% sub-Saharan African 1.2% North African. However, I do have family from the Canary Islands in the original inhabitants were North African. One of the white guys at work and his 23 and me done. He had 8% sub-Saharan African.

[@AdultThirdCultureKid1971]

I read somewhere that Melungeon also includes Turkish, which I found interesting.

[@Maddie9185]

I read somewhere that Abraham Lincoln was Melungeon

[@enwalker]

He was

[@H8L920]

@@enwalker Yes, probably through his mother Nancy Hanks. Tom Hanks the actor is related to Lincoln, via Nancy Hanks

[@carlosvenancio6031]

Yes.its TRUE.

[@terencekopietz8861]

My father comes from a similar group in NC he got a percentages of central Asian, sub Saharan, East Asian/ Native American, and Spanish/ Portuguese. Surnames: Oxidize, Scott, Deese, Evans, and Gibson.

[@nytn]

Gibson!Yes I saw the Gibsons in my family tree.

[@ChowwithNell]

Is Oxidize a typo were you trying to say Oxedine. I have Goins and Oxedine in my matches trees.

[@abtheone7825]

​@@ChowwithNellHow to start the trace of finding family

[@createanon8733]

would you like advice on making a family tree or doing research? @@abtheone7825

[@andymullins84]

My dad's relatives came from North Carolina and Georgia and we have Byrd, Mullins and Gibson in our family. Our trace African is from Angola/Congo. Most of it is gone I think because we didn't find "like" families in Appalachia. We call ourselves Scotch-Irish and Ivr heard "black-irish".

[@MattGoings]

Really thankful for all of the videos you’ve been doing about the melungeon people. I recently found out I come from the Goins melungeon community in Surry, NC / Patrick, VA. Taking some DNA tests in the coming weeks to see what I can confirm beyond the paper trails I’ve found.

[@kahlil3034]

Mines are from Surry, VA... Fish Kill, NC....They intermarried with Howell, Evans, Chavis, Bass etc

[@roysmith1186]

I really love your fearless curiosity and openness to share your story! As I research my own DNA story, I continue to be amazed at the connections I have that I never thought I did. As an African American I was surprised to find Melungeon ancestry! According to my Ancestry DNA results, I belong to the "Early Southern United States African Americans" community, which includes Virginia. After doing quite a bit of research I discovered that I am related to the Bunch family - who are Melungeons.

[@michaelalberts3615]

I’m writing a work of fiction where the major character is melungeon…thanks for your work

[@judithgockel1001]

A great movie of the ‘50’s was ‘Showboat’. The movie was a musical about a riverboat with a performing troupe. A female lead was accused of ‘passing’; her male counterpart was told that if she had 1 drop of ‘black’ blood, she was black. He cut each of their hands and pressed the cuts together, indicating that now he had a drop of ‘black’ blood. It has always been interesting to me to note that most black people in the Americas’ ancestors have been here longer than almost all ‘whites’. Yet I have never, ever seen that commentary anywhere.

[@research903]

Maybe because it is a complete fiction? I have never read anything like that reported in any of the many genetic, historical, or ancestry studies conducted by anthropologist. My late wife was native American. Through a combination of records and oral history, she could trace her heritage back to per-Columbian plains tribes. At one point, some of her ancestors were held as slaves ... BY OTHER INDIGENOUS TRIBES.

[@judithgockel1001]

@@research903 - slavery as such has existed ever since the first hominid figured out that it could ‘capture’ another to do or be something the captor needed or wanted done. Nobody currently alive could claim not to have ANY ancestor that was not enslaved during some period of history, or prehistory, right back to the jungles, savannas, or deserts of multi-million year ago Africa. My commentary concerned post-Columbian African slaves importation, which began in South America in the early 1500’s. And the supposed reason for this was that ‘Indians’ either would not work, or died too easily under the stresses. They could also run away, with the knowledge there was somewhere to go. And my great- grandmother was Choctaw. Never met her, but have her wedding ring.

[@research903]

@@judithgockel1001 I am well aware of that fact. I was making the point that not just the black Africans suffered the scourge of slavery but that every ethnicity has at sometime been subject to slavery.

[@judithgockel1001]

@@research903 - the original post was a comment concerning various issues about racial mixing between black people and white people. I am more than aware of the treatment of the indigenous people of the Americas, both North and South, and can fulminate for days about it. This website is intelligent, caring, and informative, and is based on the young woman’s own family information, and she is presenting little-known information about various ethnic and social groups that I find fascinating. Cool your jets, and have a nice day.

[@f.frederickskitty2910]

Yes, I read about that online. It's an archaic rule called "The One Drop Rule". This concept became codified into the law of some U.S. states in the early 20th century. You can read about it on Wikipedia. I look purely European but did a few DNA tests over the past couple of years and I was pleasantly surprised to discover have Nigerian, Mali, Benin and Tongo and North African DNA (so does my son, and a few 2nd cousins that also took a DNA test). It was news to me since I'm pale as a ghost with blue eyes but I was delighted to find that out.

[@naithom]

You are absolutely right about the DNA showing the heritage. It all depends on which chromosomes win the toss. My mother's ancestors's surnames included Sizemore, Bunch, Short, Green, and Payne. (Melungeon researcher Brent Kennedy is a cousin of mine.) While many members of my family couldn't pass a paper bag test, I lost the genetic lottery and have the coloring of the underbelly of a white fish thanks to Scandinavian ancestors from another line.

[@nytn]

LOL. It is incredible to see how the stuff shakes out.

[@monicamayberry9313]

Melungeons are just biracial people! It is no mystery. They just tried to hide their "black" heritage.

[@lordfarquaad8601]

"Lost the lottery?" Why is it a bad thing to have white skin?

[@joshlcaudill]

I am a Caudill whose grandparents were from Kentucky. I am related to the Sizemores.

[@gazoontight]

Another fascinating video. Yes, appul AT chuh. Science and folklore often butt heads. DNA testing has exploded a lot of family mythologies. It’s common that someone makes up a story to satisfy an inquisitive person and the made up story becomes accepted as fact. It was also common for people to tell lies about ancestry in order to make their lives easier or safer. You know about that. I want to read the article that you showed and also the original research paper. I doubt that Louisiana and Mississippi would be considered Appalachian.

