Melungun connundrum

Who are the Melunguns? I know that they are some kind of ethnic group or clan in the Appalachian mountains. Where did they originate? What are some typically melungun physical traits? How do you spell Melungun? Are there any famous Melunguns?
Help me out here.

I saw a program on PBS some years ago explaining this and all my efforts to find out more came to nothing. i just did a Net search and found this:
http://athena.english.vt.edu/~appalach/essaysM/melung.htm

http://www.melungeons.org

What’s A “Melungeon”?
Some dictionary definitions:
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1981): melungeon, also malungeon: (me’lenjen -s) usu. cap [origin unknown]: one of a group of people of mixed Indian, white, and Negro ancestry in the southern Appalachians esp. of eastern Tennessee.

American Heritage Dictionary: Me.lun.geon (melun’jen) n. One of a small group of dark skinned people of uncertain origin living in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. [Origin uncertain.]

Dictionary of the English Language (1981): While “origin unknown” is still the most-certain conclusion, it is variously supposed the term comes from (1) the French melange, “mixing/mixture” or “blending/blend,” (2) the Greek IleAas melas, “dark” or “black,” or (3) the African-Portuguese melungo or mulango, perhaps meaning “shipmate”.

Some say the term is a sixteenth-century African-Portuguese (Berber/Moorish) word meaning simply “white person.”

However this man, Brent Kennedy , suggests that the Turkish terms “melun” and “can” (together pronounced “melunjun”!) can be translated as “damned soul” or “one whose life has been cursed.” Kennedy believes that his ancestors in Virginia and Tennessee-- including his Uncle Will Collins and mother Nancy, shown here–
were once known as Melungeons and that they indeed came to be ashamed of the label and sought to deny their ancestry in the face of overwhelming American racism and racist practices on-the ground.

Join with us as we explore the mysteries, myths, and multiplicities of the Melungeon people and one community’s quest to embrace their past and open the sealed envelopes of human history. This story is neither traditional history nor “Disney” history and-- considering some of the hate-filled mail received by Kennedy-- it’s a story that some folks don’t want to talk about. We- all the world’s offspring who are now WWWeb-Relatives-- must ask why …

Do a net search using google and you’ll get tons of stuff:

http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Ethnicity/Melungeon/
http://www.geocities.com/alhnmelungeon/
http://www.melungeonhealth.org/
http://members.aol.com/strat43z/melung.html
http://www.dnet.net/portugal/libby_page.htm
http://www.ukans.edu/heritage/cousin/melungeon.html
http://genforum.genealogy.com/melungeon/

Malachions? includes links to other sites on the subject.

Native American question is not a direct question, but has a Melungeon link.

Gray hair, sure, but like this? has a tangential link in the last post.

Shovel teeth? has another tangential link on Melungeons.

Accents - Southern Dopers? also mentions them in passing in the last two posts with a possible link.
I have not followed up all the links to ensure that there are no duplicates.

As for famous Melungeons, I know of one that was locally famous, anyway. My dad is from eastern Tennessee, and my grandfather, being from there as well, used to tell a story of a very obese Melungeon woman. She was a bootlegger, but the police couldn’t do anything about it–whenever the police came to arrest her, she was too wide to leave her house!

Cabbage,
that would be Mahalia (Big 'Haley) Mullins
…I heard that they had to remove her chimney and fireplace to get her remains out of the house and into the ground upon her death. An agent sent to arrest her for 'shine reported her to be " …catchable, but not fetchable"

The Washington Post ran an article on melungeons on 30 May of this year but they wanna charge me $2.95 to call it up online. No, thanks. :rolleyes: You can probably find it in the back issues at your public library, if they carry it. Or go on the Post’s website and call it up yourself.