Who are the Melungeons? I only learned of their existence in approximately the year 1996. I quickly learned their origins were shrouded in secrecy, and felt some people knew something about who they were, but were for some reason reluctant to make the knowledge public. I also felt most were truly ignorant of their heritage, and wanted to know who they were. I saw that the HERITAGE was lost, but felt it had only recently been lost. SECRETS ALWAYS make me very curious. I learned early that people, like governments, shroud what they consider unpopular, illegal, or prejudicial in secrecy. People hide facts about themselves that can bring harm or prejudice upon themselves. If that is done for 4 or more generations, heritage is lost. I quickly made it my quest to try to determine the ORIGINS OF THE MELUNGEONS. I don’t like secrets. I like truth. That search has taken me on some interesting journeys through cyber-space, books, dusty libraries, and even my own mind.

I have to tell you something about myself to explain my interest in this project. I began working on this by determining the SECRETS of my own ancestry. To solve the riddle of my ancestry. From the earliest time I sensed secrecy in my heritage. My grandmother told me some of my ancestry when I was around 5 or 6 years of age and I was interested at the time, but didn’t know enough to ask questions. My grand mothers name was Laura Jane Walls. Her maiden name was Laura Jane Trent, and her mothers name was Arminda Collins. One of Arminda Collins younger brothers was Samuel Collins, who was the father of Eula Collins Conley. Many of you have heard of her. Although I have many Melungeon genes through the Collins, Mullins, and I believe Trents, I don’t consider myself Melungeon, as I don’t have the heritage. Anyway, around late 1944 or early 1945 I saw my grandmother reading a newspaper, and to this day I remember the headlines “Hitler killed millions of Jews and Gypsies !” My grandmothers comments were, almost proudly, “He didn’t get them all – My people are all over the world now!” I asked her what she meant. What she said made me feel proud. She said “my people , the Romani, are all over the world now”. (I understood later she was speaking of the Gypsies, and that Gypsy is a derogatory name for Romani.) I asked her “Don’t you mean Romans?” I had heard of Romans, but had not heard of Romani. and she said “No. Romans are something else. You have to put an “ I “ on the end of Roman to spell what we are. Our people are like one huge extended family. A week or so later she told me – in a sing song voice – the oral history which had been passed to her – It was about her ancestors being forced to settle under Henry VIII, about Wm and Mary, Elizabeth Ist, etc., and also of being forced to go to Holland, and eventually coming to America. She also told me of “bad acts” committed against her people who had remained in England by Oliver Cromwell. They were “unmentionalble”, she said. One of the “unmentionable acts”, I later learned, was to send them to the Caribbean as slaves to work the sugar cane. My people weren’t sent to the Caribbean, but part of my peoples extended family were sent there. As my grandmother and I really never discussed this anymore, I soon forgot about it. Looking back now – what she told me made me feel proud at the time.

Fast forward: Around 1996 I read a brief article written by Dr. Kennedy which was published in the Richmond, Virginia, Times-Dispatch with some information about the upcoming First Union. He mentioned names of families that were some of the people of a group known collectively as Melungeons. I didn’t remember ever hearing or reading the word before. Two of those family names were Collins and Mullins, and I recognized the names as being some of my own family names. I grew up in southern West Virginia, and lived the first 7 or 8 years of my life with my mother and my grandmother. I know I’m not Melungeon, as I don’t have the heritage. I do have some of the genes. I’m not Rom, or Gypsy either. I at one time thought I was. Dr. Ian Hancock, head of the Romani Union, told me I’m not Rom. I didn’t like it at the time, but now I understand – although I have a little heritage, and have some of the genes, its not much. I didn’t like it at the time, but now I accept it. I do know who I am. So; I said to myself. I’m not Melungeon, I’m not Romani. Who am I?? I had my own DNA test done about a year ago to see if I might have the East Asian DNA, and to my surprise discovered that I have 12% native American DNA, and of course the rest being Indo-European. No EA. NOW I know who I am. I have always known that diversity in genes is good. So; I have American Indian genes, and I have Indian- Indian genes. And I have European genes. Can anyone have more diverse genes than that?? I had long suspected Black genes, but didn’t have them. I’m sorry I don’t have – I firmly believe DIVERSITY of ones genes make for a more complete person.