[@nytn]

Here is the original paper. I hope to cover it more in depth later; jogg.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/71.006.pdf

[@mousiebrown1747]

Closest thing to a mountain in LA is Indian Burial Mounds…..

[@jeffpagan7735]

The (melungeons) are fascinating. I'll bet melungeon is a derivative of the word melange. Meaning mixture. Creole and Criollo means raised here, of here. Broadly meaning of the new world. Mixed. From what I see all tri racial isolates usually adopt a name meaning mixed. Redbones, Jackson Whites, Melungeon, Creole. And Puerto Rico for your sometimes y. (Puerto Rico to Americas is foreign,still since the Spanish American war).

[@glxjchaos7775]

I’ve hear it actually comes from from the kongolese word for brother “malangu”

[@MrChristianDT]

Someone, somewhere traced it back to a French preacher who had come down into the Carolinas from Canada for a time & was trying to side with them on their claims of not being black, so he invented a new word for them.

[@kathryncaudwell8790]

Melungeon comes from the French word Melange which means ‘a mixture ’

[@metroteacher]

I’m excited to be reading, CASTE, the ORIGINS of OUR DISCONTENTS, by Isabel Wilkerson. Hopefully much of America’s embracing of the caste system (which I only considered to be in India) will be more understandable.

[@gl0bal7474]

excellent book

[@kaleahcollins4567]

The caste system is segregation

[@MrChristianDT]

Basically, the Spanish tried to implement a complex one, with whites on top, blacks on the bottom & all manner of varying degrees of mixture of white, black & Native in between. After some of the Caribbean Islands got taken over by the French, Dutch & English, they held onto this caste system themselves, in a way. When England gained control of the Carolinas & Georgia in the 1700s, there was a movement of people down into that region from further north, but just as large of an influx of wealthy persons moving there from the Caribbean to start plantations & bringing their slaves with them.

[@lewisjohnson8297]

"Roma" are known among english speakers as Gypsies. They aren't the only group, but a significant portion of the Romanian population have genetic connections. At some point in time, Andalusia became a place where these mostly travelling folk, tended to take their winter break. "Roma" is used as a kind of tribal designation. There is another major strain, the name of which slips my mind. Both groups are organized in a clan structure. Romania seems to be a place where large groups have become static communities that are characterized by an archaic culture, that differs markedly, in customs, speech and mannerisms, from the surrounding majority culture. In Spain, they and ruling Moors seem to have come together with rural Andalusians, to develop "Flamenco". Curiously enough, I seemed to have always detected a note of "Kletchmer" in there, as well. The Atlantic coast of Portugal brought forth Fado, which the band tried to sell me as Portuguese blues. Of course, the intervening centuries made it impossible for me to guess at the direction of influence. Anyway, I was made to feel welcome among both groups, as I was in North and East Africa, as well. I can't imagine that it was significantly different during the 15th and 16th centuries, except that the Reconquista reintroduced the stiff catholic hierarchical social order to that which had been more fluid, for a few centuries.

[@ESCAGEDOWOODWORKING]

@@MrChristianDT Why is there so much Native ancestry today across the Spanish world, and little in the U.S.? Because there was no law forbidding marriage between groups, and they did for hundreds of years til today. Meanwhile in the British world, that was not allowed by law, though some still did. Likewise, why did Natives as well as enslaved people in the Spanish world appear in baptismal and marriage records? And in the British world you'd be lucky to find any of that. What's more, why is it that the Spanish also recorded the weddings of couples including Free with Enslaved, and every other combination? And why were the "mixed" children recognized and given inheritance? Why did these "mixed" people occupy all levels of society? All that I wrote can be researched, the records are on familysearch for a start. The narrative of casta comes from an English understanding, not a Spanish one. There's a painting one can search online for. It shows various families in different ethnic combinations. The British world tends to see it as proof of casta, but what it shows is that the Spanish mixed across the Americas. Not only did they allow it, they did so willingly. Not so much the case from a North American view. The good news is, the Spanish recorded everything, in fact, they worked to preserve Native languages from the start, translating and creating Native language books, before certain European countries had done so. Look up 'slavery differences between the Spanish and the British'. And in the Spanish world, Natives, by law, were not enslaved. The narrative you wrote is incorrect.

[@selinaBARMAR2565]

African DNA I noticed if you have any Latin American ancestry and I do, your African DNA is likely also going to be along with West African, also Moroccan and the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands although owned by Spain is closer geographically to NW Africa and an ancient test will show this but on a test like 23andMe it might show up as African or Broadly African which means not easily identified. Also, us of Latin heritage although not classified as Melungeon, we are generally a blend of tri-racial ancestry. Multi-generational is common for Melungeon and people of Latin American countries, but look how different mixing can look between an offspring that has a parent from an African country who migrates to Europe or Asia, and marries a person who has direct ancestry that's basically just Europe or Asia, their offspring are not multi-racial. Multi-racial very much pertains to the Americas, North, Central and South is what it seems.

[@1missbridget]

Oh, I had someone on Twitter recently talk about MGMs. I had no idea what he was referring to until I found out it meant "multi-generational mixed," which I had never heard of either. I had also commented on another video about the Black Dutch, which my dad told me we had. My family always thought we had Netherland Dutch ancestry. Still, when I looked it up, I found that Black Dutch is only an American term that people used to not be associated with African or Native American ancestry, which I think may be similar to the Melungeons.

[@nytn]

I have heard Black Dutch but know nothing about it. What a great rabbit hole, thank you!

[@MrChristianDT]

I think it's a variation on the term Black Irish, which is just what they called people in the English sphere that looked white, but were inexplicably able to tan. They think that these kinds of people are also wrapped up in all of this, because so many of the first settlers in Appalachia came from countries with minorities who can tan for unknown reasons (Scots-Irish & Germans) & they don't really know what they are mixed with, either. I think they did surmise from a new DNA study that all Germanic remains from approx. 3000 years ago could tan, though.

