Survey of Demography, Anthropometry, and Genetics in the Melungeons of Tennessee: An Isolate of Hybrid Origin in Process of Dissolution

The Melungeons of eastern Tennessee and neighboring Virginia are a remnant of a once extensive population of triracial origin. The present survey of 177 persons for demography, morphology, and aerology suggests a predominantly Caucasoid people with some Indian and possibly Negroid admixture. While highly variable they are on the average lighter than the admixed Catawbas, or 42 on the reflectometer scale with tristimulus filter. The mean nasal index of adults is 66.9. Group O gene frequency is 58%, B7%, M 61%, R° 8%, Hp¹ 38%; and abnormal hemoglobins are absent. Serious defects of a clear genetic etiology were not encountered in the survey. While inbreeding was common in the past, there is a marked tendency toward outmigration and outmarriage in the present community as indicated by birthplaces, by isonymy, and by differential gene frequencies by generations. Apparently the isolate is in the process of losing its identity by blending into the surrounding population.