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Hancock County, TN
Place ID: 1416
Type: county
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- UPDATED: 7.20.2025
- status: high-priority, in progress
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- I’m filling in the records, resources, and mentions slides, working to get the ancestor names to display correctly, and adding data daily. We are in a soft launch phase, and this website is a work in progress.
INFO
about:
Hancock County is the primary county where Melungeon families were known to have lived in East Tennessee. It is one of the least populated counties in the state.
"Located just below the southwestern tip of Virginia, Hancock County is a rugged, mountainous area drained by the Clinch River." - "Walking Toward the Sunset", Wayne Winkler
"Located just below the southwestern tip of Virginia, Hancock County is a rugged, mountainous area drained by the Clinch River." - "Walking Toward the Sunset", Wayne Winkler
place type:
state:
in this county:
Big Ridge (Hancock Co, TN) | Blackwater Creek (Hancock Co, TN) | Fisher’s Valley (Hancock Co, TN) | Goins Chapel Cemetery (Hancock Co, TN) | Kyle’s Ford (Hancock Co, TN) | Mulberry Gap (Hancock Co, TN) | Newman’s Ridge (Hancock Co, TN) | Panther Creek (Hancock Co, TN) | Prospect Ridge (Hancock Co, TN) | Snake Hollow (Hancock Co, TN) | Sneedville (Hancock Co, TN) | Trent Cemetery (Hancock Co, TN) | Trent’s Chapel (Hancock Co, TN) | Vardy Community School | Vardy Springs Hotel | Vardy Valley (Hancock Co, TN)
adjacent:
nearby:
peoples:
RESOURCES
records:
1850 U.S. Census – Subdivision 32, Hancock County, Tennessee | 
1850 U.S. Census – Subdivision 33, Hancock County, Tennessee | 
1860 U.S. Census – Panther Creek, Hancock County, Tennessee | 
1870 U.S. Census – District 11, Hancock County, Tennessee | 
1880 U.S. Census – District 91, Hancock County, Tennessee
resources:
mentions:
Ascribed Ethnicity and the Ethnic Display Event: The Melungeons of Hancock County, Tennessee
Becoming Melungeon: Making an Ethnic Identity in the Appalachian South
Children of Perdition: Melungeons and the Struggle of Mixed America
How They Shine: Melungeon Characters in the Fiction of Appalachia
Melungeon History and Myth
Melungeons, A Multi-Ethnic Population
Melungeons: Footprints From the Past
North from the Mountains: A Folk History of the Carmel Melungeon Settlement, Highland County, Ohio
The Graysville Melungeons: A Tri-Racial People in Lower East Tennessee
The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People
Through the Back Door: Melungeon Literacies and Twenty-First Century Technologies
Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia
Windows on the Past: The Cultural Heritage of Vardy
MORE INFO
Official Website
FamilySearch
Wikipedia