Now DNAtesting has proven that the Melungeons are a mixed race group whose ancestry is found in Sub-Sahara Africa and Northern or Central Europe. A study published in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy has caused a bit of a stir among descendants. "There were a whole lot of people upset by this study," lead researcher Roberta Estes said. "They just knew they were Portuguese, or Native American."
Estes and her fellow researchers theorize that the various Melungeon lines may have sprung from the unions of black and white indentured servants living in Virginia in the mid-1600s, before slavery
Continue reading the full article at Melungeon DNA Study Reveals Ancestry, Upsets 'A Whole Lot Of People'
You may also download Ms. Estes jointly-authored paper “Melungeons: A Multi-Ethnic Population”
Credits: "A typical malungeon" was published in 1890 by Will Allen Dromgoole, it found in Nashville Sunday American, August 31, 1890
