Melungeon Studies

Melungeon Studies Moves to a New URL

2011-01-14T17:55:00.001-05:00

The Melungeon Studies Blog has moved to a new URL using its proper name.

To go to the Melungeon Studies Blog: Click Here.

Once there, please update your book mark for it!

The Wayback Machine

2011-01-13T06:55:00.004-05:00

One of the many features of the Internet Archive, blogged about yesterday, is the legendary Wayback Machine which preserves the contents of many web pages no longer in existence:

Browse through over 150 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. To start surfing the Wayback, type in the web address of a site or page where you would like to start, and press enter. Then select from the archived dates available. The resulting pages point to other archived pages at as close a date as possible.

To use the Wayback Machine: Click Here.

Allen County Library

2011-01-11T11:52:00.003-05:00

The Allen County Indiana Public Library has made a remarkable genealogical collection available online through the Internet Archive. While it has many items pertaining to Allen County, of course, it has many more which range far afield. To cite just one example among hundreds, it contain the marriage records of Hawkins County, Tennessee for the years 1797 to 1886.

To view Allen County Library's online collection: Click Here.

To visit the Internet Archive's main page: Click Here.

An Introduction to Genealogy

2011-01-10T11:51:00.003-05:00

By the One, the Only, Dick Eastman

Of Eastmans's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Do you have a curiosity about your family tree? Many people do. Some may have their interest piqued because of an heirloom, an old picture, or perhaps an unresolved family mystery. The reasons people get hooked on genealogy are many and varied, but each person's search is unique. After all, the search for your ancestors really is a search for yourself.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Lewis and Clark

2011-01-10T01:17:00.000-05:00

A National Registry of Historical Places Travel Itinerary

The National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, and Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, in conjunction with the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO), proudly invite you to discover the historic places of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This expedition, which took place between 1804 and 1806, has been described as the greatest camping trip of all time, a voyage of high adventure, an exercise in manifest destiny which carried the American flag overland to the Pacific. It was all of this and more. This travel itinerary highlights 41 historic places listed in the National Register of Historic Places and associated with Lewis and Clark. Many of these places are also part of the National Park Service's Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

For much more: Click Here.

Melungeon Studies Blog Email Subscriptions Redux

2011-01-09T11:03:00.001-05:00

I have been informed that the instructions I gave yesterday for switching from the old email feed to the new email feed were less than clear.

Unsubscribing from the old feed is done by clicking on the unusubscription link at the bottom of the email. Subscribing to the new feed must be done on the blog itself, and it is there, not within the email, that you will find a link for doing so on the sidebar to the right.

You can, if you like, first subscribe to the new feed, then unsubscribe from the old. That way you could ensure that the new feed is working for you before canceling the old feed.

Thank you for your patience and attention to this matter!

Melungeon Studies Blog Email Subscriptions

2011-01-08T01:22:00.000-05:00

If you subscribe to the Melungeons Studies blog by email, please unsubscribe and re-subscribe using the link on the blog's sidebar to the right. I have created a new email feed for the blog which gets its title right, and while I cannot stop the old feed at this time, I cannot guarantee how long it will keep working.

The RSS feed is not affected.

Thank you!!

Announcing a New Melungeon Discussion Group

2011-01-07T09:02:00.000-05:00

Libby Bunch Smiddy, a bona fide Melungeon descendant through multiple lines, and I, a long-time RootsWeb Melungeon list moderator in years past, have established a new, Yahoo-based Melungeon discussion group called Melungeon Studies.

This group is not affiliated with the Melungeon Historical Society, the Melungeon Heritage Association or any DNA testing project or organization. As such, the only constraints on discussions there will be that they be evidence-based and that the usual and expected participant decorum be maintained. Being Yahoo-based, this group also has the advantage of allowing files and images to be uploaded its web site for all to share, among other features, although the actual discussions are carried out through email in the manner of a RootsWeb mailing list (but are also accessible through its web site).

The noted Melungeon researchers Joanne Pezzullo and Kathy James have already signed on to be a part of this new group, and anyone interested in joining us should: Click Here.

