1. A Genetic and Lexicographical Profile of Melungeons
Who They Were and How the Term Originated
By Donald N. Yates
Based on two articles in Appalachian Journal:
1) Melungeon: History of an Epithet
ABSTRACT: What exactly the word Melungeon means, and ultimately to whom it ought to be applied, is disputed. A case is made for its coming from melongen, an obsolete English word for eggplant. The history of eggplants is reviewed. Literary allusions and slang expressions involving eggplants are shown to have functioned frequently as epithets for Spanish Jews. Special attention is devoted to Cervantes’ Don Quixote and his fictive narrator Benengeli. Given its historical connotations, it is easy to understand how the word for eggplant might have been applied to Portuguese Jews in nineteenth century Virginia and Tennessee.
2) DONALD N. YATES and ELIZABETH C. HIRSCHMAN
Toward a Genetic Profile of Melungeons in Southern Appalachia – published in AP vol. 38 no. 1 (Fall 2010) Appalachian Identity keepsake issue for sale at DNA Consultants for $12.00
Don Yates is the owner and principal investigator of DNA Consultants in Phoenix, Arizona. Born in Cedartown, Georgia of Choctaw-Cherokee and Sephardic Jewish ancestry, he has a doctorate in classical studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has co-authored with Elizabeth Hirschman several books and articles, including “Peering Inward for Ethnic Identity: Consumer Interpretation of DNA Test Results” (Identity, 8.1 Jan. 2008), Star, Crescent and Cross: Jews and Muslims in Colonial America (McFarland, forthcoming 2011) and When Scotland Was Jewish: DNA Evidence, Archeology, Analysis of Migrations, and Public and Family Records Show Twelfth Century Semitic Roots (McFarland, 2007). His most recent work is Old Souls in a New World: Greeks, Jews and Egyptians in Native America, the story of a 3rd century BCE Greek-speaking expedition from Ptolemaic Egypt that established the international dateline and coincidentally founded the Cherokee Nation. A member of Genealogical Speakers Guild, he is a frequent speaker and widely interviewed media spokesman on DNA testing for ancestry and ethnicity, especially autosomal DNA tests, and Native American genetics, particularly that of Old Cherokee families.
Beth Hirschman, professor of marketing at Rutgers University, has published more than 200 articles in marketing, consumer behavior, sociology, and semiotics. Her recent publications include “Bluegrass Revival: Marketing and Authenticity in the Hills of Appalachia” in Marketing the Arts (London: Routledge, 2010), “The Role of Marketing in Ancient and Contemporary Cultural Evolution” in The Sage Handbook of Marketing Theory (London: Sage, 2009), and “Suddenly Melungeon: Reconstructing Consumer Identity on the Other Side of the Color Line” in Research in Consumer Behavior. Vol. 11: Consumer Culture Theory (2007). She is co-author of Two Continents, One Culture: The Scotch Irish in Appalachia (Overmountain Press, 2006) and author of Melungeons: The Last Lost Tribe in America (Mercer Univ. Press, 2005). She has made presentations on ethnicity and DNA testing at annual meetings of the Transformative Consumer Research Conference; the Consumer Culture Theory Conference; the International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations; the Society for Jewish Studies; and the Melungeon Heritage Association.

2. Hirschman & Yates in AJ Introduction
Melungeons are an elusive and controversial subject in American social history (see e.g., DeMarce 1996; Hirschman and Yates 2007a [There are two with this date. Which one do you mean?]Eliminate: Hirschman 2003). Their population center is placed conventionally in the lower Appalachians in the contiguous region of southwestern Virginia, eastern Tennessee, southwestern Kentucky and eastern North Carolina (see e.g., Guthrie 1990). While often said to constitute a tri-racial isolate people, others have proposed that the Melungeons are descendants of early Portuguese, Spanish, Sephardic Jewish, Muslim Moorish, and/or Gypsy/Roma colonists in the southeastern United States (Kennedy 1997; Hirschman 2005; Price 1953). Still other researchers have questioned whether Melungeons diverge significantly in ancestry from other colonial-era settlers (DeMarce 1996). Despite these reservations, the so-called Melungeon Movement sparked by publication of N. Brent Kennedy’s (1994/1997) book 15 years ago shows little signs of abatement today (see e.g., Winkler 2006 [Not in bibliography, should be 2004?] Yes). There is a Melungeon Registry at the Wise County Historical Society, and genetic disorders such as familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) are being diagnosed and treated in Appalachian regional medical centers thanks to increased awareness and advocacy efforts. Although non-technical and non-academic in nature, books and articles continue to pour forth from members of the community (Alther 2007; Ball 1992; Elder 1999; Johnson 1997; Winkler 2004).
To help sort through the multiple suggested origins of the Melungeon people, we assembled a sample of 40 self-identified Melungeon descendants whose DNA we analyzed to provide additional information regarding their ancestral origins and ethnicity.1 This article reports the probabilistic predictive results of Melungeon ethnicity and ancestry from that study. We reach some tentative conclusions about genetic structure and demographic history that we hope will help stimulate further investigation into Melungeon ancestral origins and related sociocultural factors.

