To my knowledge, although both BENNETT and KENNEDY appear on the surname list of various Black groups, Dr. Kennedy did not find any Black Bennett or Kennedy ancestry within his BENNETT Melungeon family. He has discussed his DNA findings in various speeches and at conferences and some of the earlier tests in MELUNGEONS: THE RESURRECTION OF A PROUD PEOPLE. Blacks may have gained their BENNETT, KENNEDY and other surnames some of the white researchers may have several ways. The ones that I know about are these: 1) the master gave them his own name or they took it; 2) they named themselves after someone they admired or liked; 3) they intermarried with a male white or had some other domestic arrangement, voluntary or not. The slave schedules are full of BENNETTs and many other surnames of my families. That doesn't mean that my particular line owned slaves although I wouldn't doubt that some of the early Virginia ones did. We all know the stories about Edward Bennett and his nephew Gov. Richard Bennett and their relatives' plantations and the Indian Massacres. Actually, the percentage of Black ancestry amongst Melungeons is not all that high. Many are now finding Romany, Indian (from India),and Middle Eastern ancestry, possibly Turkish, Berber, Sephardic Jewish, as well as Iberian (Spanish/Portuguese - which are quite mixed up anyway before they even got here - and sometimes with Sephard and/or African lineage). There are still many theories about the origins of the first Melungeons. There is one group that holds that they simply began as the ancestors of white servant women and black men who themselves may or may not have been mixed but were probably free blacks mostly and before 1700 when the new racist laws against intermarriage took effect. As Virginia had even more racist laws enacted some probably went to more hospitable climates and places where boundaries were not enforced so much or in control by Virginia. The hills eventually seemed to become their main places of settlement around E. TN. and the tri-state area of VA/NC/TN but later perhaps spreading out. They seem to have become whiter and whiter as time went by and marriages with lighter Europeans or Melungeons became more common. But there was evidence that they did have some Black ancestry or that some of them did to be more accurate. Most of them have DNA which tests mostly European. However, even the light-skinned and blondes amongst them were discriminate against if it they were known as Melungeons. I may have one Melungeon ancestor - not a BENNETT- or he may just have been Native American and European - it isn't clear yet. He told us he was half Cherokee and his ancestors did seem to have been on the Trail of Tears and he did live in I.T. and was possibly born there. I haven't found any Melungeons in my BENNETT line although some may have gone from VA/WV (it was all one once) to TN and I didn't know that until I joined Internet groups and began sharing research and doing more research of my own. My line went straight from VA to KY from what Marion T. wrote although he might have been wrong. Victoria Still sending Word doc. of book out if you need one.