Melungeon Historical Society: Cumberland Gap Homecoming

Monday, February 7, 2011

Cumberland Gap Homecoming

Cumberland Gap Homecoming

All events will be held in the Holiday Inn Express in Middlesboro, Kentucky (1252 N. 12th St.), right on the main drag just north of the Cumberland Gap. These sessions are sponsored by the Cumberland Gap Yahoo internet group who has a shared interest in how DNA can help with genealogy research. Sessions are free, but seating is limited, so first folks there get to sit down.

A few rooms at a discounted rate are still available at the Holiday Inn for this group by calling the hotel directly at 606-248-6860 and telling them you are with the Cumberland Gap Homecoming. After the Holiday Inn fills up, the Sleep Inn next door may have rooms available.

Bring your research and genealogy, a pedigree chart and be prepared to share. Come and sit a spell.

Sessions are only scheduled for the mornings so participants will have time to enjoy the rest of the events being held at the Cumberland Gap Jamboree. http://www.wil-syl.com/jamboree3/

Each evening, companionship time will be offered in the meeting room for visiting and discussing the events of the day.

For updates to this schedule, I recommend subscribing to the Historical Melungeons, Native Americans and Appalachians Blog at http://historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/ or subscribing to our Yahoo group by sending an e-mail to: CumberlandGap-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

If you are interested in the Cumberland Gap DNA project, we have two projects, one for paternal (yline) DNA that follows the male last name, and one for maternal (mitochondrial) DNA which follows the maternal (mother, mother’s mother, etc.) DNA and genealogical lines.

They can be viewed at www.familytreedna.com/public/Cumberlandgap-mtdna and www.familytreedna.com/public/CumberlandGap-ydna.

You can also e-mail me or my co-administrators for the project FAQ - Roberta Estes, robertajestes@att.net, Penny Ferguson pennyferguson@windstream.net or Janet Crain ljcrain2@pgrb.com

This schedule is not cast in concrete and is subject to change. Hope to see you in June.

Cumberland Gap Homecoming Schedule

Wednesday, June 8th - Welcome Reception - 7 PM - Holiday Inn Meeting Room (all events are in the meeting room)

Welcome to this informal reception. Please grab a munchie (Walmart is across the street) and bring along to share. Bring your own nonalcoholic drink.

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

8:30 - 9:30 DNA and Genealogy Introduction - Roberta Estes

Come and learn about how DNA can be used for genealogical research. You’ll learn about how DNA testing works for both males and females. We’ll make science understandable, and by the end of this lecture, you’ll be putting together your own genealogical DNA test plan. Bring your pedigree chart along for quick reference.

9:30-9:45 - Break

9:45 - 10:45 Pennsylvania Connection to the Cumberland Gap - Arnold McClure

How Pennsylvania ties into the migrations through the Cumberland Gap, down the Shenandoah Valley and down the Ohio Valley to Kentucky. Mr. McClure will offer a timeline for the migrations and answer questions you may have about your own ancestry that may help with your research.

10:45 - 11:00 - Break

11:00 - 12:00 - Twists and Turns in the Rocky Road - Roberta Estes

This fun filled lecture uses case studies of both Y-line (paternal) and mitochondrial (maternal) DNA testing to show how DNA can be used to both prove and disprove relationships between people. Be prepared for surprises. This is our most entertaining and most requested presentation and makes a few family skeletons dance.

7:00 - Sit a Spell

Just come and visit, exchange info, share stories....and well....just sit a spell.

Friday, June 10th, 2011

8:30 - 9:30 Yikes, My Results are Back! Now What??? - Roberta Estes

Have DNA results but aren’t sure what to do with them? This session walks you through how to interpret your results and how to get the most out them. This presentation is for both Y-line and mitochondrial DNA.

9:30-9:45 - Break

9:45 - 10:15 Women Who Spied for the Confederacy - Connie Lawson

Eleven women of various social and economic backgrounds who spied for the Confederacy during the Civil War

10:15 - 10:30 Break

10:30 - 12:00 Where Have all the Indians Gone? - Roberta Estes

This presentation uses the information presented in Roberta’s most recent academic publication titled “Where Have All the Indians Gone?" This unique approach combines long buried historical data about the Native American tribes that inhabited the area between the Atlantic seaboard and the Appalachian Mountains with DNA information to provide both answers and new questions. Where are the descendants of the Indians today? Who are they? Where are they? What happened?

7:00 Sit a Spell

Saturday, June 11, 2011

8:30 - 9:30 The Melungeons - Jack Goins

Who were the Melungeons? Where did they come from? Who were their ancestors? Are you descended from a Melungeon family? Learn about these fascinating people from the premier Melungeon researcher and Hawkins County Archivist.

