[Ditter]

I have read that before. I looked it up because my grandfather looked very much like the man in the photo and his family came to Texas from eastern Tennessee. I was looking for the Melungeon surnames but I did not find them.

[Joe 6-pack]

I've always been fascinated by such things since I was quite young. I remember one of Leonard Nimoy's In Search Of specials on the Roanoke Colony and speculation about the Lumbee Indians in North Carolina, some of whom have blue-gray eyes.

Where I grew up in western PA, there were a number of small coal towns dotting the map where groups of eastern europeans were herded directly from Ellis Island and sent into the mines. As late as the 1980's, you could find second or even third generation folks in these towns speaking with eastern european accents.

The Melungeons are particularly fascinating because the lack of concensus on where even the name comes from opens up a whole lot of possibilities that if proven, could force a significant rewrite of some of our history.