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Our New Computer Program Validates Melungeon Sample and Conclusions
Early experiments with our new Melungeon Match product show that members of the original research study score extremely high for a match to the population Melungeon (n=40) recently added to the database atDNA (Beta Version).
A sample of forty self-identifying Melungeons was assembled for a study by Donald N. Yates and Elizabeth C. Hirschman that should appear in the fall issue of Appalachian Journal. Their autosomal profiles formed the first population to be added to our new computer program atDNA, which contains the database used for the DNA Fingerprint Test.
As an example, one of the participants, with known Melungeon ancestry including Ramey descent through her father, elicited the following top five matches in the new database, with Melungeon as her No. 3 match:
| Polish - Podlasie (n = 842) | 6.19E+14 |
| Slovenian (n = 193) | 8.92E+14 |
| Melungeon (n = 40) | 9.9E+14 |
| Egyptian Copts - Adaima (n = 100) | 1.05E+15 |
| Polish - (n = 412) | 1.07E+15 |
In the participant's father's results (Floyd Milton Grimwood, deceased), Melungeon was higher, occupying the No. 1 spot:
| Melungeon (n = 40) | 1.63E+13 |
| Slovenian (n = 193) | 1.75E+14 |
| Polish - Podlasie (n = 842) | 2.39E+14 |
| Belarusian - Northeastern Poland (n = 212) | 2.42E+14 |
| Polish (n = 870) | 2.52E+14 |
Such results tend to confirm the representativeness of the original sample, which contained closely and distantly related people of declared Melungeon ancestry, and validate its conclusions.
Melungeon DNA Project Administrator, Phyllis Starnes, who is also a moderator for the Melungeon Forum on DNA Communities, is coordinating the check for Melungeon ranking for the 40 participants. She will have a summary statement ready soon.
Statistically, the results are nothing short of astounding. They show Melungeon autosomal DNA reflects a well-defined population isolate with multiple interrelatedness. Melungeon is a valid historical and scientific label, not an arbitrary or adventitious designation or construct.
Pictured above: four generations of the Tennessee Melungeon Ramey family.
Comments
How fascinating! This proves that my Rameys were Melungeons AND that they are a distinct population. Floyd Milton Grimwood was my father. I knew as a young girl that there was something very, very different going on in my family. Others knew it too. I was considered "other" as a young girl which made it very difficult growing up. My Aunt Elzina said that they were French but originally came from EGYPT! They dressed oddly in black boots and severe long black dresses with no makeup- no one dressed like this in the 50's. She told me that my gg grandmother Demarice, mother of Etalka Vetula (my grandmother) "arrived at a rich man's farm and trained the horses" when she was 10. These are not normal pioneer family stories. I asked her about my grandmother's people ( I thought they were Indian). She only laughed and said, " They were not Indian. You will never discover the truth about my mother's people." I think I did.
--Teresa Panther-Yates
One of the more interesting posts.
This finally confirms for me what I have been studying since 2000, when I learned of these interesting people. I have participated with a Melungeon discussion group and found through research I was related in some way to most everyone! My Fathers Mother according to stories told by my mom was Cajun. That didn't make sense to me in AL because I thought the Cajuns (Acadians) were in Louisiana
I learned that actually there are Alabama Cajuns that are different but none the less French-Indian from the time that The French were on the Alabama Rivers and Coast in 1700-1763. I had several surnames on both sides of my family that are in the the Melungeon surnames. This test and validation was for me great confirmation and satisfying after all the research and look forward to what new things turn up to add to the academic knowledge on the early settlement of America that is not in the History Books we learned about the English settling of America!!!
DJ Thornton
This is great work! My Melungeon was 3rd on my list and I do believe that it comes via the COLLINS family but with absolutely no way to find that connection. I have searched for over 30 years and there is no written documentation.
The family stories, the physical characteristics, some health issues, some of the 'ways of doing things' all seem to add up to the Melungeon inclusion and now THIS!
thanks so much!
Love and health in family ties,
Nancy
With the roots of both sides of my family tree sunken deep in Stony Creek in Scott County, VA it doesn't surprise me that my number one match is Melungeon.
The Native American and French matches fit with family lore.
The Romani matches--well perhaps that explains my love for Roma dance and music with it's unusual time signatures 7/8's and 9/8's.
Thanks,
Julia
Most all of my lines are Melungeon: Collins, Graham, Newberry, Ramey and from SC/TN/GA/AL.
My Prevatt line is French/Indian and from AL/VG.
Don's ancestor, a Bondurant, and my Pierre Prevatt, came across on the same ship.
Nancy, I too hit a wall with my Collins line long ago.
It is wonderful to have this all as confirmation.
Teresa
I don't understand. How can "Melungeon" be considered a population, if it's mixture is different from family to family? I had an autosomal dna test done by DNA consultants and Wonder if I had a mixture that would have been considered "Melungeon." I've been trying to find out for years.