Melungeon descendants celebrate their mysterious heritage

Biloxi Sun Herald (Knight Ridder) ^ | 7/30/05 | Steve Ivey

[hispanarepublicana]

I'd never heard of any of this, but it's so interesting. I saw a special the other night on TV that discussed Melungeons. Said they'd been here since before the Pilgrims; said Elvis Presley and Ava Gardner were thought to be Melungeon. I still don't think there's agreement as to where Melungeons came from, at least not among the experts on that TV special. Can any FReepers provide more insight?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I had heard about the Elvis/Melungeon connection but never knew what a Melungeon was. Still don't.

[hispanarepublicana]

That special discussed the gamut: Cherokee, Black, Portugese, Native American Indian, Turkish......

[Puddleglum]

ping to myself to look up stuff about this. For a second I thought this would be a thread about those blue people from Appalachia someplace.

[RightWhale]

It's been said that the prehistoric story of America is many times more convoluted than the little we know at present. At the rate things are being discovered, things that were simply bypassed in the rush West, it might be that the history is a thousand times richer than what we know about now.

[hispanarepublicana]

What? Blue people? I once knew a guy who was blue (actually kind of blue-green). My parents told me he had some kind of heart condition.

[hispanarepublicana]

Kind of like "keniwic (sp?) man", huh? I agree. There ARE wonders to be discovered and those already discovered that haven't been seen by many in the USA. Near where I live are the most amazing sand dunes that stretch for hundreds of miles in length but are only a few miles wide. They are thought to be the "beach" of the prehistoric inland sea that covered much of the Great Plains.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

When the Indians were ordered out of Missouri in the 1800s, many came back, claiming they were "Black Dutch," or something like that.

[hispanarepublicana]

Just what is "Black Dutch" and "Black Irish"? I'd always heard "Black Irish" were from the days of the Spanish Armada in Ireland, but I'm not completely sure that's right.

[MamaB]

I have received numerous emails saying my ancestors are Melungeons. There is a website which is about them. I do not remember what it is called but you could just type in Melungeons + genealogy and see what you can find. I will see what I can find for you.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... Winkler said, last names such as Mullins, Goins, Collins and Gibson were common to Melungeons. Anyone encountering a relative with one of those names from Appalachia probably shares Melungeon heritage."

I probably wouldn't look too far into my family tree either, were I a Melungeon:

[hispanarepublicana]

yikes. one never knows what one will find in root digging.

[Puddleglum]

Funny, I was just reading about the Black Dutch the other day. Well, I saw the topic mentioned. Need to look into them, too.

Here's a link about the Blue People: The Blue People of Kentucky

[RightWhale]

It looks like Kennewick man was firmly resident and his family, too. He wasn't a casual visitor. I wouldn't doubt that anybody who could build a boat could have ended up in America someplace, and people have been building boats for a long time. I would expect to find evidence of every type of people there is as archaeologists continue to dig.

[colorado tanker]

Ping. I think you've posted on this topic before, Blam

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My dad was a Welshman and claimed distant relatives painted their faces blue and built Stonehenge. Never knew if he was kidding...

[yarddog]

I read an article on them in the Asheville paper quite a few years ago. I think they claimed they were Portugese.

I personally think they are simply a mixture of white and Indian.

For that matter, there is a tremendous variation among Indian tribes.

[hispanarepublicana]

I'll bet that's what this guy that was a teacher at a neighboring school had! This hemoglobin "disorder"! I knew my parents said it was some kind of heart or blood disorder! He was more "teal" than outright blue, though. If I could just see a photo of the blue people, I'd know for sure.

[hispanarepublicana]

PS: I'd heard of the Blue Grass of Ky; the Blue Moon of Ky; even the Blue Ridge Mountains; but I'd never heard of the Blue People. FR is so educational.

[hershey]

Fascinating article and ironic, too, since we're well on the way to becoming a mixture of races. We will all be Melungeons.