MELUNGEON

DNA TESTING

At the suggestion of N. Brent Kennedy, a DNA study on Melungeons was carried out in 2000 by Dr. Kevin Jones, using 130 hair and cheek cell samples. These samples were taken from subjects who were largely chosen by Kennedy himself as representative of Melungeon lines. McGowan (2003) described Dr Jones' discovery of the political aspects of genetic research when the results of the study caused disappointment among some observers. "...Jones concluded that the Melungeons are mostly Eurasian, a catchall category spanning people from Scandinavia to the Middle East. They are also a little bit black and a little bit American Indian." This study has to date not been submitted to a peer-reviewed scientific journal, nor has a list of those contributing samples been published. It is unclear to what extent the subjects were actually descendants of families historically designated or since documented as "Melungeon."

More recently, Jack Goins has started a Melungeon DNA Project, with the goal of studying the ancestry of hypothesized Melungeon lines. So far, Y chromosomal DNA testing of male subjects with the Melungeon surnames Collins, Gibson, Gill, Goins, Bunch, Bolin, Goodman, Stowers, Williams, Minor and Moore has revealed evidence of European and sub-Saharan African ancestry: Y haplogroups R1b, R1a, J2; and E3a, respectively. This finding is consistent with the documentation done through research of historical records by Paul Heinegg and Dr. Virginia DeMarce. One Goins line looks likely to be a variety of Y haplogroup L with roots in Portugal, Spain and Italy. Taken as a whole, such findings appear to verify the early designation of Melungeon ancestors as "mulattos", that is, descendants of white European and Africans.

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