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Melungeons
People ID: 1170
Type: ethnic group
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- UPDATED: 8.11.2025
- status: high-priority, in progress
- Valentine Collins, Vardeman Collins, Shepherd Gibson, Micajah Bunch, Thomas Collins, Mahala Collins, Bryson Gibson
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- I’m working on getting the resource slides to display correctly, and adding data daily. We are in a soft launch phase, and this website is a work in progress.
INFO
about:
Some of the peoples listed as "connections" below are referenced due to origin theory alone and require further research.
connections:
African | Indigenous | Lumbee | Tuscarora | Saponi | Cherokee | European | Scottish | Scots-Irish | French | Berber | Roma | Portuguese | Croatan | Guineas | Carmel Indians | Magoffin County Group | Sephardic Jews | Catawba | Turkish | Lost Colony of Roanoke | Lost Tribes of Israel | Black Dutch | English
locations:
Floyd County, KY | Johnson County, KY | Letcher County, KY | Magoffin County, KY | Morgan County, KY | Ashe County, NC | Wilkes County, NC | Highland County, OH | Carmel (Highland Co, OH) | Claiborne County, TN | Hancock County, TN | Blackwater Creek (Hancock Co, TN) | Newman’s Ridge (Hancock Co, TN) | Vardy Valley (Hancock Co, TN) | Hawkins County, TN | Upper Clinch (Hawkins Co, TN) | Lee County, VA | Louisa County, VA | Scott County, VA | Wise County, VA | Sneedville (Hancock Co, TN) | Vardy Community Cemetery (Hancock Co, TN) | Nash Home Place (Wise Co, VA) | Big Stone Gap (Wise Co, VA) | Copper Ridge (Hancock Co, TN) | Riddle Creek | Rebel Hollow | Langston High School | Martin’s Creek | Martin’s Creek School | North Carolina | Smyth County, VA | Indian Normal School | Clear Fork Baptist Church
surnames:
Adams | Adkins | Barker | Barlow | Barnes | Beckler | Belcher | Bell | Bennett | Biggs | Bolden | Bolen | Bolin | Bolton | Bowlin | Bowling | Bowman | Branham | Brogan | Bullion | Bunch | Burton | Byrd | Campbell | Carrico | Carter | Casteel | Caudill | Chavis | Clark | Coal | Coffey | Coleman | Coles | Colley | Collier | Collins | Collinsworth | Colyer | Counts | Cox | Coxe | Crow | Cumba | Cumbo | Cumbow | Curry | Davis | Delph | Denham | Dorton | Dula | Dye | Ely | Evans | Fields | Freeman | French | Gallagher | Gann | Garland | Gibson | Gipson | Goins | Gorvens | Gowan | Gowen | Graham | Gwinn | Hall | Hammond | Hawkins | Hendricks | Hendrix | Hill | Hillman | Hopkins | Jackson | Keith | Kennedy | Kiser | Lawson | Lopes | Lucas | Maggard | Mainard | Maloney | Martin | Miner | Minor | Mise | Mizer | Moore | Morley | Mosely | Mozingo | Mullins | Nash | Niccans | Nichols | Noel | Orr | Osborn | Osborne | Perkins | Perry | Phelps | Phipps | Polly | Powers | Pruitt | Ramey | Ramsey | Rasnick | Reaves | Reeves | Rice | Riddle | Rivers | Roberson | Robertson | Robinson | Sexton | Shephard | Short | Sizemore | Stallard | Stanley | Steel | Swindall | Tackett | Taylor | Tipton | Tolliver | Turner | Vanover | Watts | White | Whited | Williams | Wilson | Wright | Wyatt | Berry | Cole | Willis | Harmon
RESOURCES
lists/rolls:
Melungeon-Related Surnames (North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky) | Surnames of the Tri-Racial Families of the Upper South | Recognized Melungeon Names Today | Surnames, by Counties and Cities, of Mixed Negroid Virginia Families Striving to Pass as “Indian” or White | Guineas (West Virginia Melungeon) | Surnames of Probable Melungeon Descent | Carter Family: Melungeon Given Names
resources:
2023 Melungeon Heritage Sound Project
Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia
Solving the Melungeon Mystery
What It Means to Identify as Melungeon
North from the Mountains: A Folk History of the Carmel Melungeon Settlement, Highland County, Ohio
Windows on the Past: The Cultural Heritage of Vardy
Melungeons: The Last Lost Tribe in America
Through the Back Door: Melungeon Literacies and Twenty-First Century Technologies
My Melungeon Heritage: A Story of Life on Newman’s Ridge
Melungeons: Examining an Appalachian Legend
The Melungeons: Red, Black and White in the Old South
The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People
The Electronic Front Porch: An Oral History of the Arrival of Modern Media in Rural Appalachia and the Melungeon Community
Our Side of the Mountain: A Pocahontas to Melungeon Revolution
Melungeons: The Vanishing Colony of Newman’s Ridge
The Melungeons: The Pioneers of the Interior Southeastern United States 1526-1997
The Forgotten Portuguese: The Melungeons and Other Groups
The Malungeons- The Melungeons’ Forbidden Black Ancestry
Melungeon Voices- Are Redbones and Melungeons Related?
mentions:
MORE INFO
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REFERENCES
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