"The Malungeons"

2011-01-06T07:11:00.001-05:00

According to Joanne Pezzullo

From my research I hope to be able to show that the Malungeons were in fact Portuguese Adventurers who intermixed with the local Indians in the Carolinas, I believe I can.

These families were reported along the Pee Dee River as early as 1725, they may have joined Christian Priber's 'Paradice', his Utiopa in the Cherokee Indian Town. They were likely ejected after his arrest in 1743 when Chief Attacullaculla signed an agreement in Charleston to trade only with the British, return runaway slaves and expel Non-English whites from their territory, in return they received guns, ammunition, and red paint .[*]

From court records found in North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois these families from the Pee Dee declared they were Portuguese and in most cases they succeeded. The Ivey, Halls, Chavis, Shoemake, Bolton, Perkins, Goins, Collins, Nickens, Dungee, and others have all been identified as Portuguese in courts, county histories, etc.

In 1848 a journalist from Louisville, Kentucky visited Newman's Ridge where he stayed at the Vardy Inn and wrote the 'legend of their history' -- and it would appear that Vardy Collins and/or his wife 'Spanish Peggy Gibson' were the possibly the source. Most researchers assume Vardy was giving the history of his Collins family but it is likely his ancestors were merely Indians as were many of the other early settlers on Newman's Ridge. The little Portuguese community on the border of the Carolinas appears to have started breaking up around 1800 and many had moved west after the War of 1812.

Judge Lewis Shepherd defended the granddaughter of Solomon Bolton in 1874 and in that trial testimony was given by credible witnessess that Solom Bolton [and people of his race] had been 'called Malungeons' and as Shepherd would tell it later these people came from South Carolina. In fact Solomon Bolton's father, Spencer Bolton was said to have been born on the Pee Dee River in 1735 which would means his family as well as deeds of the Bass, Perkins, Ivey, etc., can be shown living in the same area that in 1754 showed '50 mixt families' residing. Judge Lewis Shepherd tells how these people came over the mountains from South Carolina to Hancock County, Tennessee and spread out from there.

The Lowery of the Lumbee families according to history have Portuguese ancestors and it is said that Tobias Gibson, son of Jordan is also said to have had Portuguese ancestry. It seems fairly clear to me that the Portuguese settlers who intermixed with one tribe, most likely the Cheraw or Saura, became the 'Lumbee' while just across the line those same families who intermixed with the other tribes, possibly the Catawba, Pee Dee, etc., became known as Redbones. As they moved into Tennessee and intermixed with the Saponi-Occaneechi families of Gibsons, Collins, etc., they became what was described in 1848 as the 'present race of Melungens.'

For more: Click Here.

Tax Lists: A Goldmine of Information

2011-01-05T06:52:00.000-05:00

By Barbara Vines Little

Published in OnBoard

The Newsletter of the Board for Certification og Genealogists

Virginia is missing its 1790 and 1800 census records and about half of the records for 1810. Tax lists are the closest thing to a census available for this time period. Fortunately a number of tax records have been published as substitutes; e.g., a 1787 personal property tax list that named every white male aged twenty-one or older, was published as The 1787 Census of Virginia. While tax lists do not count everyone, censuses typically do. Tax lists are usually compiled each year and thus provide an annual snapshot of individuals in the community.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Special Censuses

2011-01-04T09:42:00.000-05:00

Special Censuses Counted More Than People

By Sharon Tate Moody

Tampa Bay Online

How much corn, potatoes, flax, sugar and honey did your great-great grandfather farmer produce in 1860? How successful was your great grandfather's small manufacturing business in 1880? How many men and women did he employ and what did he pay them?

Where would a researcher find such revealing information about their ancestors? In the census — but not the one we usually refer to as "the census."

Researchers are most familiar with the national population survey taken every 10 years since 1790. Those records vary in the information they provide; the census initially began to determine population for elected representation.