3. Melungeons Old Appalachian Mystery Reigning schools of thought
Tri-racial isolate (Price)
Turks, Jews or similar (Kennedy, Hirschman)
Variants: Croatian, Portuguese
Ridge-only faction (Goins, Crain)
Virginia DeMarce and nihilists
Melungeon Studies:
Alther, Lisa, (2007), Kinfolks: Falling Off the Family Tree, New York: Arcade Publishing
DeMarce, Virginia E. (1996). Review of The Melungeons: Resurrection of a Proud People. National Genealogical Society Quarterly 84:
Hirschman, Elizabeth C. (2005). Melungeons: The Last Lost Tribe in America. Macon: Mercer UP.
Hirschman, Elizabeth C., (2003) “Consumer Behavior Among the Melungeons: Reconstructing a Lost Heritage”, Advances in Consumer Research, Association for Consumer Research, 278.
Hirschman, Elizabeth C. and Donald N. Yates, (2007), “Suddenly Melungeon: Reconstructing Consumer Identity across the Color Line”, Consumer Culture Theory, Edited by Russsell W. Belk and John Sherry, New York: El Sevier, 241 – 249.
Hirschman, Elizabeth C. and Donald N. Yates (2006), “Romancing the Gene: Making Myth from Hard Science”, Handbook of Qualitative Research in Marketing, edited by Russell W. Belk, New York: Edward Elgar, 419 – 429.
Hirschman, Elizabeth C. and Donald N. Yates (2007). When Scotland Was Jewish. New York: McFarland.
Hirschman, Elizabeth C., Stephen Brown and Pauline Maclaran (2007), Two Continents, One Culture: the Scotch Irish in Appalachia. Johnson City: Overmountain Press
Kennedy, N. Brent, with Robyn Vaughan Kennedy (1997). The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People. 2nd sub-edition. Macon: Mercer UP.
Price, Edward T. (1953). "A Geographic Analysis of White-Negro-Indian Racial Mixtures in Eastern United States," The Association of American Geographers Annals 43:
Melungeon Studies at DNA Consultants:
Don’t pay too much attention to Wikipedia article!

4. Synonyms and Related Groups
Black Dutch
Lumbee Indians
Lost Colony
Sumter Turks
Redbones
Many others
Portuguese
Carthaginians, Phoenicians

5. Wayne Winkler’s List
Brass Ankles and allied groups in South Carolina, including Red Bones, Red Legs, Turks, Marlboro Blues, and others.
Cajuns and Creoles of Alabama and Mississippi.
Croatans of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
Guineas of West Virginia and Maryland. (Other names included “West Hill Indians, “ ”Cecil Indians,” and “Guinea niggers.”)
Issues of Amherst and Rockingham Counties, Virginia.
Jackson Whites of New York and New Jersey.
Melungeons of the Southern Appalachians.
Moors and Nanticokes of Delaware and New Jersey.
Red Bones of Louisiana.
Wesorts of southern Maryland.

6. Melungeon Movement Melungeon Unions
Melungeon Heritage Association & Registry
Melungeons.com (Helen Campbell)
Melungeon Health (Nancy Morrison)
Lisa Alther’s Kinfolks
Melungeon discussion boards, forums
Melungeon DNA Studies
Hirschman and Yates (now at DNA Consultants)
Goins Research
14th Union held last June at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn.
Estimates of population today range from restrictive several thousand (or zero) to several millions. Emphasize “descendants”