[@lyndaclough3462]

I remember the summer of 1976. I got so tanned that I didn't need to get sun for over 10 years. Fast-forward to about 5 years ago when my daughter did ancestry and yep we have sub Saharan. And have branches who identify as black. Quite a few surprises that she found on both sides of her ancestry.

[@createanon8733]

Black Dutch is a name for a presumed tri-racial group in *and moving through* the Appalachias @@MrChristianDT

[@createanon8733]

you're repeating the lie, please don't erase mixed people.@@MrChristianDT

[@chang958]

The fact that she had to prove that she is not black in order to get her inheritance is so telling ; that's why I don't understand why people get upset when certain blacks that were descended from founding years of the USA, say that they deserve retribution. The 1700s, 1800s, and early 1900s are full of law/court cases and newspaper clippings that prove that land, property, GI bill benefits etc.. was taken; so it's so confusing as to what the push back is, idk.

[@margaretbonanno654]

How can you possibly fairly give out compensation? How do you separate those with slavery in their ancestry and those who never had slave ancestors. What about people that are 1/2 black…1/4 black? Why should the American people be responsible for that bill, no one responsible is still alive. Since it would be payed for by tax dollars how do we separate the money? By skin color?

[@chang958]

Immigration records shoes who were in USA in 1700s & 1800s.( Birth certificates show if your parents were born in the Caribbean or in Africa) Also, you may be surprised, if you do you google and see all many /the different ethnic groups that are getting a check $$$ right now in 2023 , ... lawsuits citing "....in the shoes of their ancestors...". There's a very interesting case where land near Central Park New York City within the last couple of years was returned to the descendants of blacks that owned that small piece of land. So interesting to hear everyone's view points I love these shoes and various documentaries ❤

[@ayates6333]

If this country can give billions to Ukraine and Israel, it can and should give reparations for descendants of enslaved folk. ​@@margaretbonanno654

[@hijegeueu]

​@@margaretbonanno654if you had something of value stolen from you, you'd want it back. If you lost something of sentimental value years ago, you'd be happy if you got it back. People think that slavery was so far in the past, but someone put it to me this way: the hands of a slave touched someone that touched you. Literally. I'm still in my twenties but my grew up knowing my great-grandmother. She changed my diapers, and a slave changed hers. We're not that far removed. Germany compensates Holocaust survivors, and the Holocaust was modeled after the American Jim Crow South. This country was literally built off of our free slave labor, yet systems are still in place that don't allow us to receive a fair chance. Of all things to worry about where taxpayer dollars go to, I feel like reparations shouldn't be taking as much heat as it does. Did you know that the Pentagon can't account for $220 Billion dollars in military gear? Yet the taxpayer dollar is responsible for that.

[@fsilber330]

"that's why I don't understand why people get upset when certain blacks that were descended from founding years of the USA, say that they deserve retribution." The people from whom they deserve retribution are dead. What if someone discovered that your great-great-great grandfather got away with murder -- what do you think should be done to you for it? Seeking retribution will only lead to a race war of extermination.

[@user-xh6nr5dg1o]

Also u talked about ur great uncle whose communities included ulster Ireland and southwest Scotland. That area in Northern Ireland are called Scot Irish cuz their dna comes from western Scotland. Because of poverty a lot of Scot Irish migrated to Appalachia eventually ending up in Appalachia. It makes sense. I have a lot of Puerto Rican friends who look like u who are of triracial origin. If u went to Puerto Rico the citizens there would immediately communicate with you in spanish

[@MrChristianDT]

Professional genealogists surmised that Scots-Irish come predominantly from the area of England between Scotland & Wales, otherwise known as the borderlands region. That's because they were Anglo-Saxons who were on the front lines when the Irish invaded Wales & Scotland towards the end of the Dark Ages & formed the modern Scottish, so these people were mixed, felt discriminated against & thought of themselves as their own thing, seperate from the other English.

[@nytn]

I get spoken to in Spanish a lot. “Lo siento…”

[@pauly2bags9]

Yeah, my family us from Kingsport TN and we were always told that we were of Portuguese descent. I also heard Turkish mentioned. It wasn't up until maybe 20 years ago that I started hearing about the sub Saharan African lineage. I will say that my family had a history with Gamecocks (not anymore). It wasn't until I went to one of these events deep in the hills when I was a teenager that I actually met people with alot more Melungeon blood in them. They didn't look like me. These folks were striking. They had all the features of White Europeans but had a deep copper Skin tone. I just get really dark in the summertime....I know that generations ago, my family did change their last name to be able to vote....

[@areneesouder]

I'm from Kingsport too, and married into a family with Melungeon roots, so my youngest child is part.

[@philamoureux675]

I read that same paper by Jack Goins Years ago, and I do believe Jack has passed. Now in My Case, My Melungeon for Me is Portuguese,African (Angola) Scot-Irish and Cherokee. The Woman who had that Married a Cajun, Choctaw Fillpino. Thier Dauighter Married a Creole-Metis. Which is My Great Grandfather.

[@nytn]

Oh bummer, I wondered if he had already passed away. You are all the flags of the world!

[@jwilli7434]

Very interesting. I am a Goins descendant as well. A lot of my ancestors, including my great grandfather who is a "double Goins" (i.e., product of a second cousin marriage), migrated to the Midwest from Virginia in the 1880s/1890s to work in the coal mines. I didn't realize how much Benin & Togo figured into this. Ancestry says I have about 8%.

[@user-hg1ky3cj2s]

Danielle, I salute you in your efforts to discover your families past! I’m also intrigued with the information you presented in this video. I’m also deeply involved in researching my ancestry, and simply can’t get too much information. The key for me, by accepting the results of DNA tests and to really get into it. To find out about the history of each of the cultures you represent. However, the most important thing for me is to hold high respect for the generations that survived thousands of years for me to actually be alive today. I have subscribed today and look forward to your updates in the future. Lynn in Naples FL

[@shaunlove7293]

I’m from East Tennessee and your last understanding of the way to say Appalachia was completely correct 😊

[@Cedricbennettjr]

As a so called "African American" I had some Melungeon.