But the government also wanted other information, so it created a variety of surveys, called schedules, which provided insight and clues for researchers.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Gibson Descendant Freedom Suit, 1804

2011-01-03T10:23:00.002-05:00

In 1804 an enslaved family who were descendants of a George and Jane Gibson of Charles City County, Virginia, filed suit claiming freedom based on their being of Indian descent, the claim specifically being that Jane Gibson was an Indian.

To see a transcript of their petition: Click Here.

Stories of the Civil War

2011-01-02T09:29:00.000-05:00

National Park Service Civil War Institute

The Civil War touched every person and influenced every institution more profoundly than any other event in American history. Over half a million young Americans gave their lives fighting for or against the effort by Southern states to secede from the Union and to preserve a society based on slave labor. Not only were civilians deeply scarred by the war, but no aspect of the society, economy, or political system was spared. To this day, no part of the American past attracts so much continuing interest as the War Between the States.

The National Park Service conserves the sites of the most important military actions of the war. Through exhibits, video presentations, ranger talks and guided tours, publications, research and educational programs, historians and interpreters help provide Americans and their guests with a deeper understanding of the conflict. Today, those efforts have grown to include the World Wide Web.

Here you can begin to explore the broader meanings of the Civil War, for you, for Americans of that time and of ours. The information is arranged according to four major areas of impact on America:

Social Aspects of the Civil War: How was the contest influenced by the rapidly changing world of American family, community, and work life, and especially by the institution of slavery?

Economic Aspects of the Civil War: How was the nature of war itself transformed by the industrial and transportation revolutions of 19th-century America?

Political Aspects of the Civil War: How did the conflict over the issue of slavery shatter the American political order, shape wartime strategies, and transform our system of constitutional government?

Military Aspects of the Civil War: How were battlefield decisions often shaped by the prior knowledge and experience of the soldiers, even in their peacetime lives?

To let the words of National Park Service Rangers guide you on your path to discovery of the Civil War: Click Here.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T00:01:00.002-05:00

The Battle of Stones River

2010-12-31T07:34:00.006-05:00

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

One hundred and forty-eight years ago today . . .

After Gen. Braxton Bragg’s defeat at Perryville, Kentucky, October 8, 1862, he and his Confederate Army of the Mississippi retreated, reorganized, and were redesignated as the Army of Tennessee. They then advanced to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and prepared to go into winter quarters. Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans’s Union Army of the Cumberland followed Bragg from Kentucky to Nashville. Rosecrans left Nashville on December 26, with about 44,000 men, to defeat Bragg’s army of more than 37,000. He found Bragg’s army on December 29 and went into camp that night, within hearing distance of the Rebels.

At dawn on the 31st, Bragg’s men attacked the Union right flank. The Confederates had driven the Union line back to the Nashville Pike by 10:00 am but there it held. Union reinforcements arrived from Rosecrans’s left in the late forenoon to bolster the stand, and before fighting stopped that day the Federals had established a new, strong line. On New Years Day, both armies marked time. Bragg surmised that Rosecrans would now withdraw, but the next morning he was still in position. In late afternoon, Bragg hurled a division at a Union division that, on January 1, had crossed Stones River and had taken up a strong position on the bluff east of the river. The Confederates drove most of the Federals back across McFadden’s Ford, but with the assistance of artillery, the Federals repulsed the attack, compelling the Rebels to retire to their original position.

Bragg left the field on the January 4-5, retreating to Shelbyville and Tullahoma, Tennessee. Rosecrans did not pursue, but as the Confederates retired, he claimed the victory. Stones River boosted Union morale. The Confederates had been thrown back in the east, west, and in the Trans-Mississippi.

To visit the Stones River National Battlefield Park: Click Here.

My Kind of Blog: Cemetery Explorers

2010-12-30T07:01:00.000-05:00

Its author says...

I created this blog to show people that cemeteries are wonderful places full of history, architecture and sometimes an occasional ghost story. I hope everyone enjoys what this blog has to offer whether you're an amateur explorer, history buff or just somebody willing to learn about these beautiful places...

To explore some cemeteries: Click Here.

