A Genetic and Lexicographical Profile of Melungeons Who

A Genetic and Lexicographical Profile of Melungeons Who They Were and How the Term Originated By Donald N. Yates

Hirschman & Yates in AJ

Melungeons n Old Appalachian Mystery n Reigning schools of thought n Tri-racial isolate (Price) n Turks, Jews or similar (Kennedy, Hirschman) n Variants: Croatian, Portuguese Ridge-only faction (Goins, Crain) n Virginia De. Marce and nihilists n n Melungeon Studies: http: //dnaconsultants. com/Melungeon/

Synonyms and Related Groups n Black Dutch n Lumbee Indians n Lost Colony n Sumter Turks n Redbones n Many others n Portuguese n Carthaginians, Phoenicians

Wayne Winkler’s List 1. Brass Ankles and allied groups in South Carolina, including Red Bones, Red Legs, Turks, Marlboro Blues, and others. 2. Cajuns and Creoles of Alabama and Mississippi. 3. Croatans of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. 4. Guineas of West Virginia and Maryland. (Other names included “West Hill Indians, “ ”Cecil Indians, ” and “Guinea niggers. ”) 5. Issues of Amherst and Rockingham Counties, Virginia. 6. Jackson Whites of New York and New Jersey. 7. Melungeons of the Southern Appalachians. 8. Moors and Nanticokes of Delaware and New Jersey. 9. Red Bones of Louisiana. 10. Wesorts of southern Maryland.

Melungeon Movement n n n n Melungeon Unions Melungeon Heritage Association & Registry Melungeons. com (Helen Campbell) Melungeon Health (Nancy Morrison) Lisa Alther’s Kinfolks Melungeon discussion boards, forums Melungeon DNA Studies Hirschman and Yates (now at DNA Consultants) n Goins Research n

Meaning of the Word n French mélange ‘mixture’ n Turkish/Arabic melunçan ‘cursed soul’ n English melongen(a) (obsolete) ‘eggplant’ n Italian melanzana n molonjohn n mulenyam

Spelling n 1810: ‘Lungeons n 1813: Melungins n 1840: Malungeon n 1848: Melungen n 1860 -1870 s: Malungens, Malunjins n 1889: Melungeons (American Anthropologist) n 1940: Melongeon (Southern Literary Messenger) n 1966: Melungeon (Price)

Earliest Mention in a Record n Minute Books of 1813 n Stony Creek Church n Primitive Baptists n Scott County, Va. n “She harbored them Melungins”

Words for Eggplant in English n The Gardeners Dictionary (1735) n The poet Al-Mutannabbi (1819) n After about 1840, melongen replaced by eggplant

Other Words for Eggplant n Jew’s apple n Apple of scorn All forms of melongen or aubergine go back to the same Arabic and Sanskrit roots.

Associations with Jews n Fruit of the Land of Israel eaten during Pesach n Noted during Crusades n Eggplant eater = secret Jew n Cancionero de Baena (1430) n Eggplant stew in Inquisition cases n Don Quixote and Benegeli (ca. 1600) n Modern instances down to The Sopranos

Cervantes and Senor Eggplant n Cide Hamete Benengali, Arab historian n Combines Christian, Moorish & Jewish n Cervantes himself a crypto-Jew n Lamenting loss of Spain’s golden age of covivencia

Mary Benenhaley Strater’s DNA 1. Portuguese 2. Berber 3. Brazilian 4. Kurdish 11. Moroccan 12. Andalusian 13. Brazilian 14. Puerto Rican 5. South African 6. Hispanic 7. Moroccan Arabs 8. Madeira 9. Berbers 10. Spanish 15. Maghreb 16. Native American 17. Hispanic 18. Saudi Arabian 19. Belgian 20. British

Kelly Gilroy

Melungeon Study in Appalachian Journal n Descendents, self-identifying n N = 40 n Famous Melungeons tested – Kennedy et al. n Autosomal DNA profiles n at. DNA and ENFSI databases n World and Europe population matches n Melungeon Match revalidation

Melungeon Surnames “Common Melungeon Surname List” at http: //sparksgenealogy. net/melungeons. html

DNA Fingerprint and at. DNA 2. 0

Results n Jewish n Middle Eastern n Gypsy (Roma) n Native American n Sub-Saharan African n European n Scottish Highlands n Mediterranean n Croatia

Europe-only Matches

Gypsies and Mississippi Bubble

Teresa’s Story

Signs of Crypto-Jewish Heritage DNA Consultants Blog http: //dnaconsultants. com/_blog/ DNA_Consultants_Blog/post/ Signs_of_Crypto-Jewish_Heritage/

Conclusion n Melungeons were Conversos or Jews n Word means “eggplant” as a slur n Melungeon syndrome n Surnames n What you can do n Pursue disguised genealogies n Find out Jewish & Melungeon matches in autosomal DNA