[@1missbridget]

So called?? What do you call yourself? Just curious because I've seen a lot of chatter on social media about how a lot of Black people don't want to be called African American because we have really no ties to Africa. Personally, I use Black when describing myself, but I don't have an issue with using the term African American either.

[@Cedricbennettjr]

@@1missbridget This is the reason why I like this channel. Define "black"... Define African American... We are the only people who will change our identity ever so many years. Are we indigenous, Hebrews, all of that. No disrespect... I did a DNA test and there was no African ancestry.

[@1missbridget]

@@Cedricbennettjr Seriously, I purposely seek out people who do not identify as "African American." I was a bit confused at first, but as I keep watching and listening, I think I'm starting to get it. I also did a DNA test, and there's nothing that says "African." There are African countries that were identified, as well as other countries that aren't a part of Africa. It seems very simplified to identify someone simply as "African American" since the country is so diverse with many different countries. It seems like it's an over-simplification for the sake of convenience, and it's a bit odd since many of us don't know the customs or history of the land from which our distant ancestors came.

[@Cedricbennettjr]

@@1missbridget Right... True be told most people from Africa don't see themselves as the same us. My ancestry had a lot of Asians and European. I can't claim Chinese... I don't look it.

[@Jamestele1]

I think a lot of Melungeon is really mixed with Sub-Saharan people. Because many of them come from racist areas, they used to say they were all Portugues, but I know as many white looking Iberian people as Italy, etc. To carry much dark melanin over multiple generations, it would most likely be black ancestry, which shouldn't be "offensive". Past racism is still putting the kibosh on the "mystical origins". They just don't want to hear that they are actually black most times.

[@afaria6173]

I understand the practical reasons why some chose to claim Portuguese ancestry but they aren't Portuguese. I'm a 1st generation Portuguese immigrant to the USA from the Azores Islands an autonomous region of Portugal. I have some relatives whose ancestors immigrated in the 1800's that actually carry DNA from Portugal and I don't consider some of them Portuguese. They don't speak the language, they don't understand Portuguese culture, some no longer have Portuguese surnames. Some didn't even know their immigrant ancestors because it's been that long. I find it off putting that some descendants of Melungeon people claim to be Portuguese not because of the mixed race thing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being mixed race, it's simply that they've highjacked my ancestry to cope with living with racism in America. I feel empathy for what their ancestors survived but that doesn't give them the right to highjack my cultural identity and redefine it as a way to cope a painful history.

[@johnnyearp52]

In the USA if you say you are French, British, Portuguese etc. you mean that you are a descendant or partial descendant of that place. Not that you are a citizen of that place.

[@Jamestele1]

@@johnnyearp52 O did not express my point well. I was saying that people from Portugal ARE white. Not that people from America look white because that are not fully Portuguese.

[@joannebrady6113]

​@@afaria6173seems if anything,you might feel pride that someone chose your ethnic/cultural identity regardless of the reason.Its like,whatever ?

[@afaria6173]

@@etruscancivilization I looked this up the Portuguese documentation doesn't support any claims of black ancestry. I can read both English and Portuguese. in my opinion the narrative most likely comes from other ethnic groups inserting themselves and creating a mythology. What is known is that she had an ancestress by the name of Madragana that lived in the 13th century who was Muslim and converted to Christianity but her origins are disputed by Portuguese historians as either being a Moor or a Mozarab(neither of these indicate black). If she had an ancestress in the 13th century who was partially black too many centuries passed she wouldn't carry the phenotype. Autosomal estimates of 1%-2% are not uncommon among Portuguese people. Those that have found black ancestors had to dig as far as the 1500's to find them. The reason it still stays that high is that it comes from multiple lines. The concept of one drop rule is an American creation. There are people from various cultures and countries following this page. These peculiar American ways of viewing race only apply to the USA.

[@lulumoon6942]

Your humility and curiosity are always so refreshing. Glad to call you part of our American family! 👍🙏🕊️

[@kaleahcollins4567]

She is a different system because melungeons came from black paternal ancestry and European maternal ancestry henceforth making their descendants free under their mother free people of color under their maternal ancestry unlike the Creoles who usually came from black women with European men with some indigenous ancestry but these children unless their mother was emancipated were subjected to enslavement in many cases because of the mothers African ancestry both mixed races of people two different classes though

[@djspatriqt2290]

Both sides of my family are from the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee. We are Melungeon. Mahalia Mullins is my maternal Grandpa's Grandma. Mullins came over on the Mayflower in 1620 as the 1st settelers and settled in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee. We have English, Irish, Scottish, German and Cherokee Indian and Portuguese in my family DNA.

[@donnamcmanus5127]

What an informative, well written, video. I am sorry you are getting flagged due to someone's intolerance of the truth. Keep up the good work! You reach more people than you think!

[@nytn]

☺️that made my day, thanks

[@maniyembe]

@NYTN it sounds like the French word "Melangions" which literally means 'Lets mix it up" 😆

[@jaypaladin-havesmartswilll5508]

Professor Skip Gates of Harvard and PBS show Finding Your Roots, spoke about the clash between the oral history of mixed people genealogy in the USA and the scientific evidence. In particular people who thought they have Native American ancestry when it was simply black(American Slavery) and European (mostly through the rape by slave master) origin.

[@johnmc8785]

The word "Melungeon" is likely a corrupted version of the French word "mélangé / mélangée" which translates to "blended". My thoughts are that it may have entered the vernacular American lexicon from the French-speaking settlers in the Ozarks. Ozarks overlap the western edge of what is considered Appalachia, both geographically and culturally.

[@MrResearcher122]

Cromwell's war in Ireland, in the 1649, is the backdrop to this Melungeon story. London companies were complaining about the shortage of workers in Barbados and the American plantations, and various inducements of land still never attracted British workers. Forced Settlement of Irish and Scottish prisoners, or Royalist soldiers, provided the workforce. And these people went on to mate with Africans or Native Americans.