9:30 - 9:45 Break

9:45 - 10:45 Melungeons and DNA, the Untold Story - Roberta Estes

This presentation combines history, genealogy and DNA to address the mystery and myth of the Melungeons of Hancock and Hawkins County, Tennessee, their ancestors and descendants.

10:45 - 11:00 Break

11:00 - 12:00 Cumberland Gap Migrations - Roberta Estes

Who were the pioneers who settled in the Cumberland Gap area? Where did they come from? Who stayed and who used the Gap as a gateway to the west? What does the DNA of the members of the Cumberland Gap group tell us about those hearty pioneers, where they came from, and who they really were??? Join us on our journey along the Wilderness Road to discover their history.

7:00 - Sit A Spell

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First Use of the word Melungeon

The earliest known written use of the word "Melungeon" is in an 1813 Scott County, Virginia Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church record:

"Then came forward Sister Kitchen and complained to the church against Susanna Stallard for saying she harbored them Melungins. Sister Sook said she was hurt with her for believing her child and not believing her, and she won't talk to her to get satisfaction, and both is 'pigedish', one against the other. Sister Sook lays it down and the church forgives her."

The Melungeons were found here:

LITTELL'S 1849

You must know that within ten miles of this owl's nest, there is a watering-place, known hereabouts as 'black-water Springs.' It is situated in a narrow gorge, scarcely half a mile wide, between Powell's Mountain and the Copper Ridge, and is, as you may suppose, almost inaccessible. A hundred men could defend the pass against even a Xerxian army. Now this gorge and the tops and sides of the adjoining mountains are inhabited by a singular species of the human animal called MELUNGENS.

BURNETT 1889

It appears that the Melungeons originally came into east Tennessee from North Carolina, and the larger number settled in what was at that time Hawkins County, but which is now Hancock. I have not been able to hear of them in any of the lower counties of east Tennessee, and those I have seen myself were in Cocke county, bordering on North Carolina.

DROMGOOLE 1890

The Ridge proper is the home of the Melungeons. These people, of whom so little is known, inhabit an isolated corner of the earth, known as Newman’s ridge, in Hancock county. First, I saw in an old newspaper some slight mention of them. With this tiny clue I followed their trail for three years. The paper merely stated that “somewhere in the mountains of Tennessee there existed a remnant of people called Malungeons,......I merely mention all this to show how the Malungeons of today are regarded, and to show how I tracked them to Newman’s Ridge in Hancock County.....

HUMBLE 1897

The Blackwater Valley lies between Mulberry and Newman’s Ridges, and is from half a mile to mile wide. Twenty years ago it was still a wilderness, but is now under good cultivation, and divided into small farms upon which are rather poor dwellings and outbuildings. In this valley and along Newman’s Ridge, reaching into Lee County, Virginia, are settled the people called Melungeons. Some have gone into Kentucky, chiefly into Pike County, others are scattered in adjacent territory.

OTIS 1900

These people are called the Malungeons. ................ ......The Malungeons number between 400 and 500. They live on Black Water Creek, in Hancock County, which section they have inhabited for more than 100 years. ................ The records of Hancock County show that the Malungeon ancestors came to Powell's Valley as early as 1789, when they took up lands on the Black Water.

JARVIS 1903

Greasy Rock Creek, a name by which it has ever since been known and called since, and here is the very place where these Melungeons settled, long after this, on Newman’s Ridge and Blackwater. ............these friendly “Indians” live in the mountains of Stony creek, but they have married among the whites until the race has almost become extinct. A few of the half bloods may be found-none darker- but they still retain the name of Collins and Gibson, &c. From here they came to Newman’s Ridge and Blackwater and many of them are here yet....

CONVERSE 1912

The northern end is drained by Blackwater Creek, which winds its way leisurely northeastward through narrow strips of verdant meadow land. Here, along the banks of this sparkling stream and on the top and eastern slope of Newman's Ridge, is the home of the Melungeons.

WILSON 1914

Occasionally the student of ethnology may stumble upon a community that is a puzzle, as, for example, that one occupied by the 'Malungeons' of upper East Tennessee.

MOORE AND FOSTER

So far as is known they were first found in Hancock County on Newman's Ridge, soon after the Revolutionary War. Now they are settled in several counties, although still most numerous in Hancock County.

PLECKER 1942-1930

We have in some of the counties of southwestern Virginia a number of so-called Melungeons who came into that section from Newmans Ridge, Hancock County, Tennessee..............

August 5, 1930
Mr. J.P. Kelly.Trustee of Schools,
Gap,Lee County, Virginia

Dear Sir: office has had a great deal of trouble in reference to the persistence of a group of people living in that section known as "Melungeons", whose families came from Newman's Ridge, Tennessee.

