Paula, I can not speak for any of the names on this site. But I can tell you of what I have found in my research. I have a grandfather who was Indian. It was a frequent situation for Indians to claim Black Dutch as a nationality because Indians could not own land. This was the case with my grandfather. You will find mention of this on many Indian websites and in many Indian books about genealogy. Hope this helps. Happy huntin, Jayne -----Original Message----- From: BCHBUM3@aol.com [mailto:BCHBUM3@aol.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 1999 8:39 AM To: ELAM-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [ELAM-ROOTS] Black/Indian Elams A while back I ran into a web site listing some people categorized as "black melungeon" or some sort, AKA "Black Dutch". This is an extremely interesting group as no one knows their origin for sure. These people were found in the mountains of NC and surrounding Appalachian mts. living in cabins and with Indians. They were already here when the first Englishmen arrived, spoke English, and said they were "Portegese". Some researchers believe they are the lost Roanoke Island colony. Others believe they are survivors of an english vessel called "The Portugese" which sank off the coast and its survivors may have been picked up by the Indians. At one time, people thought they were from the Black Forest region of Germany. I don't know which is the most favored theory at this time. Somewhere there is a list of all the surnames descended from this group, but just now I can't find it. I remember ELLIOTT was one of them but can't remember is ELAM was one. You can check it out more at this site: http://www.rootsweb.com/~maillist/ethnic/index.html and write to the BLACKDUTCH-L list or you could do a search on the term Black Dutch. Oh! Here, I found a better site with good links: 1. First click on: http://www.qni.com/~suni/ 2. Then click on: favorite links 3. Then click on: Black Dutch (in the chart) 4. Scroll down that page to get a bunch of Black Dutch and Melungeon links Paula