[@olderthandirt7061]

It makes sense to me that a person would say whatever they needed to say to protect the freedom and welfare of their family. Then, to continue protecting their family, they would make sure that the family's oral traditions enshrined that story. After a generation or two or three it was just the family history. No one would know or even question it. Oral histories and family stories of groups can assist in discovering interrelationships in groups and communities even if they are less helpful in tracing one's ancestry beyond the borders of the United States.

[@kevingillard5474]

13:50 😅😊

[@Lorei230]

i wanted to take this test but i'm scared to , recently I saw a tiktok video showing that hackers hacked in and stole a lot of data from ancestry and 123 and me and I dont want that happening to me.

[@sr2291]

Create strong passwords.

[@compactcasette]

If you do, then don’t bother with 23andMe for sure. They've got my first cousin's daughter as my first cousin and vice versa. The ancestry analysis is awful and doesn't go beyond regional backgrounds.

[@sr2291]

@compactcasette They are just guessing relationships. Are the centimorgans in range for your real results? There are several choices they can be based on the centimorgans.

[@nytn]

the only part I like is the ancestry DNA communities. Those are awesome

[@sr2291]

@nytn I just recently got Southern Louisiana French Settlers. That line is beginning in the Azores and coming to America in the late 1800s. There is some French ancestry in that line somewhere.

[@MsMollah]

My gg grandmother was Melungeon, and used to tell her children that she was part "Turkish, partly several different Native American tribes, and "Scots-Irish". She was from the Hancock, TN area. I did my ancestry DNA and have no African, but some "central Asian" and Native American, east Asian. Also, southern European as well as Scottish, French, English, Swedish and Swiss. I think the southern European, all the Native and Asian come from the Melungeon part.

[@briandarrisaw]

Hi I am African American with some uk and French ancestry. U talked about Benin Togo and Nigerian being part of the creole ancestry. I have a very good friend who is from the Yoruba tribe. I Shared my dna with him. I am about 20 to 25 percent Nigerian on dna and 23 me but only about 12 percent on ancestry. I did not know that the Yoruba tribe is present in both Benin Togo and Nigerian. Benin Togo does not appear on my dna 23and me. But if you add my benintogo on ancestry is adds up to the very same number of Nigeria present on dna23. So we should base things on tribes. A lot of time ethnicity is hidden in tribal info. African countries are based on location not ethnicity. Location is purely artificial. My friends mom is Yoruba but his mom people are from Benin Togo Yoruba tribe and dad Yoruba tribe is from Present day Lagos Nigeria. So same people. Please make it make sense

[@nytn]

I had a professional geneticist look at my DNA and he said my African DNA matched Yoruba! Thats wild.

[@createanon8733]

The more I look, the more I notice how borders are drawn explicitly to interfere with the relations and freedom of movement of whoever lives there, leading up to the borders being established. State borders in the USA have been quite violent affairs. It's not much of a leap to apply the same (christian, eurocentric colonizing) pattern to early divisions of the Yoruba and others

[@kathycuster1714]

Dors 23 and me give you a better genetic picture than Ancestry? Been wanting to do the 23.

[@JJinPhila]

A number of "Free People of Color" fought in the American Revolution and granted lands on the west side the Appalachians. They could be some of their descendants.

[@justinweminor4986]

Please look into the Melungeon Archives in Rogersville TN. Jack Goins work and reports are located there. Larry Goins, is there and will be glad to help you in your research with the Melungeons.

[@JJinPhila]

That Louisiana community is not Appalachian. The NE quarter of MS and about the northern half of AL are part of it.

[@lyndaclough3462]

I disagree. You have to consider migration. A lot of Alabama and Mississippi went west. Even Woody Harrelson has recent Alabama roots although he identifies as Texan. That was through migration.

[@JJinPhila]

@@lyndaclough3462 Appalachia is a geographic area. Even under its broadest definition, it does not extend into LA. It is like saying New York City is in the Mid-West. It isn't.

[@lilmama4426]

One of my Aunts by marr8was Creole & she was the most beautiful lady if ever seen, it was tough to look away! Love your videos, i hope they can help me with my dna /ancestrial journey.🌻

[@marianaya5824]

DNA communities are a fascinating part of learning who we are and what types of historical events we were near or a part of. Almost every single community and area of the South and early settled areas of the country had singular experiences going on , especially as it relates to free black people, runaway groups who created nearby communities, mixed race groups of all sorts and... of course Appalachian communities in several states of mostly AFrican genealogy and of mixed (Melungeon) genealogy. 😊

[@bluejay9968]

My friend was 23% Scottish. She's Melungeon descent. Kentucky/Tennessee.

[@LostNFoundASMR]

Glad to hear your recovering dear. Hugs

[@Sandi533]

I had no idea of so many mix race backgrounds had names. My family never shared their history. Thx for sharing your research. Thx all for sharing really interesting 🤔. It’s 61 have no idea.

[@lkndiaries02]

This is so fascinating! I am just curious, what are your current percentages on AncestryDNA?

[@nytn]

It changes so much. I think it was 40% Italian, 20% Irish, 10% Aegean Islands/Portuguese, and the rest 30% slivers of Benin and Togo, Indigenous Mexican and North African, Cyrpus.

[@kaleahcollins4567]

That also holds true because the person that showed their DNA showed of Eastern Southeast Asia in the original Romani people does come from India they made their way to Spain in Portugal and throughout different regions of Europe so many melungeon descendants will have some Romani

[@nancylindroth6336]

From Wikipedia:The Appalachian Mountains often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. ……The Appalachian range runs from the Island of Newfoundland in Canada, 2,050 mi (3,300 km) southwestward to Central Alabama in the United States,……. Not into MS. As noted elsewhere in comments, The “Foxfire” books are a great resource.

[@terrywilliams5626]

Not sure if my previous post went through but I would like to talk to you about my Redbone ancestry. I have Goins, Sweat, Willis, Nash, Perkins, and Williams surnames in my ancestry. I have done DNA on Ancestry and have an extensive family tree on Ancestry where I learned about my Redbone ancestors.

[@bluejay9968]

Look up the Lumbees!!

