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Rating: 
Summary: Much needed history uncovered
Review: After reading this book one could not help but feel anger, I lost heritage by a melange of many ethnicities all in a group of people called the Melungeons labeled as "Free Persons of Color" they were made ashamed of who they were. A people who had dark skin, the lightest eyes, and anquilline features. They lost their suffrage, rights, and land among the Indians and African Americans and their dignity like southern Europeans in the late 1800s. N. Brent Kennedy shares the history of over 400 years of Melungeon, including his family. It is definitely a book that needs to be read.
Rating:
Summary: The Melungeons
Review: I enjoyed the book very much. My family "The Thompson" was from Knox Co. Kentucky. My greatgrandmother was Katherine Wells. They left Kentucky and came to Oklahoma where there my father Robert Thompson married Clara James. So many people in Oklahoma have some Indian blood. I remember well people asking my grandfather Robert Wilson Thompson what tribe he was from. He would tell them he was "Black Dutch". I never knew where "Black Dutch" cames from. My mother's grandfather was Thomas L. Rowland. She had heard her mother say he was "Black Dutch". We have the black hair and very blue eyes. This help me to understand the term better and I want to looking in more. Wanda Thompson Hines- McKinney, Texas .
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: I grew up with Melungeon classmates in southeastern OH and picked this up out of curiosity. What a fascinating story! The subtitle is perhaps a little misleading. I almost avoided the book because it sounded like a diatribe about ethnic massacres; whereas it is really a geneaological journey that weaves in the Melungeon experience in America. At first it comes off as an esoteric delving into the author's geneaology; but as the story unfolds, the reader becomes sucked into the fascinating story of Kennedy's family and their colorful Melungeon roots.
A downside is that he is quick to take scientists to task for their hesitancy about alternative views on Melungeon origins. He seems not to be aware that researchers, in ANY scientific field, need to exercise caution and cannot advocate new hypotheses without data. Meanwhile, he exercises no such caution about his ideas -- speculation on everything from lost colonies, to some really far-fetched word origins -- runs rampant. If not for this I'd give it 5 stars. That being said, this is a fun and fascinating book, and the author's enthusiasm really comes through; a great introduction to a fascinating people.
Rating: 
Summary: Possible ancestry for me
Review: I have only read bits and pieces of this book, and it looks like to me American history is being re-written. I have two lines on my mother's side of the family that claimed "Black Dutch" ancestry, and coincidentally, we've been unable to trace back further than the early to mid 1800's on them. I inherited the olive skin, the "bump" on the back of my skull from those lines. They came from Tennessee originally, somewhere in the eastern sector I believe. I really think I might have mainly a mixture of Scotch-Irish and Cherokee ancestry on those sides altogether, as records on them weren't kept as they were with the more prominent English, German, and Hugenot settlers I descend from. I don't remember reading any surnames Kyle, Davis, Grimes, or Fowler on them, but then again you never know
Rating: 
Summary: Read With Caution
Review: Melungeons are members of various families in southern Appalachia, especially the area of northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. Their ancestry is mostly Northwest European (especially British), with a significant amount of West African and American Indian (percentages vary by family). The claim that Melungeons are "Mediterranean" or Portuguese or Turkish is not new. Since they were first dubbed 'Melungeons' ('mixed ones'), probably by their French-speaking Huguenot neighbors at Manakin Town, Melungeons have been trying to pass themselves off as something other than what they clearly are - true Americans, a blend of the three basic racial groups of the Virginia & Carolina colonies. The claim of a more exotic origin has been around since at least the 19th century, when there may well have been good reasons to deny mixed ancestry. Today, such denial is an anachronism and could even be construed as an insult to both African-Americans and American Indians. The insistence on a mythical Melungeon "genocide" is an insult to people who have truly suffered such a fate, such as Jews, Gypsies, and Armenians. Dr. Virginia DeMarce, former President of the National Genealogical Society, wrote a thorough review of Kennedy's book in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 84, No. 2, June 1996, pp 134 - 149. In this review, she points out the many flaws in Dr Kennedy's genealogical research. I am an amateur genealogist, and a distant cousin of Dr Kennedy's, so I have had cause to check out in great detail several of the lines that he includes in his book. Dr Kennedy's claims of being Melungeon seem to rest largely on the supposedly Turkish appearance of some of his ancestors in old photos, a very subjective piece of "evidence." Besides old photos, Dr Kennedy's "evidence" is the disease that he contracted, sarcoid. Sarcoid is found in many different populations, and is hardly exclusive to the peoples of Anatolia or the Mediterranean area. In fact, it is most common in the US among African-Americans and in northwest Europe among Irish females. Anyone, of any ethnic background, can contract the disease. Since this book came out, other purported "evidence" has emerged for a Mediterranean/Turkish origin for Melungeons, all of which falls apart upon close inspection (e.g., the "Anatolian Bump," actually called a 'pronounced external occipital protuberance' or other names, a feature on the back of the skull, which is found in many people all over the world, and is unique to neither Melungeons nor Turks, nor anyone else). All existing historical, genealogical, and genetic evidence points to a Melungeon origin in the area of Virginia & the Carolinas during the Colonial period. There was indeed a Spanish colony at Santa Elena, and various Spanish settlements in Florida, and there were even a couple of Armenian silk workers at Jamestown, but nothing to date has come to light to show any connection between those colonists and the later Melungeons of Appalachia, who did not arrive in east Tennessee until about 1800. If you're looking for information on the Melungeons, I recommend Dr DeMarce's articles in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, and the book "Melungeons: Examining an Appalachian Legend," (Continuity Press, 1999) by Pat Spurlock Elder. All that being said, Dr Kennedy's book is still a 'must-read' for Melungeon researchers, due to its sheer popularity. It has become most people's first experience with the "mysterious" Melungeons, and has created a following - almost a kind of cult. Some of the believers in his theories can get downright irate if you challenge Dr Kennedy's ideas. No doubt there'll someday be claims that Melungeons are really not human at all, but marooned extraterrestrials.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: The author's attempt to get to the bottom of a genetic disease/condition leads him to dig into his genealogy and ethnic and racial origins, trying to find out why he has a disease that primarily afflicts people of Middle Eastern descent, when he has roots that go back hundreds of years in the southern hill country. He discovers and uncovers a group of people that really don't fit any of our traditional racial groupings, people that are bi-racial and tri-racial. As we learn more about human DNA, the author's many theories about where the Melungeon blood comes from will be strenghened or cast aside by the genetic evidence. But it looks like the immigration from the Old World to North America was not just the pale-faced English, but people from all over Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East who brought their genes here, in bigger quantities and earlier than originally thought. Kennedy often ends up on a fishing expedition, and supposition too often replaces fact. But his theories are interesting, and entertaining. For example, he tells us the Turkish word for "hell" sounds an awful lot like "Alabama."