The National Archives' New Online Public Access Prototype

2010-12-29T07:12:00.001-05:00

Washington, DC. . . The National Archives and Records Administration’s new Online Public Access prototype is being made available to the public as of Monday, Dec. 27, 2010,

The National Archives’ flagship initiative in our Open Government plan is to develop online services to meet the 21st century needs of the public. It is also a key component of our agency’s Transformation Plan, to be customer-focused and ensuring our nation’s heritage is accessible to all.

The Online Public Access prototype is the public portal that provides access to digitized records, and information about our records. It also provides a centralized means of searching multiple National Archives resources at once. Currently, researchers perform separate searches in the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) for catalog descriptions, histories and biographies; Access to Archival Databases (AAD) for electronic records; and Archives.gov. The new interface illustrates a streamlined search experience for users, searching across all of these resources.

The prototype currently contains all of the data from ARC, and seven series from AAD, containing 10.9 million permanent electronic records. Additionally, the prototype provides access to one million electronic records currently in the Electronic Records Archives, which are not available elsewhere online.

The National Archives will add additional functionality in the coming year, including an image zooming feature that will enable users to zoom and pan our online holdings, and social sharing through Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.

The National Archives is asking the public for feedback to ensure a user-friendly search and display.

To try the prototype: Click Here.

To view a demonstration video: Click Here.

Online Genealogical Software

2010-12-28T10:43:00.001-05:00

There are many genealogical software programs designed for personal use which are installed and used on your own computer. But what do you do if you want to have multiple users sharing and updating the same database from different locations? One answer is to use online genealogical software and databases.

For a detailed review of the some of the available options by the inimitable Dick Eastman of Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter: Click Here.

The Benefits of Thinking About Our Ancestors

2010-12-27T16:38:00.000-05:00

The British Psychological Society

Research Digest Blog

Psychologists have shown previously that thinking about our own mortality - 'where we're going' - prompts us to shore up our cultural world view and engage in self-esteem boosting activities. Little researched until now, by contrast, are the psychological effects of thinking about where we came from - our ancestors.

Anecdotally, there's reason to believe that such thoughts are beneficial. Why else the public fascination with genealogy and programmes like the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? Now Peter Fischer and his colleagues at the Universities of Graz, Berlin and Munich have shown that thinking about our ancestors boosts our performance on intelligence tests - what they've dubbed 'the ancestor effect'.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Mountain Stewards

2010-12-26T07:50:00.004-05:00

In the fall of 2003, the Mountain Stewards began to restore some of the traditional trails that meander throughout the Southern Appalachians. The origins of some of these mountain trails date to the time of the Cherokees. Others were built by the early pioneering families. Still other were constructed by logging companies and some were put in by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's. All of these trails remain in existance. Indian Trail Trees dot the region, remnants of the Native American culture before the white settlers arrived in the nineteenth century. Settlers left their mark as well. Home sites can still be located and the debris from the stills of the moonshiners that once haunted these mountains still stand in some of the hollows. Aside from the occasional sign of our ancesters' presence, these trails weave through the natural wilderness of the oldest mountain range on the planet.

To check out their web site: Click Here.

Note: This site has a good deal of information and many pictures. Be sure to see the sections on their Trail Tree Project and Indian Trails Project.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T05:00:00.000-05:00

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

"Brightest and Best"

2010-12-24T06:28:00.007-05:00

“On Old Christmas Eve we’d sit fore the fire and Mom and Dad and Granny’d atell us about the baby Jesus born in a stable on this night, and they’d say that if we’d go out at midnight we’d see the elderberry bush blooming in the fence corner right in the snow, and that if we’d peep in through a chink in our stable and make no racket atall we’d see the cow and the old mule kneeling, paying honor to the little King of Kings. Then maybe Granny’d sing us her Christmas carol, “Brightest and Best,” in the old mountain tune, and we’d all sing some…That used to be our Christmas.”

Jean Ritchie, Singing Family of the Cumberlands

University Press of Kentucky, 1988

Brightest and Best

Hail the blest morn
See the Great Mediator
Down from the regions of Glory descend!
Shepherds, go worship the Babe in the manger,
Lo, for the a guard the bright angels attend.

