Directory of Melungeon Resources

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Melungeons are a group of mixed race people who have lived in Appalachia for at least 200 years and probably longer. They are thought to be a mix of Native American, African, Mediterranean and North European. There are Melungeons and their descendants all over the region, eastern Tennessee, western Virginia, eastern Kentucky and northern North Carolina. There are at least three groups that the name has been applied to, the first use of the name was for the Newman's Ridge group centered on Hancock and Hawkins Counties, TN, and Scott and Wise Counties, VA, then the Graysville Melungeons, between Knoxville and Chattanooga, and then the Kentucky Melungeons, in southeastern Kentucky. The term has also been used for the Redbones or Louisiana Melungeons, along the Texas-Louisiana border, and the Dead Lake People or Florida Melungeons in the Florida Panhandle. There is a lot of research, speculation and discussion on the origin of the Melungeons.

Melungeon was a derogatory term not used by the Melungeons themselves until very recently. Other terms used for them include "Black Dutch", "Black Irish", "Ramps", and "Goins". Goins is the most common surname in the group (also spelt Goens, Goings, Goines, Going, Goin, etc.).

Subcategories

• Mestees of South Carolina
• Ramapo Mountain People

Resources in This Category

• Black Dutch and Irish, Melungeons, Moravians, Pennsylvania Dutch

  http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hornbeck/blkdutch.htm
  Shirley Hornbeck's genealogy tips on the Black Dutch, how the term has been used, for Melungeons and other groups.

• Black Dutch Yahoo Group

  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Black_Dutch/
  A discussion group for anyone interested in people described as Black Dutch or Black German.

• Documenting the Melungeons One Page at a Time

  http://historical-melungeons.com/
  A Melungeon group especially interested in the Hancock County people.

• First Union: The Melungeons Revisited

  http://blueridgecountry.com/archive/favorites/melungeons-revisited/
  Blue Ridge Country Magazine article on Melungoens, First Union and Brent Kennedy.

• Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware

  http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/
  Family history of most families who were free in this region during the colonial period. Includes extracts from government records.

• Gowen Research Foundation

  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gowenrf/guests.htm
  Information on families with the name Gowen, including variations. This includes the most common Melungeon name, Goins, Goin, Goings, Going, and others. Search the newsletters.

• Graysville Melungeons

  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~appalachian/melungeons/THE_GRAYSVILLE_MELUNGEONS.txt
  An article on the largest Melungeon community, in Rhea, Roane and Hamilton counties, Tennessee, and the only incorporated town with a Melungeon majority.

• Jack Goins' Melungeon and Appalachian Research

  http://jackgoins.blogspot.com/
  Dedicated to research on the northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia Melungeon communities. Includes information on DNA research as well as information about his book.

• Melungeon Family Genealogy Forum

  http://genforum.genealogy.com/melungeon/
  Discussion of genealogical topics about Melungeon families.

• Melungeon Heritage Association

  http://www.melungeon.org/
  Established to document and preserve the cultural legacy of mixed-ancestry peoples in the southern Appalachians. Articles, links, and information about periodic Melungeon conventions known as "unions".

• Melungeon Mailing List

  http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/Ethnic-Mixed/Melungeon.html
  Discussion group for genealogy and history. Includes searchable archive of past messages.

• Melungeon Mystery Solved?

  http://blueridgecountry.com/archive/editors-column/melungeon-mystery-solved/
  2012 article from Blue Ridge Country magazine.

• Melungeon Origin Group

  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/MelungeonOrigin
  Discussion group on Melungeon origins and history.

• Melungeon Resource Page

  http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mtnties/melungeon.html
  Includes a FAQ about the mixed Mediterranean-Indian heritage of Melungeons, genealogy links, and information on the Melungeon mailing list. By Martha Short

• Melungeon Voices

  http://www.melungeonvoices.com/
  Announcement for a new film about Melungeons.

• Melungeons | Google Group

  http://groups.google.com/group/melungeons?hl=en
  Discussion group on Melungeon genealogy and history.

• Muslims in the Americas Before Columbus

  http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/mamerica.html
  Some evidence for Moorish and Mandingo presence, which some people believe to be part of the ancestry of Melungeons.

• Native American Muslims

  http://www.themodernreligion.com/convert/convert_namuslims.htm
  An article about early contact between Native Americans and Muslims, which contends many Native Americans adopted Islam. This may tie in with the better known Masonic movement among Native Americans.

• The Black Irish Myth

  http://www.darkfiber.com/blackirish/
  A theory as to why people of Irish descent like to lay claim to Spanish blood from the Armada. Links the Black Irish to the Melungeons. By Tom Kunesh.

• The Melungeon Historical Society

  http://melungeon-historical-society.blogspot.com/
  Society dedicated to research on Melungeon history.

• The Melungeons

  http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mtnties/mlgn.html
  Short article about Melungeons, particularly in Virginia.

• The Melungeons: A New Journey Home

  http://blueridgecountry.com/archive/favorites/melungeons-journey-home/
  An article in Blue Ridge Country on the Melungeons of Vardy, with photos of the church and school.

• The Melungeons: An Untold Story of Ethnic cleansing in America (by Brent Kennedy)

  http://www.mediamonitors.net/brentkennedy1.html
  This is an excerpt or introduction to the most famous and controversial book on the Melungeons.

• The Melungeons: My Perspective

  http://brendanichols.tripod.com/melungeon.html
  By Brenda Nichols. Histories of her family and some notable Melungeons such as Mahala Mullins.

• Under One Sky

  http://www.underonesky.org/sekmie_pdf/uos4.pdf
  Bill Fields' personal web site including the archives of Under One Sky, newsletter of the Southeastern Kentucky Melungeon Information Exchange. Information on Melungeon Heritage.

• Vardy Community Historical Society

  http://vardyblackwater.com/
  This society is trying to preserve the Vardy Melungeon site on Blackwater Creek in Hancock County, TN. Museum in the old Melungeon school. Mahala Mullins' cabin brought to the site from Newman's ridge.

• Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia

  http://books.google.com/books?id=bPV05xDZe70C
  Wayne Winkler's book with much of the text given in the preview.

• Wayfaring Stranger

  http://sciway3.net/clark/freemoors/Patrin1.htm
  The Black Dutch, German Gypsies, or Chicanere, and their relation to the Melungeons, by Linda D. Griggs.

• What Is A Melungeon?

  http://whatisamelungeon.webs.com/
  History and description of several groups known as Melungeon.

Related Categories

• Home > Regional > North America > United States > Louisiana > Society and Culture > Ethnicity > Redbones
• Home > Regional > North America > United States > Tennessee > Regions > East Tennessee > Society and Culture
• Home > Society > Ethnicity > The Americas > Indigenous > Native Americans > Tribes, Nations and Bands > S > Saponi

 

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