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Who are the Melungeons?

23 Jul By Dwight Leave a Comment

Whenever I research in the mid-south region of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia, I always look for Melungeon ancestry, based upon surnames and race prior to 1870. Melungeons were “free color” not slaves.

The word Melungeon is believed to mean mixture. They intermarried usually with poor whites and among their community. Today, their descendants number in the milliions and are scattered across North America. Common family surnames:

Bolen/Bowling, Bunch, Cole, Collins, Delp, Denham, Fields, Freeman, Gann, Gibson/Gipson, Goins, Goodman, Graham, Hale, Ivey, Lawson, Lucas, Maloney, Miner/Minear, Mize, Moseley, Mullins/Melons, Nichols, Noel, Piniore, Sexton, Sweat/Sweet/Swett, Williams. It’s not difficult to pick out the Irish ones.

Reports from DNA studies on Melungeon families fill the Internet. Studies reveal a mixed-blood heritage now referred to as “Tri-Racial Isolates.” They came out of Colonial Virginia. The product of white indentured servants (thus the Irish surnames), blacks and Native Americans. Current books on Melungeon will have a chapter on the DNA findings.

From a genealogical perspective, two path breaking articles by Virginia Easley DeMarce and published in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly are: “Verry Slitly Mixt”: Tri-Racial Isolate Families of the Upper South – A Genealogical Study,” 80 (March 1992): 5-35 www.genpage.com/DeMarce.pdf  and  “Looking at Legends – Lumbee and Melungeon: Applied Genealogy and the Origins of Tri-Racial Isolates,” 81 (March 1993): 24-45 http://historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/2008/04/looking-at-legends-lumbee-and-melungeon.htmlThe colonial roots for many of these families have also been explored in Paul Heinegg’s monumental two volume work, Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina: From the Colonial Period to About 1820 (2005): www.freeafricanamericans.com/Virginia_NC.htm and his Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware from the Colonial Period to 1810 (2000): www.freeafricanamericans.com/maryland.htm

The Melungeons are yet another chapter in our racially mixed colonial history involving the Irish. They like other Tri-Racial Isolates have survived historically because they didn’t fit in either the white and black communities.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry, Irish Periodicals Tagged With: African Americans, American Frontier, Colonial America, Ethnic Connections, Native Americans, Scots-Irish

Cumberland Presbyterian Church

26 Jun By Dwight Leave a Comment

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church (CPC): www.cumberland.org  arose out of the Second Great Awakening on the American Frontier. It began in 1800, and was formally organized 1810 in Dickson County, Tennessee. These were revivalists who disagreed with the mother Presbyterian Church. The CPC saw that revivals were extraordinary circumstances, and allowed for exceptions to both educational requirements for ordaining minsters, and the required subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith. Originally a frontier southern Scots-Irish movement, it quickly spread beyond those roots.

Today the CPC is international. However, it is primarily concentrated in the American South mainly in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Missouri, southern Illinois, Arkansas and Texas. Some of their innovations have been along social lines. They were the first Presbyterians to ordain women to the ministry (1889). They also were among the first denominations to admit women to their higher educational institutions. They also began to ordain African Americans to the ministry around 1830.

For the family historian, the records of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church can hold a wealth of information. The Historical Library and Archives of the General Assemblies: www.cumberland.org/hfcpcholds records for both the CPC and the African American denomination, Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America:

www.cpcachurch.org  On the archives website is a database of ministers: www.cumberland.org/hfcpc/minister Portions of the archive has been microfilmed with copies at the Family History Library. Other records may be with the Presbyterian Historical Society: http://history.pcusa.org as they collect for all branches of American Presbyterianism.

If you are researching families on the American Frontier, especially in the South, do not neglect the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. It was an important part of the frontier religious experience.

Filed Under: Irish Periodicals Tagged With: American Frontier, Church records, Scots-Irish, Theology

Dwight A. Radford

Dwight A. Radford is a professional family history researcher. Along with his staff they specialize in Ireland, England, Canada, African American, Native American, and United States. Connecting families together through historical documents and then creating a cherished family heirloom published book for generations to enjoy. Full bio…

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