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness and lend us Thine aid
Star of the East, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.

Cold on His Cradle the dew-drops are shining
Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall;
Angels adore Him in slumber reclining
Maker and Monarch and Savior of all.

Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
Vainly with gifts would His favor secure;
Richer by far is the heart’s adoration,
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.

Shall we not yield Him in costly devotion,
Odors of Edom and offerings divine,
Gems of the mountains and pearls of the ocean,
Myrrh from the forest and gold from the mine?

Note: Jean Ritchie (born in 1922) is the best known and most respected singer of traditional ballads in the United States. Born in Viper, Kentucky, she comes from a family of musicians who have preserved folk traditions for generations.

This Melungeon Studies blog entry was lifted shamelessly from a back issue of Dave Tabler's ever-excellent Appalachian History blog.

To visit it: Click Here.

For more on Jean Ritchie: Click Here.

Littell's Living Age: The Melungens, March 1849

2010-12-23T09:49:00.001-05:00

We give to-day another amusing and characteristic sketch from a letter of our intelligent and sprightly correspondent, sojourning at present in one of the seldom-visited nooks hid away in our mountains.

You must know that within ten miles of this owl's nest, there is a watering-place, known hereabouts as 'black-water Springs.' It is situated in a narrow gorge, scarcely half a mile wide, between Powell's Mountain and the Copper Ridge, and is, as you may suppose, almost inaccessible. A hundred men could defend the pass against even a Xerxian army. Now this gorge and the tops and sides of the adjoining mountains are inhabited by a singular species of the human animal called MELUNGENS.

The legend of their history, which they carefully preserve, is this. A great many years ago, these mountains were settled by a society of Portuguese Adventurers, men and women--who came from the long-shore parts of Virginia, that they might be freed from the restraints and drawbacks imposed on them by any form of government. These people made themselves friendly with the Indians and freed, as they were from every kind of social government, they uprooted all conventional forms of society and lived in a delightful Utopia of their own creation, trampling on the marriage relation, despising all forms of religion, and subsisting upon corn (the only possible product of the soil) and wild game of the woods.

These intermixed with the Indians, and subsequently their descendants (after the advances of the whites into this part of the state) with the negros and the whites, thus forming the present race of Melungens.

For the complete article: Click Here.

Indian-Pioneer Papers

2010-12-22T10:31:00.009-05:00

University of Oklahona

Western History Collections

The Indian-Pioneer Papers oral history collection spans from 1861 to 1936. It includes typescripts of interviews conducted during the 1930s by government workers with thousands of Oklahomans regarding the settlement of Oklahoma and Indian territories, as well as the condition and conduct of life there. Consisting of approximately 80,000 entries, the index to this collection may be accessed via personal name, place name, or subject.

To search or browse the collection: Click Here.

Native American Records at the National Archives

2010-12-21T10:06:00.003-05:00

Records include but are far from limited to:

# Selected Documents from the Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1793 - 1989
# Records of Controversies, 1867 - 1879
# Kern-Clifton Roll of Cherokee Freedmen, January 16, 1867
# Alexander Gardner Portraits of Tribal Delegations to the Federal Government, 1872 and Southeastern Idaho Reservations, 1897
# Wallace Roll of Cherokee Freedmen in Indian Territory, 1890
# Applications for Enrollment in the Five Civilized Tribes, 1898 - 1914
# Index to the Final Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory, 1898 - 1914
# Final Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory, 1898 - 1914
# Correspondence of Pine Ridge Day School Inspector J. J. Duncan, February 9, 1910 - September 6, 1916
# American Indians, 1881 - 1885
# General Correspondence File of the Albuquerque Indian School, 1881 - 1936
# Index to Applications Submitted for the Eastern Cherokee Roll of 1909 (Guion Miller Roll)
# Records of the U.S. Court of Claims, Completed Guion Miller Roll

For more on these and many, many other Native American records on file at the National Archives: Click Here.