Eventually, we'll know. Only legendary stories tell about the Melungeons. Perhaps it's so with Black Irish as well. I've found that my family's traditional stories, for the most part, have been 'just' stories. One was, that my gr gr grandfather and grandmother Wagers (integrated into my Thomas line), met on the boat coming over from France - fell in love - and married. Truth is - it may have happened with a much earlier generation, but not with my gg greats. Their families were well established in this country before they were born. As a child, I was told that my gr grandfather Thomas came from Ireland. Again, our Thomas family was well established in the Colonies before he was born. It's always best to do the research and at least get the connections/info right. Wanda On Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 11:50 AM, Kathleen Van Heuit <willapa@willapabay.org> wrote: > I've always understood my father to have been a typical 'Black > Irishman'--he was fair-skinned, but had black hair and green eyes. > His maternal grandmother was an Irish Catholic immigrant from Derry > County named Sarah O'Neill. I'd heard that the black hair seen in > Ireland was a souvenir of shipwrecked Spanish sailors. I've also > heard that that story is a bunch of malarkey. Maybe DNA research will > solve that question. > > Kathleen > > On Mar 16, 2008, at 11:41 AM, Wanda Flesher wrote: > > > I've read that the Black Irish go way back into Ireland. > > Occasionally, an > > Irish child is born who has dark eyes, hair, and skin color and is > > slightly > > darker than general Irish; thus, they're called Black Irish. I > > don't know > > about Black Dutch. > > > > Melungeons are believed to have developed in this country, pre- > > colonization, > > by a group of Portuguese shipwrecked sailors and others, off the > > coast of > > the Carolinas. The Indians in the area accepted them, intermarried > > with > > them, and those offspring were darker in color. Their descendants > > spread > > throughout Appalachia. Like Sue said, there are many web sites > > about > > them. To find one - 'Google' *Melungeon *in the search box, > > click go, and > > take your pick of the sites that will come up. The same process > > could be > > done with Black Dutch, etc. > > Wanda > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > THOMAS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message > -- For Freedom's Sake - Love God, Love America