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After many years in development, the results of a DNA ancestry project enrolling 40 Melungeons were published and made public, marking the end of an attempt to solve the mystery of a Southern U.S. ethnic group with autosomal DNA.
Seeming to lay to rest an old controversy in American history about Melungeons, the scientific data supporting a genetic mixture of white, American Indian and Sub-Saharan African were placed online today by the organizers of DNA Consultants' Melungeon DNA Project.
The data report a sample of 40 Melungeons' DNA fingerprints. Population analysis of the participants' DNA fingerprints was used in an article for Appalachian Journal. Titled "Toward a Genetic Profile of Melungeons in Eastern Tennessee," the study was co-authored by Donald N. Yates, principal investigator of DNA Consultants, and Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman, a professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.
"This is a giant stride forward in understanding the mixed ancestry of Melungeons," said Donald Yates, co-author. "Never before has autosomal DNA been used in attacking the problem."
The 40 participants' names were:
Anonymous, Mabel Bentley, Judy Douglas Bloom, Leah Laura Bulgariev, John (Dick) Caldwell, John R. Caldwell, Sr. (deceased), Virginia Caldwell, William Collins, Mary Goodman, Floyd Milton Grimwood (deceased), Ann Reagan Haines, Linda Barnett Hall, Nancy E. Hammes, Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman, Pat Goin Jones, Brenda LaForce, Everett LaForce, Jessica Kiely Law, Bonnie J. Lyda, N. Brent Kennedy, Richard Kennedy, Margaret E. Kross, MeriDee Orvis Mahan, Karen Mattern, Sebenia Ann Milbacher, Nicolas J. Millington, Holli Starnes Molnar, Nancy Sparks Morrison, Teresa Panther-Yates, Billy Starnes, Julia Starnes, Keely Starnes, Phyllis Starnes, Richard Stewart, Doretha J. Thornton, Kaye M. Viars, Celia Wyckoff, Wayne Winkler, Betty Yates Adams, Donald N. Yates.
Participants were qualified by their genealogies and included many names familiar to those who follow Melungeon genealogy discussion groups on the Internet, including Brent Kennedy, author of the book 1996 book that started the Melungeon Movement, his brother Richard Kennedy; Elizabeth Hirschman, a native of Kingsport, Tenn., along with several members of her family; Wayne Winkler of the Melungeon Heritage Association and author of Walking Toward the Sunset; and Nancy Morrison, creator of the online Melungeon Health referral service.
More information on DNA Consultants' Melungeon DNA Studies page.
Melungeon family in Tennessee about 1900.
Older version and abstract of "Toward a Genetic Profile of Melungeons"
Comments
You have a great blog! I enjoy your articles and they are well written.
What exactly is the controversy about Melungeons? What's the big "mystery"? What can a Melungeon do with this info?
Nice website:
I really don't think this should mark the end "of an attempt to solve the mystery of a Southern U.S. ethnic group with autosomal DNA" though but I tend to see this leap as one of a great beginning, and not an end.
Thanks for sharing
This is quite a coup and I have great satisfaction in participating in this study along with many friends that became relatives over the last 10 years of researching and corresponding in discussion groups about this mystery. We all felt related and now
there is validation. I look forward to all the news that comes out of this research. I read the article in the Appalachian Journal Fall 2010 I recomend it as well search this blog to purchase
My Mother's family is from Hawkins County Tenn.I'm pretty sure we have some melungeon ancestry.I have shovel teeth,and the bump on the back of my head.My sister was diagnosed with some rare blood disease.They checked her DNA and found sub-saharan african
traits,,not real sure how much.We were always told we were part Indian.I think there's more to it than that.My mother was a Robinson.We are kin to the Lawsons,Rymores,Stapeltons Sizemores,Manis,ect.Not sure about the spelling on some of these sure names.I
want to know more about my own DNA,Heritage,and just where we come from and who are we.Richard Jessie Robinson was my Grandfather,and he raised me.But i think there was some things he never talked about.Lol! Would like to hear from other Melungeons who may
be able to help me on this path I have started down.I want to know who my people are.Anybody out there that might be able to help,or have suggestions,my e-mail is fenderbender6@yahoo.com. thank y'all.
I am writing in response to Bob Mitchell's post--I was surprised to find a cousin here. Like my cousin, I have shovel teeth and a bump on the back of my head, although very small. Neither one of our grandparents talked much about their ancestors. In fact,
my grandfther told me when pressed for information that when your family had mixed blood "you didn't talk about it back then." His family tree includes Robinson, Gonce, Rimer, Manis and Couch. His wife's family included Lawson, Stapleton, Singleton, Manis
and Sizemore I've been researching this family tree for years. So many roadblocks, particularly on the Robinson side. If anyone can shed some light on Robinson migration from North Carolina to Grayson County, Virginia to Hawkins County, Tennessee I would truly
appreciate it.
i am very interested in finding out for sure if i have melungeon ancesrtery. I am from sw virginia, scott county . i would like to have a DNA done. i have the bump on the back of my head , i have dark hair, dark blue eyes and rh negative blood. however
my skin is very pale if anyone can lead me in the right direction, i have no idea where to begin, my email is autumnbond79@yahoo.com. thanks