Can anyone have more diverse genes? Yep. My little girl does. She is 6% American Indian, part Rom (INDIAN – Indian) part Tatar (Mongolian), and part European (Russian, English, French, Irish, Portuguese, Etc). She is ALL Mongrelian. I’m just part Mongrelian.

What REALLY got me into this was the apparent MYSTERY of the origins of the Melungeons. I knew enough to know that mystery and SECRETS – whether about people, politics, or whatever, generally are an attempt to hide something considered unfavorable by others. People and governments maintain secrets to hide truth. Some people who know about what I’m doing have asked me why I have been working on this. As one of my favorite writers – Paul Krugman, who is a syndicated OP-ED columnist might say – the reason, folks, is to FIND THE TRUTH, AND BE ABLE TO TALK ABOUT IT.

Who are the Melungeons? The Melungeons are composed of at least several assimilated core groups : 1. Native Americans 2.Croatians (area of the former Yugoslavia) 3. English people from the so called ‘Lost Colony’ 4. Portuguese 5. Spanish from the Spanish colony of Santa Elena and the abandoned Spanish Forts 6. Various ship wrecked peoples who traveled inland to get away from the violent dangers of the Atlantic coast 7. Rom who were originally sent to America by the English as indentured servants, and also Rom who were freed of enslavement by the English in 1719 from the Caribbean and dumped at Port Elizabeth in the Carolinas. Incidentally, many of the existing Melungeon black genes probably came from the black overseers who took Rom slave girls as concubines. This information is from The PATRIN, a Rom Web site.8. East Asians; Mongol and Chinese people who had been shipwrecked off the coast of North Carolina and Virginia probably due to a hurricane. They were shipwrecked while attempting to colonize the east coast of the present United States.

This is about the EAST ASIAN FACTION of the Melungeons. The quest itself has been interesting. I have had support from others; particularily Gavin Menzies, author of the book 1421, The Year China discovered America. Gavin immediately understood my search as one that complemented his work, and might even VALIDATE his findings. He funded our recent DNA study of the Melungeons, and has given me much more assistance.

Ladies and gentlemen, among other things we HAVE VALIDATED the work of Gavin Menzies. We have discovered EA DNA among the Melungeons; and coupled with confirming information from others that MORE EA DNA does exist among Melungeons, Menzies work has been VALIDATED.!

Ladies and gentlemen, if you are interested in this heritage, you should read Gavin Menzies book 1421, The Year China Discovered America. It’s a book on which Menzies worked many years – its well documented, and contains literally THOUSANDS of pieces of information which proves the Chinese were not only here, but also discovered and explored the rest of the world in the early 1400’s. Menzies has also discovered without doubt the Croatians were on the coast of Virginia as early as 1440, and that the Portuguese settled Puerto Rico as early as 1444. That’s new public information, and will probably be presented in a revised book, and possibly in a PBS special which will be presented later this Summer or Fall.

I’ve been working with Menzies for the past couple of years. I have found the Chinese DID settle America without doubt. I have found PROOF of one place they settled, and that place is RIGHT HERE IN MELUNGEON AMERICA! WE HAVE EAST ASIAN DNA right here! We are sure they came, and we are sure they are still here. Yes, folks, Columbus did come to America, but he came 70 years after the Chinese, and he came using Chinese maps! He DID NOT come to the Appalachians. Columbus – til his dying day – believed he had actually reached some part of East Asia when he landed on Cuba, and spent a few days there. I finally understand why he thought that – the people he encountered were actually Chinese who had been there for around 3 generations – I wondered about his confusion ; now I UNDERSTAND why he was confused!

I have forever been dissatisfied with the complacent, pat history presented concerning Pre-Colonial and Colonial History of America. I have always had questions about settlement of the East Coast of America. I have always had questions about what happened between 1492 when Columbus supposedly discovered America, and 1608 when the English settled Jamestown. I know where there are voids in information there are secrets. There was a void of over a hundred years in discoveries – Oh, there was mention of John Cabot and Henry Hudson, but not much more. There was no mention of Spanish settlement. Those same history patterns were not only in elementary and high school history, but also in college history. I always wondered ‘WHY’? I discovered the answer to that ‘WHY’ several years ago.

The answer is this; the slant of the writing of history, like political writing and news, is determined by whomever controls the MEDIA. History is part of Politics (Who gets what, and when they get it). As a consequence of the slant of history, modern Melungeons have known very little about their ancestry (except through oral history) until recently. History is periodically rewritten. The time has come for pre-colonial American History to be re written again.