7. Meaning of the Word French mélange ‘mixture’
Turkish/Arabic melunçan ‘cursed soul’
English melongen(a) (obsolete) ‘eggplant’
Italian melanzana
molonjohn
mulenyam
Melange is most common
“Cursed Soul” is favored by followers of Kennedy
Neither have any lexicographical reality
Melongen has virtue of being English and its usage as a racial epithet is similar to Melungeon
The word Melungeon is generally taken to refer to a descendant of a people who lived at one time in the lower Appalachians, a core component of whom, as demonstrated in the recent article “Toward a Genetic Profile of Melungeons in Southern Appalachia,” were probably Sephardic Jews similar to the crypto-Jews of New Mexico.[i] The first ethnographic study, an article by Edward T. Price in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, identified them as a “white-Negro-Indian racial mixture in the Eastern United States.”[ii] Subsequent literature, as well as genealogy postings on the Internet, has argued for and against Price’s definition without too much changing of the ground. The Dictionary of American Regional English defines Melungeon as “a member of a racially mixed group of people centered in northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.” As to its origin, meaning and original usage, there are several theories, all of which essentially boil down to guesswork.[iii] The two most widely accepted seem to be 1) that it is “perhaps” based on French mélange, mixture, crossing of races (this is the view of most reference works), and 2) that it is derived, again conjecturally, from Turkish melun çan, meaning “cursed soul.” The latter explanation is the one popularized (and personally endorsed) by Kennedy (1997). But there is a minority opinion for which a case will be made here. The word Melungeon is phonetically identical to melongen(a), an obsolete word for eggplant that fell out of favor in the nineteenth century. The English word appears to have a similar history and usage to melanzana or mulenyam or molonjohn, a slang expression for eggplant used by Italian Americans of black persons.[iv] The latter term is notable for cropping up, for instance, in the recent popular television series The Sopranos.
[i] This view was first articulated in N. Brent Kennedy, with Robyn Vaughan Kennedy, The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People; An Untold Story of Ethnic Cleansing in America (Macon: Mercer, 1997). Elizabeth C. Hirschman, The Melungeons. The Last Lost Tribe in America (Macon: Mercer UP, 2005), developed Kennedy’s thesis about Jewish, Moorish and Turkish roots of Melungeons with additional evidence, although much of it circumstantial.
[ii] Edward T. Price, “A Geographic Analysis of White-Negro-Indian Racial Mixtures in Eastern United States,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 43/2 (1953),
[iii] Nancy Morrison lists seven etymologies that have been advanced over the years: 1) a connection to Angolan tribes called the Malungu, 2) the Turkish phrase melun çan, pronounced muh-LUNGE-uhn, and meaning “lost soul,” 3) a hypothetical word Malengine, “evil machination,” since “some Melungeons were known to be ‘tricky,’’’ 4) an Afro-Portuguese word melungo, meaning shipmate, 5) French mélange “mixed,” 6) French melongène “eggplant,” in reference to the dark skin of Melungeons, and 7) a word in the Croatian language stemming from the passengers of five ships landing in the Carolinas in 1449 (citing Louis Adamic). Accessed online Nov. 28, 2008 at
[iv] One of the few writers seriously entertaining this theory is Manuel Mira, The Portuguese Making of America (Franklin: Portuguese-American Research Foundation, 2001), 68. Another who gives it some consideration is Mike Nassau; see the thread “Origin of the Word Melungeon” on the Melungeon Forum at (accessed Nov. 28, 2008). C.S. Everett, “Melungeon History and Myth,” Appalachian Journal 26/4 (1999), 73, cited the etymology in passing, relating it to Italians who settled in Virginia, where Melungeon ancestors allegedly came from. My thanks to Steve Jeffryes for suggesting that I pursue this idea.

8. Spelling 1810: ‘Lungeons 1813: Melungins 1840: Malungeon
1848: Melungen
s: Malungens, Malunjins
1889: Melungeons (American Anthropologist)
1940: Melongeon (Southern Literary Messenger)
1966: Melungeon (Price)

9. Earliest Mention in a Record
Minute Books of 1813
Stony Creek Church
Primitive Baptists
Scott County, Va.
“She harbored them Melungins”
Its early use from the minute books of 1813 for the Stony Creek Church in Scott County, Virginia, bears examining again for this[i]:
September the 26, 1813
Church sat in love. Brother Kilgore, Moderator. Then came forward Sister [Jean] Kitchen and complained to the church against Susanna Stallard for saying she harbored them Melungins. Sister Sook [Stallard] said she was hurt with her for believing her child [Sarah Kitchen?] and not believing her, and she won’t talk to her to get satisfaction, and both is “pigedish” [“piggedish,” pig-headed[ii]], one against the other. Sister Sook lays it down and the church forgives her....
A bit of explication de textes seems in order because this crucial passage has so often been misread. It tells of a grudge held between two women of the church. Jean Kitchen complains that Susanna Stallard is saying behind her back that she (Jean Kitchen) is “harboring” Melungeons. Susanna (also called Sook for short) replies that this is only what Jean’s daughter Sarah says and Jean should have asked her (Susanna Stallard) about it. Note the contemptuous tone of “them Melungins.” Harbor is a word one might expect to be applied to runaway slaves or fugitives from justice. By the same token, however, it could also have described a situation in which Sister Kitchen was suspected of concealing people who just were not considered good society. Does the report imply that Sister Kitchen was not concealing anyone or that the persons she was concealing were just not Melungeon? We will probably never know. At any rate, the affronted party “lays it down,” and the two women make peace. The offhand remark about “Melungins” functions without question as a slur. Additionally, the context of its use is a religious one (church minutes). [i] Virginia State Library, Richmond, copied August 1966 by Emory L. Hamilton, accessed online on USGenWeb Archives, Nov. 20, 2008, at

10. Words for Eggplant in English
The Gardeners Dictionary (1735)
The poet Al-Mutannabbi (1819)
After about 1840, melongen replaced by eggplant
The eggplant originated in northeastern India, Burma or northern Thailand. It has been known to the people of India for about 2,000 years. Sanskrit names are vartta, varttaka, vaatinga or bhantaaki, and badanjan or bungan. The latter variants passed first into Persian as baadangan, baatangaan, badenjan and then into Arabic as bedengiam, bedengaim, badindjan, baadanjaan and melongena. From Arab lands the eggplant reached other countries around the Mediterranean as follows: patlidjan in Turkish, tabendjalts in Berber in North Africa, beringela in Portuguese, berengena in Spanish, bérengène and aubergine in French, brinjal in India (via a re-introduction by the Portuguese) and, again, bringelle in France. People gave the varieties different names, often distinguishing between annual eggplants and perennial ones, those with and without spines, black ones versus white, lilac, yellow and brown, ornamental as opposed to edible, and sizes and shapes ranging from pear-shaped to large oblong melon-like fruits. All these names are ultimately derived from the same root. In the eighteenth century, Linnaeus chose Melongena as the scientific name, and this became also the vernacular name in English and Dutch.

