This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Minor, Burton, Goins, Mallett, Sizemore Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/XeB.2ACE/3385.3.1.1.2.1.1 Message Board Post: That resolves it then. I heard a similar story from some out of state descendents of Francis Marion Burton--minus the "Ned" portion. It is interesting that you said they referred to Nancy Ann Mallett as an Indian. My great great grandmother was her sister, Mary Jane Mallett. My grandmother, Nona Paxton Lawson (grandaugher of Mary Jane Mallett), told me about 1956 that her mother, Nettie Lawson (daughter of Curren), told her on her death bed in 1927 that Mary Jane Mallett was an Indian. Nettie also told my grandmother to keep it a secret. She did so for 30 years. Henry and Nona Lawson were living in Lee County, VA at the time, so there may have been some reason to keep it a secret. Of course, I don't know if any of this could be true. As you know, I am not a proponent of the Cherokee theory of the Melungeons. Mary Jane and Nancy Ann Mallett were the daughters of Levi Mallett and Elizabeth Minor. Elizabeth was the the daughter of John Minor and Susan Goins. Levi Mallett's father was Peter Mallett, who can be found as a "free person of color" in 1820 Wilkes County. Peter Mallett was indicted for illegal voting in the late 1840s since he was "not pure white" as required by law. A government investigator referred to the Levi Mallett children and "their kind"--whatever that means, and John Begley stated that Levi Mallett was a "free born mulatto". One confusing thing is that the same government investigator stated that John Begley was the brother of Levi Mallett. Now, brother can also mean brother-in-law in Hawkins County. When Levi Mallett went off to join the Union forces during the war, he left his children and the family bible with Solomon S! izemore. So, I have wondered whether the Indian connection might be through the Sizemores, who seem to consistently check out as Indian through the y-DNA markers. David