Avoiding Pitfalls in Melungeon Research

A talk presented by Pat Spurlock in 1998.
It is reprinted here with her permission.

Good morning everybody.

I'll be talking to you this morning about how to avoid some of the pitfalls you may find while researching Melungeons. First, I want to warn you this is my very first public talk unless you count teaching high-school Sunday school class. I'm a researcher and a writer, so if you want to leave...you've been warned. I do promise not to preach, but I HAVE wanted to convert Bill Fields for several years.

How many of you think you MAY have Melungeon ancestry? How many of you positively are Melungeon descendants? How many are here only because they have to be?

Seriously, I understand some genealogy classes were taught on Thursday and Friday, so I hope I don't bore you folks who attended those. My talk will likely touch on some of the same things. Those of you who did attend the classes-I know you're already tired of hearing the word "documentation" but I'm going to use it several times today.

OK ... let's get down to business.

Research is fun and Melungeon research is especially fun. I've been addicted for thirty years. It will generally take one of three approaches:

1. Genealogical 2. Historical 3. Or some combination of the two.

In some cases some of you may want to do socio-economic studies or biological or medical research. Generally, though, one of the first three approaches is what the family researcher chooses. Today I'll focus on the Melungeon genealogical project, but most of the same information can be applied or modified for other types of research.

Regardless of your approach, some of the same general errors will occur if you aren't prepared. I like to call these errors "pitfalls" and I hope that today you'll learn a couple of ways to avoid them.

The first pitfall you'll likely come across is a lack of focus and preparation.

This isn't exclusive to Melungeon research, but it's easy to get excited about your project and let your imagination run away. This is especially true when you've found your first piece of neat information, such as your third-great-grandfather being listed as "FPC" on an early census. However, without focus and preparation you're going to end up using a jackrabbit approach that'll waste your time, your money, and give poor-quality results.

So, define your project. Ask yourself, am I looking for my family's genealogy? Am I trying to find out the "who, what, where, when and how" of Melungeon origination? On the other hand, is my goal to find information for both subjects?

After deciding, take time and prepare. Analyze your goal and then focus on one step at time. You'll just have to trust me that this gets you to the good stuff quicker. Practice will convince you.

If you're new to research, you're going to have to do some boring legwork first. Go to your bookstore or your local library and brush up on how to properly do research. You'll certainly want to avoid the hit-and-miss approach. I’d recommend some particularly good books. An old standby, "Cite Your Sources" by Richard Lackey teaches you how to document your findings. A terrific new book called "Evidence!" by Elizabeth Shown Mills teaches how to document and analyze. In addition, a third book by Val Greenwood, "The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy," will be one you'll want to take on every research trip.

These books are good starting points and can answer just about any question you may have about general genealogical research and documentation.

The second pitfall you'll want to avoid, and unfortunately, this happens a lot, is a lack of documentation. Regardless of which project method you choose your research MUST BE DOCUMENTED. It must be reliable and in a logical sequence. Here the main point to remember is start with what you know and work backwards ... always ... without exception, documenting each of these backward steps.

Yes, it's boring to start with yourself, but that's where successful research starts. From there go to your parents, then to your grandparents AND after each step, what do we do? (Correct response: Document our findings.)

Your next step is finding four sets of great-grandparents. It is here where real trouble can start. This trouble is mainly caused by the researcher's lack of interest in the family as a whole. Tracing only your direct line is a pitfall to avoid like the plague.

Your direct line is called your lineal descent, while your aunts, uncles, cousins, great-aunts and uncles, are collateral descendants. In Melungeon research, studying these collateral folks is not only especially important, it's essential.

By the time you have found your four sets of great-grandparents, you are going to see how easy it is to start imagining things. A little imaginative thinking is good. A lot of it gets you in trouble. At best, your work's going to hopscotch around. You'll also spend a lot of time on false leads. At worst, you'll come to wrong conclusions and that wastes your time and money. Besides that, you'll miss your family's real history.

This is a good time to mention something I'm often asked. I get inquiries from folks who say they descend from the X-Y-Z family. They say their family tradition is we descend from an Indian, a Cherokee, or some such. I also find out that many times great-aunt Sally has told them that she doesn't know anything about their family history and doesn't want to talk about it. So, my inquirer then tells me he or she recently heard about a Melungeon surname list and their X-Y-Z surname was on that list. Their question is nearly always: do you think my family is Melungeon? This brings us to another pitfall: If you see one of your family names on a list, it may not necessarily mean your surname or your family is Melungeon. Not everyone who came through southern Appalachia and had Indian ancestry, or Mediterranean ancestry, or Dutch ancestry, was a Melungeon.