CAMBAIRE 1935

It seems the Melungeons came into Hancock County between 1810 and 1851.

OSBORNE 1947

From what I gathered from Uncle Wash, the Melungeons started coming to Wise and Scott Counties about 1820. These people came in about equal numbers from Kentucky from Newmans’ Ridge and lower end of Lee County. A few came from North Carolina.

WORDEN 1947

Whatever they are—the Malungeons still are on Newman’s Ridge, in Hancock, Rhea and Hawkins counties of Tennessee, and a few across the border in Virginia. Many are scattered by ones or twos miles from the isolated ridge top they occupied for so long.

E. PRICE

The persistent folk tale, however, insists that the Melungeons are unusual racially; it identifies them as a dark-skinned people whose center is on Newman's Ridge in Hancock County. The Newman's Ridge-Blackwater area seems to be the locality where they have the deepest roots.

VINCENT 1961

colony of folks in this end of Tennessee settled along Newman's Ridge, and on Mulberry Creek in what is now Hancock County, and a few miles out from Sneedville.

DAVIS 1963

Trapped in poverty, snubbed by their fair-skinned neighbors, some of them withdrew to the poor land along Snake Hollow, deep in the rattlesnake-infested gorge in the shadow of towering Newman’s Ridge. Some of them settled along the northern end of the valley, at the Virginia line, where Blackwater Creek flows, and some settled on the Ridge.

BERRY 1963

For a century and a half, the prolific Melungeons have migrated in all directions from Newman's Ridge. .... There are fifteen hundred in Lee County, Virginia....Five hundred are in Scott Count, Virginia........A thousand are found in Wise County, where they are known as "Ramps."

GAMBLE

The only true Melungeons left, however, reside in the nearby mountainside areas known as Snake Hollow and Mulberry Gap.

H. PRICE

they occupied Newman's Ridge---rough and steep in places, but offering some table land and numerous hollows. Here they located near springs or creeks.

S. PRICE 1968

But whatever their origin, the group eventually settled in Hancock County, along Newman's Ridge and in settlements known as Blackwater, Snake Hollow and Vardy.

NORDHEIMER 1970

Newman’s Ridge overlooks Sneedville, a poor community of about 700 persons near the Virginia border. In the early 19th century nearly 350 Melungeons settled on the ridge, coming down into the valley only on rare occasions to forage for wild vegetables and sell moonshine whiskey. They lived apart from the whites for generations. The ridge was a hilltop sanctuary against the outside world and its prejudice.

FETTERMAN (Price) 1970

They bore the Melungeon names which appear on Newman's Ridge: Collins, Mullins, Brogan, Goins, Gibson, Bowlin. They were free of the restrictive legislation aimed at slaves and former slaves during the 1700s and 1800s.

YARBROUGH 1972

Those left in Snake Hollow, Blackwater, Vardy and Mulberry - are few in number, Most have left the hills for jobs in cities far and near. And time is catching up with those remaining. In 1931 there were 40 Melungeon families living on Newman's Ridge above their ancestral home.

LYNCH 1973

And the white man forced them high into the Clinch Mountains, principally Newman's Ridge just outside present day Sneedville, Hancock County, Tennessee.

BIBLE 1975

In East Tennessee, they have spilled over into the neighboring counties in an extension of the Hancock County families...... ......... "Melungeon surnames were noted in southwestern Virginia as early as 1820, but the families were not classified until 1870, when the census enumerators in Lee County listed the county and state of birth of each person. Of forty-six families whos names suggest they were Melungeons, thirty had one or more members who had BEEN BORN IN HANCOCK or HAWKINS County. Eight had members born in Scott County, and at least one of these also had been born in HANCOCK COUNTY. One person was born in Letcher County, Kentucky of parents born in HANCOCK and Scott Counties. The adults of a Goins family (one of the few listed as mulatto) were born in Surry and Ashe Counties, North Carolina; their children were born in Knox, HANCOCK and Grainger Counties, Tennessee. This is the best direct evidence available to confirm the relationship between several different groups of Melungeons and the importance of NEWMAN'S RIDGE as a CENTER OF THEIR DISPERSAL, but it is evident that the secondary Melungeon localities were also fed from North Carolina and Virginia

HAUN

Most of the mountain people refer to them as Blackwaters and Ridgemanites.” But even in that long gorge, winding some 20 miles in a half-mile-wide band between Newman’s Ridge and Powell Mountain there are few “pure Melungeons” left today.

WINKLER 2003

The only people who were called Melungeon 100 years ago were those who lived in or near Hancock County, Tennessee--including Lee, Scott, and Wise Counties in southwest Virginia.

Melungeon Historical Society

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Monday, February 7, 2011

Cumberland Gap Homecoming

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