Bill and Jan Breedlove and all Breedloves: I read Bill's letter and thought the following may be of interest. This is information from an article written by Scott Collins in THE TENNESSEE MAGAZINE: One of the groups of people who were on the receiving end of cruelty in the South, along with the American Indians, the Irish, and the Blacks, were a group called the Melungeons. Discriminated by the white society, they came through South Carolina and retreated farther into Appalachia and with each wave of white settlers moved westward. They kept to themselves so much that they are not even in the history books. Only recently have Melungeon descendants begun to uncover bits and pieces of their past. They were dark- skinned, dark-haired people. One theory is that they are of Portuguese descent. Documents show that the dark-skinned people of Appalachia called themselves "Portyghee". John Sevier encountered such people in the mountains of East Tennessee in 1782. Closely related to the Portuguese view is that of a Spanish origin. Spain and Portugal, collectively known as the Iberian Peninsula, were conquered by Moors and Berbers from Morocco in the 8th century. During the Spanish Inquisition in the late 15th century, descendants of these invaders, who had by then intermarried and considered themselves Spanish or Portuguese, became the persecuted and were taken to North America to settle Spanish colonies. One colony was Santa Elena on the southern tip of what is now Parris Island, South Carolina. This place was a military outpost operated from 1566 to 1587 when it was abandoned following the burning of its sister outpost at St. Augustine, Florida by the British. During Santa Elena's early years, Capt. Juan Pardo dispatched men into the country's interior and established a series of five small forts, some believed to be near Knoxville, TN. Pardo's troops included Portuguese and Spaniards. The Turkish influence is backed by word similarities of Melungeon people developing Mediterranean diseases. Since most theories mention intermarriage with the Indians of the region, these word similarities are seen best in some of the Indian languages. One example is the Cherokees' word for themselves- ani-yun-wiya-which means "the principle people". The Turkish word "ana-youn" means "the primary people". Other words show a link to Turkey, such as "Appalachian" which is similar to the Turkish "Apa-la-che" which means "widespread" or "multitude". There is a book written by Brent Kennedy -THE MELUNGEONS, THE RESURRECTION OF A PROUD PEOPLE-THE UNTOLD STORY OF ETHNIC CLEANSING IN AMERICA. Kennedy began his research when he contracted sarcoidosis, a disease that causes painful breathing, blurred vision, aching joints and muscles, exhaustion and skin rashes. He discovered the disease is most prevalent in blacks, Portuguese immigrants and people of Mediterrean descent. This led him to ask questions about his heritage. He traveled to Turkey and found similarities in dress and food. He noted that the Creek fez and the Cherokee turban could be evidence of the Turkish influence. Kennedy says that the Turks and Central Asians exhibit some physical characteristics not commonly found in Europeans but found in Melungeons. These include cranial bumps on the back of the head and an inability to digest cow's milk. His book has spawned research both academically and medically. Blood testing has given some validity to the Mediterrrean ties theory- Similarities between Melugeons and people from Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands, North Africa, Malta, Turkey, Cyprus, Cuba and some Indian Tribes of South America. Melungeons may have a true melting pot heritage. The word Melungeon alludes to the inter-mingling of people. The French "melange" means mixture; Greek "melas" means dark; or brown. Their mysterious heritage led to the discrimination by the flood of white settlers rushing over the mountains. Some Melungeons claimed to be Cherokee while others said they were Black Dutch. No matter what they claimed they were lumped together as people of color. As a result they stayed to themselves and adopted Scotch-Irish surnames such as Collins and Kennedy in an attempt to avoid further discrimination. Their children were kept covered, even in the summer, to prevent darkening more. Some tried to scrub the darkness from their skin. Kennedy says that his mother was accused by a college professor of not washing properly and was sent to the shower, humiliated in front of other students. The Melungeons were eventually pushed into southwestern Virginia and northeast Tennessee. Counties of Hancock, Hamblin, Grainger, Claiborne and Hawkins TN, Lee, Scott, and Wise VA are rich in Melungeon history. Clinch Valley was the site of the second Melungeon gathering on July 9-12, 1998. Clinch Valley is located in Wise, Virginia. The first event drew 500-600 people. Collins, a Melungeon researcher, says that in the writings of Dr. Thomas Walker, who traveled through the area in the mid 1700s wrote of people who spoke broken English and claimed to be "Portyghee". It was noted that they were not American Indians because they wore clothes and had long beards. Collins is also establishing a museum dedicated to the Melungeons. A question that arises is -If some of us have been told that our Breedlove ancestry, as well as others, included the American Indian, should we also look at the Melungeon ancestry instead? From South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky we find many Melungeons!!! Teresa