MELUNGEON Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln

[Steve Whitlock]

(03-24-2016 06:10 PM)maharba Wrote:  While doing some research for another person I came across the term Melungeon, and the claim that Abraham Lincoln was a Melungeon. I went to the net and looked around and the term Melungeon. It appears to refer to darker folks who lived in Kentucky and Appalachia and whose distant ancestry is obscure. There may be thousands of Melungions living today and very proud of their ancestry, though even they can not agree on just where it does trace back to. I wonder if Abraham Lincoln would be a melungeon on that mysterious Hanks line which has never yet really been unraveled?

I've done Melungeon research and that's a topic requiring more than a few paragraphs. However, when you reference the Hanks family and Abraham Lincoln's dna we are looking at the maternal side, which involves more than just the Hanks surname.

As shown with the Nancy Hanks Lincoln mdna study there is a very rare X1c haplogroup involved. There have been a few mtdna matches outside the known line for 2 NC matches, along with Ireland, Norway (yes, Norway) France, Spain and Menorca. We also need to keep in mind that the highest incidence of X1c is among the Druze of the Levant.

In 1767-68 some indentured servants were taken from Menorca and sent to St. Augustine in FL. There was a match from there for the results in the NHL Study that migrated to the Monterey, CA area.

My thoughts for the spreading of the X1c from the Levant may be significant for those other European matches in that Menorca was in a well-traveled shipping path. At different times it was controlled by Spain and England, which would help it to spread to England and Ireland. At one time there were Norwegians in Ireland as well, and then we have the colonization of America. The Moors may also have had an influence. The Druze were comfortable living among Jewish people. Perhaps traveling merchants helped spread the X1c.

There is much, much more available, but I am not a geneticist. Right now we are still struggling to prove whether Mary Thornton was the mother of Ann "Nanny" (Lee) Hanks, or whether William Lee 1704-1764 had a first wife. If Mary Thornton, then who were her parents is still unresolved.