The stories of Spanish forts, towns, and mines in the Appalachian wilderness, the Yuchi/Creeks providing towns of refuge for Sephardic Jews, mysterious people in Appalachia, intermarriage with other incoming Europeans (many of whom may have been Sephardic Jews) – all of this at first glimpse seems like flights of fancy and legends. Some Melungeon researchers have been discounted and labeled as “crackpots,” and many have had to self-publish their findings. However, DNA testing has supported their claims of Iberian and Sephardic Jewish ancestry.

The first DNA testing

The first DNA testing of Melungeons was done in 2000, using hair samples of known Melungeons to test mitochondrial DNA, the female lines. The study was conducted by Kevin Jones, an English biologist, working with the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, VA and with University College in London. Results verified that Melungeons are a tri-racial group with European, African and Native American ancestry.

In 2003 Dr. Donald Yates, himself of Melungeon descent, formed DNA Consultants specifically to determine an overall ethnic profile for Melungeons. The company used the cheek swab test offered at that time through Family Tree DNA to show from what parts of the world Melungeon ancestors came and the amount of admixture from Native Americans and Africans.

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All Melungeons who participated had Appalachian ancestry over the previous five generations and a surname from the list of the most common Melungeon surnames. Those results showed elevated Iberian, Middle Eastern, Native American and Sub-Saharan African ancestry, confirming that Melungeon ancestry is heavily Mediterranean and “browner” than that of their Northern European neighbors.

Scottish Sephardic ancestry

In addition, Yates believed that many of the 17^th and early 18^th century Scottish and Scots-Irish immigrants to America had Sephardic Jewish ancestry. He obtained DNA samples from known Melungeons and from two donors of each of nine Scottish families whose surnames are found among the Melungeon population.

Yates himself had recently discovered his own hidden Jewish roots, is now a practicing Jew, and had corresponded with many of his DNA cousins who also had discovered that Judaism had been practiced in their families until fairly recently.

The results of that study were published in 2007 and showed that the DNA locus for the Scottish families was centered in Spain and Portugal. Some of the Melungeons and the Scots tested showed exact matches to living people who self-identified as Jews.

(One of the Scottish families tested was the Alexanders.  Yates traced the history of the Alexander family and found they arrived in Scotland during the early years of the Spanish Inquisition and settled in Stirling. Many Alexanders came to America through the colony of Maryland. My father had Alexanders in both his maternal and paternal lines, and they arrived in colonial Maryland from Stirling, Scotland.)

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My DNA results

My own DNA testing with every major company and several smaller companies has confirmed that my Melungeon ancestry is tri-racial: European, African and Native American.

In spite of the fact that I was told that all of my known and documented ancestors were from the British Isles and France and came to this country in the 1600s and early 1700s, I have substantial Spanish/Portuguese ancestry and also North African, Middle Eastern, Balkan, and Eastern European.

Although DNA testing cannot conclusively prove Jewish ancestry, I have DNA relatives who have specifically self-identified as being Jewish from France, Morocco, Iraq, Greece, Turkey, and Yemen, and I am a close match with Jewish populations in Ukraine and Poland as well.

My African ancestry is from present-day Angola and Congo, areas from which the Portuguese and Spanish obtained slaves as early as the 1500s. 

A neighbor of mine who is of Yuchi/Creek descent, a member of the Creek nation, and a researcher of the Spanish forts and towns that were in the area where I live, helped me use specific DNA markers to verify that I am of Yuchi descent. It was the Yuchis who provided refuge to the Spanish soldiers, settlers and miners, many of them believed to be the Conversos or Crypto-Jews who were abandoned in the interior of Appalachia.

A few final thoughts

Additional research remains to be done on the Melungeon people. Much of the research that exists was done in the 1990s and early 2000s but has now stalled due to the disagreements among Melungeon descendants as to who is a true Melungeon.

However, the fact remains that many Melungeons have Jewish ancestry, although they may not be aware of it.  Others know their ancestors were practicing Jews who at some point chose to hide their Judaism and convert to Christianity or chose simply to have no religious faith at all. And some, like myself, had parents who knew they were Jewish, dropped hints to their children, but denied being Jewish when directly asked about it.

There are many questions yet to be answered. The mysterious Melungeons are still mysterious in many ways, but Melungeons are not the stuff of Appalachian legend.  We are here and have been here for over 400 years, and many of us are embracing our Jewish ancestry.