MELUNGEON Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln

[maharba]

(03-24-2016 06:26 PM)L Verge Wrote:  This is rather freaky! I had just been online yesterday refreshing my memory on the Melungeons, who are truly spread through quite a few southern states. Much like the Wesorts of Southern Maryland, they have become subjects for public health studies over the past 60 years or so. This is especially true once scientists became intrigued with following DNA, because both Wesorts and Melungeons are derived from three different races -- Caucasian (European), Native American, and Negroid.

Our Wesorts are descended mainly through English lines. I believe, however, that the Caucasians from the Iberian Peninsula form the basis for the Melungeons' line. And, of course, the Native American tribes that inter-married with both varied from one area to another.

The key to understanding the interest in these tri-racial families is the fact that they inter-married within a relatively small inner circle for generations, resulting in genetic anamolies. I was contacted years ago by geneticists in North Carolina relative to the Surratt family. I never received their conclusions, but we did verify that one branch of the Surratt family left Maryland in the mid-1700s and moved into North Carolina and eventually began the westward migration. The scientists told me that some of the Surratts living in North Carolina in the 1980s-90s were Melungeons and carried some of the "abnormal" genes. Their defining trait seems to have been eye problems. The original Surratts who migrated to America came from France near the Spanish border (Pyrenees region), which would put them in the Iberian Peninsula region originally. Would the Hanks line have any origins in Portugal or Spain?

Just as an aside, the name Surratt has many different spellings, but French archivists that we consulted felt that the original was likely Sarratt or Seurratt. Translated, it means serrated (like a knife), probably referring to the jagged mountain tops of the Pyrenees. There are still families bearing derivations of the name in that region.

Now, someone else can do the DNA digging to find out if Abraham Lincoln and John Harrison Surratt, Jr. might be related...

I had not ever heard of the Wesorts, but they seem a fascinating group too. And I'll have to keep them in mind in genealogy. The Melungeons are still not well understood apparently, by science, history or genealogy. As newer and sharper aspects of DNA and epigenetics come about, some of these mysteries may be unraveled.

The Christians coming to the America's had tried to place "the Indians" into their notions of world history, and many prominent folks thought the Indians were descendants of the 'Lost Tribes of Israel'. I think Cotton Mather and Thomas Jefferson and others had that view in mind. Mormon founder and divine Joseph Smith appears to base his religion on that notion: the Indians were (I believe he said) some son of Joseph who was a son of Jacob (he, Jacob, later name changed to Israel).

The Melungeons are said by some to have early Mediterranean origins,
perhaps northern African or Jewish or close-by Portugal? Some now appear to believe they were an early mixture of escaped (black, American) slaves and various Indian tribes. It's a fascinating subject in genealogy. Let's guess the Melungeons were Moorish from northern Africa, and guess that they may have arrived in the Carolina's as early as 1300 and before Columbus? That's purely a guess, but there is a lot of color and mystery to early American history.