[@coreylevine8095]

They say Heather Locklear have Lumbee in her family.Lumbee is said to have Black,Native American and White Ancestry

[@nytn]

this is something I have written down to research. I matched with a lot of self-identified Lumbee folks on GEDMatch

[@MrChristianDT]

This is still an overcomplicated topic with a great deal of confusion. I would suggest also looking into several other mixed race groups of Appalachia with confusing ancestral claims- Chestnut Ridge People, Carmel Indians, Melungeons, Brass Ankles, Redbones, Lumbee, Gullah Geechee & that one that starts with a V who are trying to get tribal recognition in South Carolina or Georgia, I think. I'm blanking on their name, right now. Plus, anyone with claims of Cherokee or Blackfoot ancestry that have no connections with either Cherokee or Blackfoot nations.

[@friendsofcoal]

Well a tribe like the old Cheraw got absorbed by Cherokee so many of those descendants couldn’t claim a specific tribe because of its extinction . So many either were excepted into another tribe or mixed either other people of color at the time

[@MrChristianDT]

​@@friendsofcoalThe Cheraw & some of the Saponi, Manahoac & Cusabo tribes all got absorbed into the Catawba, then SOME of the Catawba were forced to live amongst the Cherokee & last names alone, if you can link them back to the Catawba, MIGHT be able to be connected to specific tribes, as all these tribes were still self identifying that way, even among the Catawba. That's why you often get a lot of Catawba calling themselves things like Tutelo-Kiawah instead of straight Catawba.

[@ClarissaPacker]

I have ancestry from the area mixed mostly western European & a little native American don't know if i have any me melungeon in me or not & it really doesn't matter to me because that's not my home.

[@joyellensauter2858]

Last name was Williams, and my anceatry goes back through north calolina, Tennessee and virginia around 1800. I am also iberian

[@JGLy22086]

This is very interesting! I have never heard of Melungeon people before. And what is “ red bone”

[@FluidLifeWays]

The term was used to describe a light skin black person - like Beyonce or Halle Berry etc. Depending on who’s using it and in what situation could be taken negatively as with a lot of older terms.

[@johndavis6119]

The gulf states are south of Appalachia. The best way to remember how to pronounce Appalachia is think “throw an apple at ‘cha.” I went to a talk here in Bristol given by a man named Kennedy. He had 6 fingers on each hand. That is a Melungeon trait. So look at your ancestors and see if any of them had 6 fingers. Also the program director from WETS is or was a Melungeon too. Might want to check if he is still there for references. Good luck.

[@mwilliamson8072]

Cautionary note: The fact that an ethnicity does show up in your DNA does not necessarily mean it’s not in your ancestry. Since you only inherit half of each parent’s DNA, an ethnicity can get lost within a couple of generations. Therefore, a lack of Portuguese DNA alone, does not prove a lack of Portuguese ancestry. For example, although about a quarter of my ancestral background is German, Germany did not appear in my DNA breakdown.

[@oleksandrbyelyenko435]

There are many ethnically distinct Jews. Sephards, Ashkenazi, Mizrahi... even Beta Israel (Black/Ethiopian Jews). But they all are Jews regardless. I feel... Might be wrong, but I feel that Melungeon is also more of a cultural identity than purely ethnic/genetic one. If a person is of Melungeon culture than the DNA test doesn't really matter in that regard

[@clarenceperry5879]

Jew is European construct, the Israelites in ancient times down to the 1100-1800’s were always known to be dark Negroes pick up a book by JA Rogers and a few other white authors from the past and they state it clearly with no mystery. Portuguese Jew was always known to be very very black and they only married each other they could not stand mixing just like GOD wanted them to remain separate from the heathen white and Hamitic heathen around them. The inquisition and banishment to west Africa is what happened to the very black Portuguese Jews known later as new Christians.

[@kolepate7057]

You’re right, not wrong, in your perception. It’s a sort of “pseudo-group” term (such as Mexican) used to denote a certain group of mixed race people which was formed around colonial times in the southeast, usually of African/Native/European descent but there are Asiatic outlier groups mixed in. These people lived in their own communities living by guidelines that did not fully agree with the society around them. Such an outstanding egalitarian theme (for the time) was heavily influenced by racial mixing because there is a great emphasis on race in America. This made them kind of culturally distinct especially because of infusions from African and Native cultures, which considered distinct from the overlaid European culture in America. Being Melungeon IS equivalent with being racially mixed (with the typical American races characterized by colonial times (Native American, European, African). But it also highlights a specific set of unique experiences in America that is not the norm, that took place in “the nooks and crannies” of America. You could say it’s associated with certain “circuit” of American history that isn’t commonly assumed would prevail that early into our countries history; because colonial America is known for its strong separation of races yet these people embraced racial mixture such as the modern Americans generally seem to.

[@kaleahcollins4567]

Ashkenazi are not real Hebrews they have no somatic blood this is why they don't want testing in Israel there is no such thing as beta Israel they are the original Hebrews and there are plenty of other African tribes that derive from Semitic Origins the tribe of Judah the kingdom of Judah was in Central and western Africa any map before 1500 shows this the mini distinct Hebrew tribes that was found in Africa there was no such thing called ashkenaz of the 12 tribes you forgot to Ephraim Hebrews and can we point out that the Mizrahi and Ibrahim Hebrews live in Palestine they are originally from Palestine before the Ashkenazi came even in Antiquity if you want to go to Shakespearean times there was no such thing as an Ashkenazi The Merchant of Venice was a Sephardic Hebrew those were the only Hebrews known from Europe Ashkenazi or khazars point blank. And please don't act like that we are the world situation we know the truth about what the Israelis do to African Hebrews an excuse me but in the encyclopedia Judaica famous Hebrew theologians scholar maimonides stated himself that the modern you had no ties to the Hebrews of antiquity if I'm not mistaken this is also in the talmud

[@kaleahcollins4567]

​@@kolepate7057not Asiatic no such thing those so-called Asiatic features can be found all across Africa the original people of this Earth the oldest bloodline lineage of this Earth is the koi people southern Africa they didn't get their looks from Asians Asians got their looks from them

[@babyboy562]

Ashkenazi are not Hebrews they are Kazak converts……the true Hebrews are the so called Negros who come from Shem. Stop lying cave 🤦🏾‍♂️

[@AliSalladin]

So I consider myself light skinned African American and did my dna test and had a very small percentage of native Americans. My test also resulted with a small amount of philippino dna also. This puzzled me because we had the Native dna narrative in our family but never Philippino. I’m so glad this result was explained! Makes me question how much of our dna mirrors or mimics other parts of the world? What do you think? How often does the dna test get it wrong?

