Now a new DNA study in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy attempts to separate truth from oral tradition and wishful thinking. The study found the truth to be somewhat less exotic: Genetic evidence ...

For years, varied and sometimes wild claims have been made about the origins of a group of dark-skinned Appalachian residents once known derisively as the Melungeons. Some speculated they were ...

That report, which was published in April in the peer-reviewed journal, doesn’t sit comfortably with some people who claim Melungeon ancestry. “There were a whole lot of people upset by this ...

The Melungeons are a group of mixed ethnic ancestry first documented in northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. Similar groups of "mysterious" people, or at least remnants of these ...

Oral tradition - and perhaps convenience - had the Melungeons believing they were of Portuguese descent, but a new study published in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy points to African ancestry.

And that report, which was published in April in the peer-reviewed journal, doesn't sit comfortably with some people who claim Melungeon ancestry. "There were a whole lot of people upset by this ...

However, a 2011 DNA study published in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy pegs many self-identified Melungeons as the offspring of people from sub-Saharan Africa and Northern or Central Europe.

"In Tennessee, they are a people of more or less unknown origin. We assume there is some African ancestry, so the Melungeons largely kept to themselves," said Wayne Winkler, a professor at East ...

And that report, which was published in April in the peer-reviewed journal, doesn’t sit comfortably with some people who claim Melungeon ancestry. “There were a whole lot of people upset by ...

And that report, which was published in April in the peer-reviewed journal, doesn't sit comfortably with some people who claim Melungeon ancestry. "There were a whole lot of people upset by this ...