MelungeonsR.us

From Darlene Wilson's Website - which is no longer on the internet -(Brent Kennedy's 1997 posting to a question on the list): "In my opinion the Melungeons are, and always have been, an ethnically diverse population. I believe one or more core ancestral groups formed along the eastern seaboard (Virginia and the Carolinas) and over time moved inland, splintering off and settling in various communities, such as Louisa County, Virginia, and finally the Appalachians. In each of these communities they picked up nicknames, though "Melungeon" was attached to a number of them despite their geographic separation. For instance, my ancestors were the Bollings, Cannadays, Osbornes, Gibsons, Mullinses, Halls, etc. that settled in Wise and Scott Counties in southwestern Virginia (Stone Mountain and Coeburn Mountain). Several of these families appear to have "originated" from, or at least passed through, Louisa County, Virginia. Along with the Sextons and the Collinses with whom they intermarried, they became known as both "Ramps" and "Melungeons." I never knew, for example, that there were Melungeons anywhere outside of my home county until my early twenties, when I read about the outdoor drama, "Walk Toward the Sunset," and the "Melungeons" in Sneedville upon whom the drama was based. It wassomething of a surprise, especially when I saw the same associated surnames. Of course, at that time in my life I hadn't mentally connected my own family with those cousins who had received the "Ramp" or "Melungeon" designation just four miles further up the mountain. But the point is, at least in my opinion again, that this original core group split up and served as a parent population to the various subgroups that developed over a wide geographic region. And each of these sub-groups (and, indeed, each individual family) developed its own unique history of admixture. Some are truly (or at least consider themselves truly) to be mainly of Native American heritage, while others feel more kinship to the claimed "Portyghee" or "Turkish" or "Scots-Irish" or "African" components within their families. And that's okay...what is important is the recognition of a SHARED culture and a SHARED history, regardless of the full ethnic heritage that we individually bring to the table (remember: "Melungeon" is a term applied to a people of MIXED heritage - it is NOT a specific racial designation). We can be Melungeon, or at least a Melungeon descendant, then, without sacrificing any other heritage. The whole point here is NOT being pigeon-holed into one ethnic group or another. That's what's been going on for two hundred plus years - forced pigeon-holing - and it's why this whole mess developed in the first place. I would define a "Melungeon" then, as a founding member - or a descendant of a founding member - of one of these original seventeenth or eighteenth century parent populations, consisting variously of Native American, northern European, Mediterranean, African, East Indian, etc. settlers. What then made them "Melungeon" was the shared experience of being different, being discriminated against, and having banded together to form discrete communities of generally darker complexioned people doing their best to survive. To call Melungeons "Turks" or "Portyghee" or "Indians" or any other specific ethnic name is, at least in my opinion, a fallacy. The beauty of these wonderful people lies not in their supposed ethnic "uniqueness," but in their unusually broad kinship to so many other ethnic groups. I would also offer a second defining characteristic that, in addition to this mixed ethnic heritage and the will to survive, those that would come to be called Melungeons would, by the very early 1800s, call the central Appalachians home. Also importantly, we tend to focus mostly on upper east Tennessee and extreme southwest Virginia as traditional "Melungeon sites," but I'm convinced there are more Melungeon descendants (i.e., those individuals descended from the so-called "original" Melungeons) in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, and possibly middle and southeastern Tennessee than there are here in our ten county region. Most of these early settlers had large families and the remaining "pockets" of our people today are inarguably small in number. So did their progeny simply disappear into thin air? Did Melungeons simply fail to reproduce? Of course not. Common sense says that most of the children and siblings just kept moving, typically north and west, and have done so right up to the present day. It's why I have more cousins in Akron, Ohio than I do in Wise County, Virginia. But just because they're in Akron doesn't mean that we're no longer kin, or that they no longer qualify to be descendants of Brandy Jack Mullins or Louisa Hall Nash or Benjamin Bowling. There's been a movement for about five years to term Melungeons as ONLY those people living today in a certain, restrictive area whose genealogies can be traced directly to a few families designated as "Melungeon" in the late 1700s in central Virginia. That's fine, as long as those defining "Melungeon" in this way make it clear that this is what they're doing. But we should not and, in my opinion cannot, dismiss out of hand the brothers and sisters of these "traceable" Melungeon ancestors who carried the same genes and lived the same culture, but chose to move into Kentucky or West Virginia or wherever. Even if they were never called Melungeons, they're still kinfolk and, in many instances, still suffered the same prejudices and the same hard lives. And in this sense, we have to maintain an open mind regarding the "origins" of the Melungeons. We cannot exclude any possibility, to be honest, and to do so is not only counterproductive to finding the "truth," but is, frankly, just plain wrong. Whatever, hope this is helpful to the readers. And let me remind you that the first ever Melungeon gathering is planned for July 24th, 1997, in Wise, Virginia so check in regularly with this site for more detail. Brent Kennedy..." ___