11. Other Words for Eggplant
Jew’s apple
Apple of scorn
All forms of melongen or aubergine go back to the same Arabic and Sanskrit roots.
Eggplant did not thrive in northern climates, but it was well suited to Spain, Italy, Israel, Turkey and Egypt (where it grew wild). Wherever Arabs and Jews went, there also went the lowly eggplant. Arabs introduced it to North Africa, Spain and Sicily. After their 1492 expulsion from Spain, Jews took it with them into exile – to Sicily (where it was adopted to make eggplant Parmigiana), Greece (mousaka) and even the Netherlands and England. Sephardic Jews introduced it to Brazil, the Caribbean and presumably the Carolinas beginning in the seventeenth century.[i] According to an English author in 1735, “These Plants are greatly cultivated in the Gardens of Italy, Spain and Barbary, in which Places the Inhabitants eat the Fruit of them, [but] these Plants are only preserv’d as Curiosities in the English Gardens, the Fruit being never us’d in this Country, except by some Italians or Spaniards, who have been accustom’d to eat of them in their own Countries.”[ii] The eggplant was regarded as exotic in northern Europe and it evoked especially Spaniards and Portuguese: “In Europe, it was well understood that eggplant was of foreign origin.”[iii]
[i] Isaac Samuel and Suzanne A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherlands Antilles, (American Jewish Archives, 1970), I:63.
[ii] Miller s.v. “MELONGENA.”
[iii] “Iconography and History of Solanaceae,” 35.

12. Associations with Jews
Fruit of the Land of Israel eaten during Pesach
Noted during Crusades
Eggplant eater = secret Jew
Cancionero de Baena (1430)
Eggplant stew in Inquisition cases
Don Quixote and Benegeli (ca. 1600)
Modern instances down to The Sopranos
As to its earlier career, eggplant entered Spain as early as the eighth century with the conquering Arabs. It is recorded as a favorite dish there by the twelfth century. Under the Mamluks and during the period of the Crusades, it is mentioned as one of the crops grown in the land of Israel. There was an annual variety in addition to a spiny semi-annual one. “This difference fueled a Jewish legal controversy as to whether eggplant was a vegetable or the fruit of a tree.”[i] If the latter, eggplant belonged to those special fruits eaten by the faithful during Passover such as almonds, dates, pomegranates, pears and peaches. Eggplant salad became a staple Sabbath dish because it required little work and could be prepared the day before. In fact, eggplant has been so popular among Jews since its introduction that “there is a saying of the eggplant that there are so many different ways of preparing it that if during the eggplant season a woman says to her husband, ‘I know not what to provide for dinner,’ he has sufficient cause for divorcing her.”[ii]
[i] Ibid., 26.
[ii] Frank George Carpenter, The Holy Land and Syria (New York: Doubleday, Page, 1922), 163.

13. Cervantes and Senor Eggplant
Cide Hamete Benengali, Arab historian
Combines Christian, Moorish & Jewish
Cervantes himself a crypto-Jew
Lamenting loss of Spain’s golden age of covivencia
Later in Don Quixote (Second Part, chapter II), Sancho Pancho (who has a knack for pregnant double entendres) bungles Benengeli’s the name, calling him Berenjena (Spanish for eggplant). In his characteristically zany manner, he patters to Don Quixote,
“Last night Bartolomé Carrasco’s son told me that the history of your grace is already in books, and it’s called The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha; and he says that in it they mention me, Sancho Panza, by name, and my lady Dulcinea of Toboso, and other things that happened when we were alone, so that I crossed myself in fear at how the historian who wrote them could have known about them.”
“I assure you, Sancho,” said Don Quixote, “that the author of our history must be some wise enchanter, for nothing is hidden from them if they wish to write about it.”
“Well,” said Sancho, “if he was wise and an enchanter, then how is it possible that the author of the history is named Cide Hamete Berenjena?”
“That is a Moorish name,” responded Don Quixote.
“It must be,” responded Sancho, “because I’ve heard that most Moors are very fond of eggplant.”
“You must be mistaken, Sancho,” said Don Quixote, “in the last name of this Cide, which in Arabic means señor.”[i]
[i] Don Quixote, trans. Grossman,

14. Mary Benenhaley Strater’s DNA
1. Portuguese
11. Moroccan
2. Berber
12. Andalusian
3. Brazilian
13. Brazilian
4. Kurdish
14. Puerto Rican
5. South African
15. Maghreb
6. Hispanic
16. Native American
7. Moroccan Arabs
17. Hispanic
8. Madeira
18. Saudi Arabian
9. Berbers
19. Belgian
10. Spanish
20. British
To our knowledge, the only other genetic study on Melungeons within the past decade was conducted by Kevin Jones (2004). Unfortunately, the results of that study have never been published and the sampling protocol is unknown. The present study is the first to use autosomal DNA markers to analyze Melungeon ancestry. Older studies used either blood type systems or DNA haplotypes (see e.g., Guthrie 1990).

