Why are people now discovering their possible Melungeon ancestry?
Even those who lived in Melungeon communities, or had close ties to those communities, often never heard the word “Melungeon” applied to themselves or their families; the term was considered an insult and was rarely said directly to the person it was describing. As Melungeon families and individuals migrated away from their home areas, they frequently wanted to leave the stigma of their ethnic heritage behind them. Their children and grandchildren were not told of their family’s heritage, since many considered it shameful, something to be hidden. Over the years, family legends about “an Indian great-grandmother” or “a Portuguese grandfather” seemed to explain the swarthy appearance of ancestors and descendents, but many genealogists found inexplicable gaps in their families’ histories, census designations for ancestors indicating “mulatto” or “free person of color,” and other mysteries. The rise of the Internet in the mid-1990s coincided with the publication of The Melungeons: The Resu
