How Does Y-line Testing Help the Melungeon Project?
In order to increase the probability of success in the project, we decided to limit the initial focus of the study to the group of families who can be positively identified as Melungeon in Hawkins and Hancock County Tennessee. This is called the Core Melungeon group. Other people are also welcome to participate who feel they may be related, carry the same surname or otherwise feel they are connected, but they are in not in the core group at this point. This is not discriminatory, but administrative to facilitate the study of the core group, the results of which will extend to others as well. The results of Y-line testing have been very interesting, if somewhat unexpected. Based on the oral history and legends of the core Melungeon families involved, it was expected that we would find a mixture of Native American and Indo-European, with possibly some African. By far the most prevalent oral history within the Melungeon population is that of being Portuguese, with admixture of Native Amer
