Scott County Genealogy

Scott County, Virginia is another fine GenWeb site, and one which is very important to Melungeon genealogy.

To visit Scott County: Click Here.

To locate GenWeb sites for other counties of interest: Click Here.

Melungeons in the New York Times

By MHS President Wayne Winkler

Calvin Beale died on September 2, 2008, at the age of 85. A demographer with the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Beale was best known for his discovery that decades of rural-to-urban migration patterns were being reversed in the 1960s. However, for many of us, his most significant work was with the Melungeons and other mixed-race groups. As his obituary in the New York Times said, “He wrote, for example, of a mixed-race people called Melungeons, reputedly of white, black and Indian descent. They are found from the Tidewater areas to the Piedmont and the Allegheny-Cumberland Plateaus. ‘Some are landless, some landed,’ he wrote. ‘But they are all marginal men — wary until recently of being black, aspiring where possible to be white and subject to rejection and scorn on either hand.’”

To continue reading: Click Here.

Melungeon DNA Project

Jack Goins, Principal Administrator
Roberta Estes, Technical Adviser

Project Goals:

To establish modal DNA results for the Core Melungeon lines of Goins, Gibson, Minor, Bunch, Bolin, Bolling, Collins, Williams, Goodman, Denham, Bolin, Mullins, Moore, Shumake, Boltons, Perkins, Mornings, Menleys, Breedlove, Hopkins and Mallett, including variant spellings, and other families with these names in their lines.

To learn more and see current results: Click Here and Click Here.

What Blood Won't Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America

Harvard University Pres, 2008

By Ariela J. Gross
John B. and Alice R. Sharp Professor of Law and History
University of Southern California

Is race something we know when we see it? In 1857, Alexina Morrison, a slave in Louisiana, ran away from her master and surrendered herself to the parish jail for protection. Blue-eyed and blond, Morrison successfully convinced white society that she was one of them. When she sued for her freedom, witnesses assured the jury that she was white, and that they would have known if she had a drop of African blood. Morrison’s court trial—and many others over the last 150 years—involved high stakes: freedom, property, and civil rights. And they all turned on the question of racial identity.

Over the past two centuries, individuals and groups (among them Mexican Americans, Indians, Asian immigrants, and Melungeons) have fought to establish their whiteness in order to lay claim to full citizenship in local courtrooms, administrative and legislative hearings, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Like Morrison’s case, these trials have often turned less on legal definitions of race as percentages of blood or ancestry than on the way people presented themselves to society and demonstrated their moral and civic character.

Unearthing the legal history of racial identity, Ariela Gross’s book examines the paradoxical and often circular relationship of race and the perceived capacity for citizenship in American society. This book reminds us that the imaginary connection between racial identity and fitness for citizenship remains potent today and continues to impede racial justice and equality.

For more information: Click Here.

Note: Melungeons are specifically discussed in Chapter Four: Citizenship of the "Little Races".

It is encouraging to see a professional historian discussing Melungeons in a scholarly work published by a major university press.

Genetic Genealogy on the Web

As a follow-up to Roberta Estes' terrific article of this past Wednesday, "DNA Testing and the Melungeons," I would like to highlight the two genetic genealogy web sites listed on the MHS Blog's "Links of Interest" page, the portal to which can be found on the sidebar to the right:

International Society of Genetic Genealogy

The mission of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy is to advocate for and educate about the use of genetics as a tool for genealogical research, and promote a supportive network for genetic genealogists.

To visit: Click Here.

The Genetic Genealogist

The Genetic Genealogist examines the intersection of traditional genealogical techniques and modern genetic research. The blog also explores the latest news and developments in the related field of personal genomics.

To visit: Click Here.

Foxfire

What is "Foxfire"?

• The term "foxfire" is a name commonly applied to several species of bioluminescent fungi that grow on rotting wood in damp forests.

• "Foxfire" is the name that an English class picked, in 1966, for a student-produced magazine they chose to create, containing stories and interviews gathered from elders in their rural Southern Appalachian community.

• "Foxfire" is the name of a series of books which are anthology collections of material from The Foxfire Magazine. The students' portrayal of the previously-dismissed culture of Southern Appalachia as a proud, self-sufficient people with simple beliefs, pure joy in living, and rock-solid faith shattered most of the outside world's misconceptions about these "hillbillies".

• "Foxfire" is a museum in the small northeast Georgia town of Mountain City.

• "Foxfire" is a method of classroom instruction.

• Most importantly, "Foxfire" is the living connection between the high school students in the magazine program and their heritage, built through continued interaction with their elders.

To visit the web page of this nationally known Appalachian educational endeavor: Click Here.

Letcher County Genealogy

Letcher County, Kentucky maintains one of the most comprehensive GenWeb sites. If you have Letcher County connections, Melungeon descended or otherwise, you do not want miss it.

To visit Letcher County: Click Here.

To locate GenWeb sites for other counties of interest: Click Here.