Hi Lynn! I am a Martin and had my DNA checked and a melungeon specialist thought my profile showed melungeon ancestry because I am mixed native american, european, and subsaharan african (according to dna) - I started looking into melungeons after that and found the MARTIN-CARRICO melungeon connection in my family. My Martins always claimed Cherokee and White so I didn't know about the subsaharan african until I took the dna test and started looking at the melungeons. The social construction of race in U.S. history has definately distorted our understandings about ethnicity and a lot of people might be surprised to find out that they might not have understood their full ethnic identity. I am so proud of my african heritage that I discovered and folks might want to be open to finding more than what they expect based on what we were taught to believe. in regards to the patterns of movement... I still know little about why they moved to Missouri and Illinois. I am interested in researching that region's history to add a better social & historical understanding to my own pieces of the puzzle. Also, latest info I have shows these Martins as being connected to french Martins. Good luck! Carolina