Who were the Melungeons? (viking, Spanish, slaves, historical)

[Motion]

Has the Melungeon language been examined?

[Motion]

Originally Posted by South Jersey Styx

How do you know? Some scholars argue that ancient Africans sailed across the Atlantic and occupied what is now central Mexico. These groups are attributed to the Olmec culture which pre-dates the Mayans and Aztecs. Carvings and now writings have been found in support of this theory.

But It can be argued that the Olmec stone heads only superficially appear to be Africans.



Facial comparison of an Mexican Indian with an Olmec head.



See the similarities?

[LinaJo76]

I heard that they were a mixture of Native American and Meditteranean.

[Dd714]

Initially interesting. But per Wikipedea source that was linked, the actua detail of them is somewhat underwhelming:

"A commonly held myth about the Melungeons of east Tennessee was that they were an indigenous people of Appalachia who lived there before the arrival of the first white settlers. Instead, scholars have documented by a variety of historic records that the earliest Melungeon ancestors migrated from Virginia, as did their Anglo-American neighbors. Most of the mixed-race families on the frontier were descended from African Americans free in Virginia in colonial times, the families of white women and African men."

No reference to them before the 1700's is mentioned (not sure where the "1640" reference came from). And by that time westerners have been in north america for 200 years, more than enough time for mixing of ideginous peoples, slaves, and whites, and branching off into seperate communities.

[linicx]

Here is some food for thought.
Louis Gates, jr., professor and editor states the black kidnapped from a village in Africa was brought to the New World by slave traders efore 1600.

In the early 1600 the The Gov. of Spotsylvania, VA needed labor in the sil\lver mines. Labor came from Europe by boat to settle. They were contracted for 7 years and at the end of the period they coulld leave or take land. Many went North. Did they mix with, or were they, Melungeon? I don't remember the exact history and I can no longer read book text.

[slowlane3]

Not true that white people had settled the Appalachians in the 1640s. It was more like the early - mid 1700s.

Some people think Elvis Presley was Melungeon (although his dark hair/ eyes could also be because his ancestry was 1/16 Jewish and 1/32 Cherokee). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis

[Catriona89]

[/quote]Some people think Elvis Presley was Melungeon (although his dark hair/ eyes could also be because his ancestry was 1/16 Jewish and 1/32 Cherokee). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis[/quote]

I don't see why an explanation is needed for Elvis's appearance. There are plenty of just regular old southerners with dark hair and dark eyes. IN fact, I'd estimate that around 1/4 of southerners have similar dark features. Even among people of Northern European descent, you have to remember they aren't all going to be blondish or redheads. Look at Catherine Zeta Jones or Sean Connery.

[pbhon]

I was reading about an ancestor who attended a church in the Appalachian area called Stoney Creek Baptist Church. it seems someone has a book that was written back in the early 1800's. It appears to be minutes of church meetings.
This church was located at Fort Blackmore, Scott County Virginia.

At the end of the article was a link for Melungeons. i'm wondering if the Chloe France is in fact a melungeon.

[url=http://historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/2009/11/stony-creek-baptist-church.html]Historical Melungeons: Stony Creek Baptist Church[/url]

[silibran]

Melungeon Mystery Solved? | The Revivalist Melungeon Mystery Solved

A recent DNA study, published in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy, dove deep into the backgrounds of Melungeon families. The researchers compared the families’ oral histories, documentation such as court records, and DNA patterns. They found that, in spite of a wide range of ethnic claims, the overwhelming majority of their subjects were the offspring of men who originated from sub-Saharan Africa and women from northern or central European. That is, Melungeons are the most common kind of mixed-race in the United States–black and white.

quote from the above article.

However, in another paragraph we learn that another group that was studied came up with a more varied ethnic makeup.

Interesting stuff.

[maus]

I would believe as DNA testing gets more sophisticated with technological advancement, this mystery background will be more clarified in the near future.