[@susangrande8142]

Okay; now I’m really curious: I watched your video from a few weeks ago about the Melungeon “head bump,” etc., and was surprised to learn about the “shovel teeth.” I have shovel teeth. My front teeth, top and bottom, canines and incisors, all have that “shovel” or “scoop” shape. I’ve never heard anything about that before; didn’t know it was different from other people’s teeth. This may be a clue to my mysterious ancestry, my “mulatto” great-great grandmother, as she was listed in the 1910 census, and the father of her son, whom I know zero about. Her son, my g-grandfather Russell LaStrange, my mother could only find as possibly having been born in Washington DC or West Virginia, in 1893 I believe. I’ve done 23andMe DNA testing. I’m 4% sub-Saharan African, mostly Nigerian. Russell’s mother’s name was Lucille Arthur, and my guess is that she was either born into slavery, or the daughter of an enslaved woman. And all I can guess about Russell’s father is that he was white or mostly white, from my DNA. There’s some Irish and Northwestern European that I can’t account for from my known ancestors. P.S. Russell “passed” as White; he had very curly, blue-black hair, according to my grandmother, who was his oldest child. P.P.S. My grandmother was the lightest-colored of Russell’s 4 kids (blonde as a little girl, and blue eyes like her mother). The others had much darker skin and hair and dark brown eyes; one of my great aunts had very dark skin and “nappy” hair at her temples. I’m pretty sure none of them identified as Black or part Black; it wasn’t done then. My grandmother was born in 1913, and the youngest child was born in 1927. They all passed as White.

[@friendsofcoal]

I’m from Eastern Ky by way of Floyd County where a lot of Mulungeon familes settled from rockinhgam NC. I’ve taken multiple DNA tests from different companies and 23 and me (being rather specific comparatively) says I have 5 percent Italian/ Spanish , 1 percent North African and Levantine, and less than 1 percent of Indigenous American. I only inherited that specific DNA from my paternal side. My Grnadfather has always claimed Native American as to why he had dark brown hair, black eyes, and darker skin. After further review of my tests it shows there was much more diversity in our beginnings here in America but it is rather tough for many to accept it because it’s such a deeply kept secret. Many did not want to claim African because of the barriers they would have faced .

[@AutoReport1]

If your last immediate input from a community was several generations back, it might not show up in DNA. Remember you inherit DNA in chromosome blocks, they're not infinitely divisible.

[@mauallison7755]

It shows up but in smaller segments that you can confirm with family members and your matches when comparing with groups of people from different communities. Gedmatch has nice tools to do this.

[@timeforchange3786]

My guess would be your goin line moved to Louisiana and he just hasn't traced his line back far enough to reach his melungeon community. Jack Goins would be very interesting to interview but if he isn't available Winkler would also be interesting to interview. I believe he did some interviews regarding the Melungeons of the White Lion.

[@atlaskinzel6560]

Clicked on this to see if you are getting your pronunciation of Appalachia correct. Good job!

[@nytn]

😀😀😀

[@Curiousviewer22]

Melungeons were people who were predominantly Caucasian in dna, but with enough African ancestry to provide a little tanning to the skin. They lived at a time and place where acknowledgement of even a drop of African ancestry worked to one's extreme disadvantage. Claiming Portuguese ancestry as an explanation was a way out. To the extent that they may have, in their insulation, married strictly within their group, they may have become a distinct group, but basically they were white people with a small admixture of African and a whole life of denial. Their descendants became White in every sense if the word.

[@hwgray]

"acknowledgement of even a drop of African ancestry worked to one's extreme disadvantage." Still does.

[@Curiousviewer22]

True that.

[@Fuzzmom903]

They were never white. They were either passing or pretending. Sorry. That sounds like more of the excuse to do so.

[@olg06]

​@@hwgray A lot black people have gained a lot of wealth, usually athletes. Look at the wives they choose... yup white/light-skin women. Creating present-day "Melungens" 🤭. I guess the big question is who are these offsprings gonna marry? Black/White or mixed-race people like themselves...

[@scarlettking82]

Ooh. I have this on my DNA test results,,,didn't know what it was,,, thanks

[@gwendolynnorton6329]

I’m captivated. I have A STORY circa melungeon identity. Is there anyway you have any information on Levi Sterling Goen his wives Analisa (Webb) Goen/Sarah Jane (Glossup) Goen; his children specifically son William and William’s children specifically son Sam Goen?

[@nytn]

Let me take a look. Most of my family line spelled it "Goin" but it is of course all the same family

[@itsapittie]

That's an interesting observation about "multigenerational mixed" people. Given enough time, it would essentially create a new "race" (for lack of a better term). If we think of "race" as a cluster of physical characteristics determined by genetics (imperfect, but useful for most purposes), a group of people occupying a geographical region in isolation will eventually come to constitute a "race" relatively distinct from their progenitors. If we go back far enough, all modern humans are a multigenerational mix of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans Just which characteristics from each ancestor were most strongly preserved varied according to the circumstances and places where humans lived, differentiating into what we think of as "races" but still containing some of the genetic material of all our forebears. Are Melungeons Black, White, or Native? At this point, it might be fair to say they have ancestors from all of the above but can't really be categorized as any of the above.

[@wefreethinkers390]

I have known some people with Melungeon ancestry . They both had a 6th “finger” that was removed as a child and a unique ridge on the top of their pallet vs. the typical smooth pallet. So DNA is not the only way to determine if you have Melungeon ancestry .