15. Kelly Gilroy

16. Melungeon Study in Appalachian Journal
Descendents, self-identifying
N = 40
Famous Melungeons tested – Kennedy et al.
Autosomal DNA profiles
atDNA and ENFSI databases
World and Europe population matches
Melungeon Match revalidation

17. Melungeon Surnames “Common Melungeon Surname List” at
Adams, Adkins, Allen, Allmond, Ashworth, Barker, Barnes, Bass, Beckler, Bedgood, Bell, Bennett, Berry, Beverly, Biggs, Bolen/Bowlen/Bolling/Bowling, Boone, Bowman, Badby, Branham, Braveboy, Briger/Bridger, Brogan, Brooks, Brown, Bunch, Butler, Butters, Bullion, Burton, Buxton, Byrd, Campbell, Carrico, Carter, Casteel, Caudill, Chapman, Chavis, Clark, Cloud, Coal/Cole/Coles, Coffey, Coleman, Colley, Collier/Colyer, Collins, Collinsworth, Cook(e), Cooper, Cotman, Counts, Cox/Coxe, Criel, Croston, Crow, Cumba/Cumbo/Cumbow, Curry, Custalow, Dalton, Dare, Davis, Denham, Dennis, Dial, Dorton, Doyle, Driggers, Dye, Dyess, Ely, Epps, Evans, Fields, Freeman, French, Gann, Garland, Gibbs, Gibson/Gipson, Goins/Goings, Gorvens, Gowan/Gowen, Graham, Green(e), Gwinn, Hall, Hammon, Harmon, Harris, Harvie/Harvey, Hawkes, Hendricks/Hendrix, Hill, Hillman, Hogge, Holmes, Hopkins, Howe, Hyatt, Jackson, James, Johnson, Jones, Keith, Kennedy, Kiser, Langston, Lasie, Lawson, Locklear, Lopes, Lowry, Lucas, Maddox, Maggard, Major, Male/Mayle, Maloney, Marsh, Martin, Miles, Minard, Miner/Minor, Mizer, Moore, Morley, Mullins, Mursh, Nash, Nelson, Newman, Niccans, Nichols, Noel, Norris, Orr, Osborn/Osborne, Oxendine, Page, Paine, Patterson, Perkins, Perry, Phelps, Phipps, Pinder, Polly, Powell, Powers, Pritchard, Pruitt, Ramey, Rasnick, Reaves/Reeves, Revels, Richardson, Roberson/Robertson/Robinson, Russell, Sammons, Sampson, Sawyer, Scott, Sexton, Shavis, Shepherd/Shephard, Short, Sizemore, Smiling, Smith, Stallard, Stanley, Steel, Stevens, Stewart, Strother, Sweat/Swett, Swindall, Tally, Taylor, Thompson, Tolliver, Tuppance, Turner, Vanover, Vicars/Viccars/ Vickers, Ware, Watts, Weaver, White, Whited, Wilkins, Williams, Williamson, Willis, Wisby, Wise, Wood, Wright, Wyatt, Wynn.

18. DNA Fingerprint and atDNA 2.0
Our forensic spreadsheet containing probable population frequencies from more than 400 different studies of people from all over the world. If an autosomal STR profile (such as your CODIS markers) is entered, it calculates the average population frequencies for each population and displays them graphically with dots on a world map. Used in our DNA Fingerprint Test.
Note that these are statistical calculations. atDNA is a probabilistic predictor of population affinities for an individual and it matches populations, not persons. Like all other such programs, it is not absolute. It gives the chances for a match, not strictly speaking a 100% sure match in terms of yes/no. Consequently, all matches must be carefully evaluated and interpreted.  The 15 searchable loci are: D3S1358 vWA FGA D8S1179 D21S11 D18S51 D5S818 D13S317 D7S820 D16S539 THO1 TPOX CSF1PO D19S433 D2S1338

19. Results Jewish Middle Eastern Gypsy (Roma) Native American
Sub-Saharan African
European
Scottish Highlands
Mediterranean
Croatia
Findings
Across OmniPop and ENFSI, the top population matches (i.e., inferred biogeographical ancestry) showed notable levels of Jewish (both Ashkenazi and Sephardic), Middle Eastern, Native American, Sub-Saharan African and Iberian ancestry within our Melungeon descendant sample. There were also intermittent indications of Roma/Gypsy in genealogies of certain individuals.

