Posted on 08/02/2005 10:20:13 AM PDT by hispanarepublicana
FRANKFORT, Ky. - (KRT) - When S.J. Arthur started tracing her lineage more than 20 years ago, a fellow researcher stammered as she noticed recurring family names.
Was she connected to a unique group of people known as Melungeons, the researcher timidly asked, afraid Arthur might slap her. The reference was once considered a racial slur.
"I could be," Arthur replied. "I just don't know yet."
This weekend Arthur was one of dozens of Melungeon descendants who gathered in Frankfort, Ky., to shed the stigma that plagued their ancestors and try to grasp their mysterious heritage.
The Melungeons have been described as a "tri-racial isolate," with a mixture of white, black and Native American ancestry. Others have claimed Portuguese and Turkish lineage.
Often, they had olive skin, black hair and blue eyes, setting them apart from Scotch-Irish settlers in their native Appalachia.
The group has been there for more than two centuries, enduring discrimination until recently.
There are thought to be 50,000 to 100,000 Melungeons living in the United States today, still concentrated in Appalachia.
Because Melungeons tried to escape their ethnicity and the prejudice attached to it, their descendants have faced difficulty learning about their roots.
"Melungeons have been extremely misunderstood through the years. Some people don't even think they exist as a group," said state historian Ron Bryant.
Wayne Winkler, president of the Melungeon Heritage Association, said this weekend's conference, "Melungeons: Fact or Fiction," will help people understand better where they come from.
"A big part of Melungeon history is folklore," Winkler said. "Nobody was ever listed on a census record as a Melungeon. There isn't a Melungeon DNA marker."
But, 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.
Until the past 20 years or so, such a branch in the family tree might not have been welcomed.
Ill-behaved children in eastern Tennessee and western Virginia were told the Melungeons would come for them.
Winkler's uncles weren't allowed to attend public school. Instead, they were forced to attend a Presbyterian mission - the Vardy school - in Sneedville, Tenn., for Melungeon children. The school, which opened in 1902, closed in the 1970s.
Most researchers say the word Melungeon - once a pejorative - comes from the French "melange," meaning mixture. Using the epithet against someone was likely to start a fight.
"There's no pure ethnic group," Winkler said. "There was a lot more to it than genetics. It's how people looked at you."
After a successful 1970s play about Melungeons in Hancock County, Tenn. - the center of Melungeon heritage - they became more accepting of their ancestry.
"Nobody would even say it before, and suddenly people were proudly putting it out there," Winkler said.
The Internet brought greater opportunity for Melungeons to trace their genealogy. But records on them were still murky.
"If you find a census record that says someone is a free person of color, that doesn't necessarily mean they were black," the historian Bryant said.
"They really didn't break it down so nicely in the old days. Now, people are embracing subject matter that was taboo. They're looking at it in a historical context. Even if their heritage is mixed, it doesn't matter anyway."
Arthur, vice president of the Melungeon Heritage Association, brought this year's convention to her hometown of Frankfort. The association meets every two years in Wise, Va., and holds its off-year meetings around the South.
"We're looking to discuss some of the migration patterns, some of the history that explains why we're so diverse," she said.
Arthur found her Melungeon heritage through the Mullins line.
"My people are who they are, whatever the combination may be," Arthur said. "It's only recently become acceptable to have a mixed-race heritage. But my personal journey started long before."
Having the convention in Frankfort also provided access to state archives.
The Kentucky Historical Society keeps a file of research for thousands of last names and books with records from surrounding states. The history center holds three files on Melungeons, including letters from 1942 between the secretaries of state for Tennessee and Virginia trying to figure out who the Melungeons were.
Bobbie Foust of Calvert City, Ky., combed court records at the history center Friday in search of information on her great-great-grandparents.
Their children married wealthy European sisters. Foust has had no trouble tracing that side.
But her great-great-grandmother was a Gibson from Appalachia. Records on her are scant.
After she went to the Melungeons' "Second Union" in Wise, Va., five years ago, she learned why: Her forebears were Melungeon.
Johnnie Rhea from Sneedville looked through marriage records Friday. She had difficulty finding information before the first U.S. Census in 1790.
"They didn't leave a paper trail," she said. "A colored person in our area was low, but Melungeons were even lower. We weren't protected."
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© 2005, Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.).
Visit the World Wide Web site of the Herald-Leader at http://www.kentucky.com
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Most interesting.
"from there to start an early Huguenot settlement in Virginia"
Probably Manakin Towne... modern-day Richmond. I've got a few Huguenot names in my lines too, Faure/Foree/Ford and others.
"According to some Irish mythology, the Irish came from Spain. And before that, Egypt, I believe."
The Milesian Legends. Scythia, not Egypt.
"taken some silver compound to get ready for Y2K"
Colloidal silver, LOL. The things people will believe...
I've actually heard Egypt. About an Egyptian queen who left... or escaped. I'll have to look for it.
"About an Egyptian queen who left... or escaped"
According to the Milesian Legends, the Gaelic people of Ireland and Scotland descend from people who originally were Scythians. There was a period described as a "sojourn" in Egypt; Nel, son of Finneus Farsaid, king of Scythia, was brought there by Pharoah to teach the languages of the world that he had learned during his travels, to work on the Tower of Nimrod (Babel) in Asia, and to many other locales. While there, Nel married Scota, daughter of Pharoah, and returned to Scythia. From there, they returned to Egypt for a time, and then on to Milesia, known to us as Spain, and eventually on to Hibernia. This was supposedly 1,500 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
Yes, it was Scota. Thank you.
Correction... I used the modern "Finneus," instead of the archaic "Feinius."
American Words -- Or Are they Turkish?
Following are a few of the many American words that bear striking similarities to Turkish/Ottoman words, along with definitions. Brent Kennedy and other Melungeon researchers suggest that these are examples of the clear linguistic clues linking Melungeon and Turkish heritage:
1. Allegheny -- Allah genis -- God's vastness
2. Alabama -- Allah Bamya -- God's graveyard
3. Appalachian -- Apa-la-che -- widespread/multitude
4. Shawnee -- sah ne -- great shah, or great king
5. Shenandoah -- sen doga (pronounced "shen-doah") -- happy natural setting
6. Shindig -- sen lik (pronounced "shen-lick") -- happy party
7. Krill (Appalachian term for a sprain or twisting of the ankle) -- kiril -- to twist or break
http://www.blueridgecountry.com/melung/melung.html
Elvis does fit the description. My sister's mil's family is of similar appearance, lived in that area and have Scot-Irish and Native American heritage in their background. Very interesting stuff.
This describes my mother exactly - she had black hair, the palest blue eyes and fair, but olive toned skin. But my grandmother and her family came here directly from Russia via eastern Europe.
Wow. I'll bet "Bama" brand jellies/jams aren't big sellers in Turkish areas.
to funny...I can't stop laughing....
LOL! With a name like 'Bama', you have to taste good!
Those aren't Cajun names though ;) There's also the Louisiana Redbones which are similar to the Melungeons.
bump for later.
I just read a story about the blue people. It's a condition that was inherited from one man. I forget his name--Martin.... Fascinating.
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