[@Fuzzmom903]

Omg!! 6th finger is very common in my family. Who knew??

[@user-jf9zz2jl5q]

😬 Just how many times have you had Covid? Love your research and how it shows that even whole siblings can have different DNA. Just like my father has type O blood and his brother is type AB. Simply amazing! Love me some genetics. ❤

[@ronwinkles2601]

My ancestors are from Hancock Co., TN, and they have been neighbors of the Melungeons since 1794. My people always treated them as they treated any of their neighbors. Historically, the Melungeons produced some of the best preachers and sheriffs in the county.

[@user-ld5sb5tq4g]

A lot of people of are of multi-generational mix. Especially so-called black people.

[@lindamaemullins-wr1jg]

😂My granny Nora Osborn made me wear a slat bonnet and long cotton sleeved shirt/dresses during summer in her little garden so I didn't "DARKEN" and become a target 😔❤️

[@dalegilbert8810]

I grew up in Lee County, VA. Lee County borders Ky, TN, and the rest of VA. Sneedville, TN is a central location for finding individuals which identify as Melungeons. In the rural area where I grew up there were a number of families which looked somewhat Melungeon. And when asked, they would admit being part Melungeon. As I'm sure you have read, Newman's Ridge in East Tennessee is where the Melungeons had largely resided to avoid being "looked down upon" by the non-Melungeons in the surrounding areas. As you have realized, with the passage of time it is difficult to find a pure-blooded ethnic individual which has existed in the past.

[@RowanBeckett-gj7kk]

I’m Melungeon and related to Jack Goins. The folks in the photo he’s holding, George Washington Goins and Susan Minor Goins, are my 3rd great grandparents.

[@nytn]

thats so cool

[@danschneider7531]

It's sad that people felt they had to ie of their past to their children, and then the lie becomes accepted as reality. The whole Portuguese thing was patent nonsense because there were few Portuguese in Virginia, and one look at many Melungeons shows clear black African physical traits.

[@timeforchange3786]

The first Africans that came to Virginia on the White Lion ship came from a Portuguese ship that was headed to what is now Mexico. That ship was called the Sao Joao Bautista. Portuguese had a settlement in Angola. It only makes sense that the Portuguese and Africans mixed but they may have just used Portuguese to distance themselves from the racist system.

[@danschneider7531]

@@timeforchange3786 Except the DNA tests show they didn't. The whole Portuguese or Gypsy thing was a beard.

[@SometimeAgo65]

I have no idea what I am 😂 paternal side is English and it is said they came over in 1700s. Maternal side is a large combination. The family likes to claim its only English/Irish...I know better. Goins is on my maternal side also...my grandmother was said to have Black Portugese. She did have a darker skin tone, brown eyes, and a corse hair texture but she denied any African dna. My aunt and two of my uncles had afros

[@checle4499]

The important thing to remember about DNA is that it divides randomly. By the fifth or sixth generation out, a native American or an African ancestor may not show in the DNA any longer. I have ancestors from the Applachian area and the Shenandoah Valley going back to the colonial era. No African or native American showing in my DNA, but that far back I wouldn't expect any.

[@petuniasevan]

By the fifth or sixth generation out, a native American or an African ancestor may not show in the DNA any longer. I have proof of that: A great great grandmother of mine was half Cherokee. I have a photo of her. Not a trace of her DNA in my genes, according to the test I took 2 years ago. Still need to get my brother to take a DNA test (he's willing to do so on my dime of course).

[@arthurroberts9462]

Oh hell yeah, it's about time the meloungein people's story was finally told or even looked into for that matter. It's like how in the hell can such a historical mystey of an entire culture of people exiall in our own back yard ( America) and not even get the least bit of attention when their whole existence is an entire history is one big huge walking contadiction and no one can seem to be able to begin to guess where they came from

[@almightyswizz]

There’s this game I like to play called “humankind” where you start a civilization care for it, watch it grow… I’ve just created a state called melungia and it’s people are melungeon, they are thriving so far 😊

[@Mars-zgblbl]

If you say it wrong, they’ll throw an apple atcha

[@kahlil3034]

Hi As a Goin...They came with Portuguese Ship from Angola. .some were indentured servants...they married into native and other African communities...That's why they started saying they were Portuguese in 1619 under Gowens😮

[@Alan-lv9rw]

I’m an American of Scandinavian, Irish, and German descent. I guess there’s no technical term like Melungeon to describe my combination.

[@9thGenerationCajun]

I come from Cajun and Creole heritage my mom is Dutch/Irish but i have the Melongean bump on the back of my head, When I first heard of this i went around asking & feeling everyones head 😂

[@mattw1386]

Interesting talk, and we share similar backgrounds. Dad's side of the family was British colonial and has Cherokee & West African admixture (2-3%). Mom's side was German & French and arrived much more recently. Btw you're too nice to be a New Yorker. Your cousin fits the stereotype a bit more 😅

[@nytn]

hahaha, been in the south too long I guess

[@dontstalkUstalker80]

How did you find Cherokee DNA? DNA tests cannot show a tribe.

[@mattw1386]

​@@dontstalkUstalker80 To clarify: Our genetic tests show North American Indigenous admixture. Family records from the 1890s include several affidavits to the Dawes Commission. The judge assigned to the case determined that our family is ethnically Cherokee, but since they couldn't prove a legal relationship with an already enrolled member, their petition was denied.

[@MeMyself571]

I didn't realize I had melungeon heritage until I did a dna test and met a few people in a melungeon heritage group. My grandmother was from the cumberland gap area, but more by Kentucky. So many people left, so it would be hard to get original people to test from that area. I am related to Mullins, Goins, Hicks, Heron, and Freeman. All dna was mostly northern European and sub saharan, which is very cool, but Freeman is a little different they have native american, with more Southern European and a touch of romani. So I'm a total mutt, but that's fine. Any dna test will show different amounts it's weird but understandable. For example, my mom has Finnish on every test, and I have 0%, but she is actually my real mom, lol.

[@gotobassmsn]

Ancestry says that a persons Iberian Peninsula DNA is where your Native American DNA comes from.