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This is really fascinating. I love this explanation of Melungeon origins. But in an age of DNA, I don't see why the origins of a group like this should even be a question. Surely it is possible to identify them without much technical difficulty and determine their genetic background?

Updates on MRC research reveal DNA and genetic research that links at least some of the current Melungeon population to the Mediterranean and Middle East through diseases they have acquired which are specific to those areas.

After some searching I discovered that a genetic survey was done on Melungeons of eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. Blood samples were collected from 177 people in 1969 and compared to existing data from 200 populations worldwide.

The conclusions verified the Mediterranean origins of the Melugeons. Specific regions mentioned as having populations with genetic markers consistent with the Melungeons included: Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Iraq, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Canary Islands, extreme southern Italy, the Galician mountain region of Spain and Portugal, and certain South American Indians.

Abstract: Tennessee Anthropologist, published by the Tennessee Anthropological Association MELUNGEONS: COMPARISON OF GENE FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS TO THOSE OF WORLDWIDE POPULATIONS. James L. Guthrie. XV(1):13-22. 1990.
"Worldwide gene frequency distributions in five major blood group systems were searched for similarity to those of the Melungeons. Calculations of the Mean Measure of Divergence (MMD) identified populations from the Mediterranean region and from coastal Europe that do not differ significantly from the Melungeons. All others, including Amerindians, differ widely. Hybridization with Indians or with Blacks is not required for the data to fit Mediterranean populations. However, if it is assumed that the Melungeons are basically English, a considerable black component is required. These results are consistent with the Melungeon tradition that they are Portuguese, and are in substantial agreement with the findings of Pollitzer and Brown, whose 1969 data provided the basis for the present calculations."

This statement from Brent Kennedy's The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People; An Untold Story of Ethnic Cleansing in America sums up the genetic data:

"I contend that the remnants of Joao (“Juan”) Pardo’s forts, joined by Portuguese refugees from Santa Elena, and possibly a few stray Dominicans and Jesuits, exiled Moorish French Huguenots, and escaped Acadians, along with [Sir Francis] Drake’s and perhaps other freed Turkish, Moorish, and Iberian captives, survived on these shores, combined forces over the ensuing years, moved to the hinterlands, intermarried with various Carolina and Virginia Native Americans, and eventually became the reclusive Melungeons."