20. Europe-only Matches European
European ancestry was represented by matches to Caucasian-labeled populations (e.g., Alabama Caucasian) within the study sample, followed closely by Portuguese (Figure 3). (“Caucasian” is a term found in the original studies, where it defines all subjects not identifying themselves as black, Iberian, or American Indian.) However, populations labeled Caucasian ranked first for only three persons. Further, there were four participants for whom no Caucasian match appeared in the top entries. The relative weakness of Caucasian matches among our sample has as its corollary the presence of many non-Western European ancestries.
As touched upon earlier, OmniPop and ENFSI are based on different marker sets. They use the same formula to calculate probable frequencies, but the populations are delineated by different data and studies, with only partial overlap. ENFSI focuses on European Union countries and does not include Hungary, Greece, Romania, and others. These differences notwithstanding, the following European motifs seem to have been salient among participants. In strict OmniPop comparisons, Portuguese matches were No. 1 in eight profiles (20 percent). Spanish populations were No. 1 in 13 (33 percent). Spanish sub-populations most often listed were Andalusian, Catalan, Balearic, Majorcan, and Minorcan—all on the Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula. Strict ENFSI analysis indicated that the principal European countries and regions of likely ancestral origin for our sample on a weighted basis were as follows:
RankPopulationWeighted Score1.Scotland/Dundee1432.Denmark1383.Ireland1154.Belgium1045.France/Toulouse1036.Spain1027.Switzerland1018.Portugal1009.Italy10010.England/Wales 98Fig. 3. Melungeon Sample Europe-only matches.
Scotland was clearly dominant. Only three subjects lacked Scottish or Irish matches in their Top Ten most likely countries of European ancestry. Scotland or Ireland was the top match in one-fourth of participants. The lowest ranking countries were Germany (55) and Sweden (58). Of the two regions of Scotland covered by ENFSI, the Highlands (Dundee) outscored the Lowlands (Glasgow) by nearly double. Of the two Irelands, Ireland proper outperformed Northern Ireland, again by nearly double. Furthermore, of the two regions of France, it was the South (Toulouse) that won by a wide margin over the North (Lille). Note that England/Wales was at the bottom of the list, behind Spain, Portugal and Italy. Let us address these anomalies.

21. Gypsies and Mississippi Bubble
Roma/Gypsy
The Roma (i.e., Romani, Sinti, Gypsies) have been studied extensively and there is little disagreement about their proximate genetic origins (Iovita and Schurr 2004). Gypsy origins and migrations have been divided into three periods: 1) their migration out of predominantly Rajput and Punjabi populations in the Indian subcontinent westward into Islamic territory under the pressure of conquering Muslim generals like the Ghaznavids of the 12th century, until they reached southeast Europe in about the 15th century, and thence into Northern and Western Europe, 2) 17th- and 18th-century expansion from Moldo-Wallachia and Hungary, and 3) a 19th- and 20th-century exodus from the Romanian Old Kingdom following the abolition of Gypsy slavery (Iovita and Schurr 2004 p. 279). More recently, scholars like a Sándor have exposed the non-Indo-Aryan and Semitic sources of Gypsy culture and genetics in an original homeland partially retraced in their historical migratory routes and corresponding to Canaanite, Egyptian and Hurrian populations in the ancient Middle East (Sándor n.d.a). With this background in mind, it is interesting to note that matches to one or more of the three Roma/Gypsy populations in OmniPop (Egyed et al. 2006; Havas et al. 2006; Novokmet and Pavcec 2007) occurred in high positions in one-fourth (10) of participants, usually alongside Indic and Middle Eastern matches such as Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan.
In one extended family, Romani matches appear to run through several generations, with Khandayat in northern India being the top match for one uncle, Turkish the top match for a father, as well as prominent in his children, and East Indian being the top match for the mother of the same. This geography replicates the trail of the Romani out of India into Asia Minor, their former homeland, and Southeast Europe, then part of the Ottoman Empire. For a prominent leader in the Melungeon Movement who requested anonymity, Gypsy ancestry was found combined with Indic and Arab matches. For another participant, the top matches were: 1. Syrian, 2. Romani (Macedonian), 3. Macedonian,3 4. Polish, 5. Romanian (Szeklar),4 6. Romani (Croatia), 7. Oriya Brahmin (again, northern India...13) Hungarian (Eastern Romanis...and 15) Rajput (northern India). If we search for the Gypsy origin in early American history, we might suspect a large influx of Gypsies from the 1720 effort of French finance minister William Law to plant a colony in what became Tennessee, the so-called Mississippi Bubble.5

22. Teresa’s Story Have Teresa tell her genealogy story.
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+14Slovenian (n = 193)8.92E+14Melungeon (n = 40)9.9E+14Egyptian Copts - Adaima (n = 100)1.05E+15Polish - (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+13Slovenian (n = 193)1.75E+14Polish - Podlasie  (n = 842)2.39E+14Belarusian - Northeastern Poland (n = 212)2.42E+14Polish (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.