Rating:
Summary: A noble people
Review: The traditional picture of the peoples of early America, white, black, and red, is an inaccurate one. This country is dotted with hundreds of peoples who may be closer to one or the other of the above three categories, but who don't really fit in any of them. These include the Ramapo Mountain People of New York and New Jersey, the Brass Ankles of South Carolina, the Redbones of Louisiana and numerous other groups, some of whom are completely unknown outside of their regions. The most celebrated of these peoples are the Melungeons of western Virgina, eastern Kentucky, and eastern Tennessee and this book is an attempt to write their history. I say "attempt" because until fairly recently, one did not describe oneself as a Melungeon or a Brass Ankle; these were perjorative terms used by outsiders and were strenously and sometimes violently objected to. Consequently, America is filled with people whose families moved around a lot, whose genealogies are muddled if they have one at all and whose family stories are non-existent. People like me(I've pretty much decided that I'm a member of one of these groups, although I have no definite idea which one). According to Dr. Kennedy, the Melungeons may be the descendents of shipwrecked Spaniards, with Portuguese and even Turkish elements, who intermarried with Indians, escaped slaves and poorer whites. Indeed, when they were first encountered, they called themselves Portuguese even though they spoke English. As might be expected, documentation is sparse. Dr. Kennedy, a Melungeon, makes excellent use of his own family's history and genealogy. Some of his conclusions don't, it seems to me, seem completely warranted by what facts there are. But, all in all, this is fascinating book and an excellent beginning to in-depth research on these peoples. One can only hope that members of other such groups will follow Dr. Kennedy's lead. In the meantime, I cannot recommend this book too highly.
Rating:
Summary: A worthwhile book
Review: This book, and the theories included, is being
proved by growing archival evidence and, just as
importantly, new DNA research. The Melungeons do not
deny their multi-racial composition and, in fact,
have all races represented on their leadership Board
(MHA). But in addition to English, African, and
Native American, their long-standing claims of
Portuguese, Turkish, East Indian, and Jewish heritage
are finally being proved. As but one example, England
was clearly ridding itself of Ottomans, Gypsies and Jews
by sending them to America as indentured "English" settlers
and servants in the 1600s. It's unfortunate that
some people cannot grasp the reality that all humans
are a wide composite of many races and that to insist
on a simple three race component (tri-racial)
and to ridicule long-standing oral traditions on
origins - is both closed minded and indicative of a
lack of understanding of world population migrations.
Kennedy occasionally goes out on limbs that most scholars
would not, but more often than not he has been right.
His work teaches us that,in essence, no one is who they
think they are and this, I believe, is the first step
toward ending racism. I highly recommend his book
for those who genuinely seek truth and have no
political ax to grind. I applaud the fresh ground that
he has plowed. Sami Ferliel, Ph.D.
Retired Faculty
Yuzuncu Yil University
Van, Turkey
Rating:
Summary: A New American Ethnic Group
Review: This is a fascinating look at a relatively unknown ethnic group that first hit the American shores in the 1500s, settling eventually in Appalachia, and taking on new ethnic strands through the centuries. Influences in the Melungeon ethnic make-up include possible Moorish, Iberian, Turkish, Anglo-Irish, American Indian, and others, resulting in an ethnic group that is just now becoming fully conscious of its roots. In addition to the human interest of the book, I found it fascinating from historical, cultural, and spiritual perspectives- I was reminded that we are all pretty mixed up from an ethnic perspective and yet we all come from the same Source. Mr. Kennedy, who is Melungeon, has done his own people a great service with this book, but also a great service for all Americans, who can learn a little more about their history, including the not-so-pleasant side. Highly recommended for anyone interested in U.S. history, the history of ethnic groups in America, the culture of Appalachia, or the history of a very interesting people, the Melungeons.
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