23. Signs of Crypto-Jewish Heritage
DNA Consultants Blog
DNA_Consultants_Blog/post/
Signs_of_Crypto-Jewish_Heritage/
List Proven to Work in Part Also for Melungeon, Cherokee Family History
As part of our series on Jewish ancestry, we reproduce below an appendix from the forthcoming book, Star, Crescent and Cross:  Jews and Muslims in Colonial America, by Elizabeth C. Hirschman and Donald N. Yates.
Rituals and Practices of the Secret Jews of Portugal
The following is an incomplete list of practices that may be indicative of Jewish origin among Anusim or secret Jews or former Jewish families in the New World today.
Told one is Jewish explicitly by parents, grandparents, or other relatives, a boy when he turns 13, a girl at 12.
Having Jewish family names: Duran, Lopez, etc.
Secret synagogues; secret prayer groups.
 New Mexico Crypto-Jews. Newsweek.
Avoiding church.
Churches without icons.
Lighting candles on Friday night when the first star appears.
Clean house and clothes for Shabbat.
Not allowed to do anything Friday night (not even wash hair).
El Dia Puro (Yom Kippur).
Celebrating a spring holiday.
Fasts: three days of Tanit Esther; every Monday and Thursday, fast of Gedalia.
Venerating Jewish saints, with celebrations:  Santa Esterika, Santo Moises, etc.
Eight candles for Christmas.
Circumcision; consecration on eighth day (avoiding circumcision because that would bind child to the laws of Moses.
Biblical first names, like Esther.
Women taught Tanakh and ruled on questions.
Married under huppah/canopy.
Rending of garments; burial within one day; covering mirrors; spigots in cemeteries.
Seven days, then one year, of mourning.
Tombstones bearing Hebrew names, designations such as “daughter of Israel,” and Jewish symbols (hand pointing to a star, open book of life, torah, star of David).
Possessing talit and tefillin, mezuzot, Tanakh, siddurim other Jewish objects.
Sweeping the floor away from the door (to avoid defiling mezuzah).
Having Cabalistic knowledge and practices.
Ritual slaughter (special knives, tested on hair or nails); covering blood with sand; removing sinew.
Purging, soaking, salting, boiling meat.
Avoiding pork and shellfish and other non-kosher foods (squirrel, rabbit).
Avoiding blood; throwing out eggs with bloodspots.
Avoiding red meat in general.
Waiting between meat and milk.
Eating only food prepared by mother or maternal grandmother.
Adapted from Professor Eduardo Mayone Dias
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Los Angeles, California
Birth Rituals
To place a rooster’s head over the door of the room where the birth will occur.
After the birth the mother must not uncover herself or change clothes for 30 days.
To throw a silver coin into the baby’s first bath water, especially a son’s.
To say a prayer eight days after birth in which the baby’s name is included.
Belief that the fairies (hadas) preside over a naming ceremony at birth
Wedding Rituals
Only home weddings.
To fast on the wedding day (both bride and groom, as well as two male friends of the groom and two female friends of the bride).
To bind the bride and groom’s hands with a white cloth while a prayer is said.
To follow the wedding ceremony with a light meal consisting of a glass of wine, salt, bitter herbs, honey, an apple and unleavened bread.
At the wedding ceremony bride and groom eat and drink out of the same plate and glass.
Marrying your brother’s widow (Levirate law).
Funeral Rituals
To have ritual meals to which a beggar is invited and serve the food the deceased liked best.
To throw away all water in the home of the deceased.
To leave furniture overturned to show how a relative’s death has upset the family.
To appear disheveled and careless about your own appearance during mourning.
To go to the deceased’s room for eight days and say: May God give you a good night.  You were once like us, we will be like you.
Not to shave for 30 days after the death of a relative.
Not to eat meat for one week after a death in the family, then fast on the anniversary.
Naming Rituals
Having two names, a private one in Hebrew (kinnui, e.g. Moses) and public one in the vernacular (Morris). Others:  Jacob/James, Raphael/Ralph, Hannah/Johannah, Adina/Adelaide.
Allusions to mascots of Hebrew tribes like deer (Naphthali) and wolf (Levi).
Belief in being descended from the Biblical King David.
Naming after religious objects:  Paschal, Menorah.
Translating Hebrew names, especially girls’:  Hannah into Grace, Esther into Myrtle, Peninah into Pearl, Roda into Rose, Shoshannah into Lillian, Lily. Simchah into Joy, Tikvah into Hope, Tzirrah into Jewel, Golda into Goldie.
Allusions to Jacob’s blessing of his sons and grandsons, e.g. Fishel for Ephraim because he was to multiply like the fish of the sea.
Use of Hebrew, but non-biblical names (e.g., Meir, Hayyim, Omar, Tamarah/Demarice).
Use of names from Jewish legend and folklore (e.g. Adinah, Edna, Adel, progenitress of the tribe of Levi).
Use of hypocoristic or pet names within the family alluding to Hebrew ones, for instance Zack or Ike for Isaac, Robin (Rueben) instead of Robert.
Adding the theophoric suffix -el to surnames, e.g., Lovell, Riddell, Tunnel.
Naming after a living relative, preferably the eldest born after the grandfather or grandmother, the next born after uncles and aunts and only after the father when these names are exhausted (Sephardic) or naming only after dead relatives (Ashkenazic).
Use of double names like Edward Charles and James Robert.
Changing the name of a child who becomes ill to foil the angel of death.
Giving a child an amuletic name like Vetula (“old woman”) to bring long life.
Favoring names that begin with Lu- to remind the child that the family was once Portuguese (Lusitanian):  Louise, Luanne, etc.
Belief in gematria (numerology of names, determined by Hebrew alphabet)
Avoiding saint’s names (Paul, Peter, Barbara) and using Marianne or Mariah instead of Mary.
Jokes about the virgin birth of Jesus by Mary
Using names like Christopher or Christina to dispel doubts about conversion to Christianity.
Knowing whether your family belongs to the Kohanim (priestly caste), Levite (House of David) or Israelite (all the rest) division of Jews.
Other
Swearing an oath with your hat on.
Not mentioning the name of God. Writing it G*d.
Washing your hands before prayer.
A father blessing a son in public.
Saying grace after the meal.
Bowing and bobbing during religious service.
Jokes about the central tenets of Christianity (Immaculate Conception of Mary, rising from the dead of Jesus, etc.).
Deriding idolatry of saints and ornate decor of churches.
Hatred of the pope.
Preparing Saturday’s meal (often a slow-cooking stew, for instance of eggplant) on Friday afternoon so no work is performed on the Sabbath.
Eating preferably fruits that grow in the land of Israel (dates, olives, oranges, grapes, peaches etc.).
Spreading sand from Israel on a grave or in a sanctuary.
Eating tongue on Rosh Hashanah to symbolize head of the year.
Having Bibles containing only the Old Testament and prayer books consisting only of the Psalms.
Having pictures of rabbis and scholars rather than saints in the sanctuary.
Performing tashlich, letting old clothes float away in running stream to mark a new year.
Forgiving a debt on Yom Kippur.
Facing Jerusalem during rituals.
Uttering brief blessings when you see lightning, mountains and other natural wonders.
Using only percussion instruments like the tambourine and hand clapping in services.
Silent prayer by congregation after prayers made out loud.
Worship services in the home.
Having 11 elders in a place of worship (minyam).

24. Conclusion Melungeons were Conversos or Jews
Word means “eggplant” as a slur
Melungeon syndrome
Surnames
What you can do
Pursue disguised genealogies
Find out Jewish & Melungeon matches in autosomal DNA
Statement of Elizabeth C. Hirschman, Feb. 23, 2010.
My vita lists the dates and publication outlets for the Melungeon papers that have come out so far. I think the Melungeon DNA Project started with my male ancestor data with surnames Caldwell, Carter, Cooper and the rest during the early 2000s and then grew as people wanted to join it. This would have come about largely as a result of my presentations at the Melungeon Unions from 2002 onward.
From the original project description:  “This study is looking at males who have a Melungeon ancestry.  Open to all who think their ancestor may have Melungeon heritage. In November 2002 a subproject titled Southern U.S. Native American DNA was added. This looks at both male and female lines that began with an Indian trader and Native woman in the Southeast.”
From the original project background:  “To determine the relatedness of people with an oral traditon of being Melungeon and then determine the overall ethnic backgrounds of the Melungeon community.”
The first data incorporated into the project were the 12 marker Y-chromosome results of Brent Kennedy, Nov. 8, With the introduction of a 25 marker product, many male participants were upgraded from In the meantime, male results were used to illuminate certain Scottish clan histories in my book with Donald Panther-Yates, When Scotland Was Jewish, at print for nearly five years, and not appearing until July 2007.
My research partner Donald Panther-Yates presented an analysis of the DNA of people in the sub-project Southern U.S. Native American DNA at a meeting of the Society of Crypto-Judaic Studies in San Antonio, Texas, in the summer of 2003.
As of this writing, there are 102 members of my original Melungeon Surname DNA Project, most with Y chromosome and mitochondrial reports. The bulk were tested before 2005, when enrollment for the project was discontinued. From focusing on Scottish clan and Melungeon surnames (i.e., male lines), the project increasingly broadened its scope. Its new home at DNA Consultants will provide a venue for all people who believe they may be descended from Melungeon forbears, male or female, including autosomal ancestry.    
            Initially, many people in the genetic genealogy community were frustrated that the incoming Jewish DNA results were not originating in the Middle East, as they had strongly believed and hoped (some as Zionists), but were showing a lot of Khazar, Central Asian, Eastern European and Western European/Spanish/French input. Don Panther-Yates and I -- and also Ellen Levy Koffman on the DNA-Genealogy list at Rootsweb -- had been saying this was the case. Critics were not happy that the data were confirming it.
            Where Don and I have performed a service, I believe, is by just following the DNA trail and accepting new findings (e.g., the Gypsy/Roma) when they come in, instead of clinging to an a priori theory/belief/wish. To cite one different approach, a lot of Behar's early 2000s studies now are being criticized for his over-claiming a Middle Eastern origin for the majority of Jews.