We also have to be willing to avoid the "common name syndrome" because most core-group Melungeon surnames were common to many nationalities. Even worse is assuming that an English, Irish, Spanish or whatever surname means that's the family's ethnic origin. It’s not always necessarily so.

Take the name Valentine for instance. It's used in some early Melungeon families as a given name. Valentine is often considered French ... except when it's the German version Fielding or the Dutch version Von Felton. You long-time Melungeon researchers probably recognize both Valentine and Fielding as early Melungeon or Melungeon-related given names.

Most of the time Vs and Fs were interchangeable in old-timey spelling, especially in some ethnic groups. OK ... all of you say, "Fielding" aloud. Now, say it quickly, but substitute a V for the F. I think you can pretty well see how these names sometimes became interchangeable. Add to this some creative spelling and you can have a real mess.

So, be aware that historical pronunciation and the spelling of what English ears thought they heard and what was really meant can be very different. This is similar to the story of the woman who had twelve children. When she had her thirteenth child, she told her doctor she would be honored if he named the new baby girl. The mother was delighted when she spoke the name the doctor recorded on the birth certificate-she said she wouldn't have thought of such a beautiful name as Femolly. Yes, that is a true story and the name was spelled f-e-m-a-l-e.

And... If you've documented what you've done so far, you can prove what you're saying. However, be prepared to get some ugly looks and remarks because most people don't like being corrected. Especially if they're wrong.

This brings us to another major pitfall: not using a logical definition of the word Melungeon.

The word has evolved from meaning the first core-group families, where fewer than a dozen names were considered Melungeon, into an almost meaningless term in the 1990s. Of the original dozen or so folks, some were what you might call "half-Melungeon" families.

By the time of the Civil War, the word had developed into a political term. By the turn of this century, it was developing into a socio-economic term as well as one that may or may not have meant ancestry from the earliest group.

So, if you're looking for Melungeon origination but insist on using a long list of surnames and calling all of them Melungeons, you're going to have to stomp out several fires before you get to the good stuff.

This surname problem seems to center around a belief that most all mixed-blood southeastern Indians were Melungeons. This error is most often made by researchers who haven't studied southeastern tribal histories. Native American ancestry is traceable if we follow the rules of research. Not every free-person-of-color who lived within twenty miles of a core-group family was a Melungeon either. Believing they were is, sadly, like holding on to the old one-drop rule, or the old racial bigotry attitude "they all look alike."

As you research, you may have to settle for the fact that perhaps your family really isn't Melungeon. I like to tell folks that if anyone ever wanted to be a Melungeon I do, but I have never found a direct ancestor who qualifies. My maiden name is Spurlock. My father's paternal ancestry is traditionally French and Indian, and specifically Algonquin and Cherokee. I can trace the Spurlock family back to New Kent County, Virginia--which was the wrong side of the tracks in the 1600s. In addition, their land there adjoined the Saponi Indians. Descendants of this Spurlock family were still living only a few miles from the Melungeon Collins, Goings, and Gibson families in 1830 Hawkins County, Tennessee, and in 1930 Hancock County. My greatest pleasure is in knowing my maiden name made W.A.Plecker's "Mongrel" list. Unfortunately, all this doesn't make me a Melungeon although I wish it did. I just can't prove my connection and to my knowledge, my family was never considered Melungeon. The key is that something made certain families uniquely Melungeon while others were not. It's our job to discover those differences.

This brings us to a fourth major pitfall: not defining the meaning of Melungeon for the type of researches you'll be doing.

Ask yourself, am I going to research only the historical core group families? How many generations of out-marriage families should I include? Am I only interested in just my family's genealogy? How accurate is my definition? Am I being objective?

If you start including new surnames that intermarry past the third generation, you are going to have a HUGE job and will likely lose focus on the original Melungeon families. Although this is a perfectly acceptable undertaking, your project would likely be better called a community history rather than a Melungeon history.

This fourth pitfall is more evident for folks doing historical rather than genealogical research. Its shotgun approach is confusing and generally results in what we used to say as "having to lick your calf over." So, take time to do a preliminary survey and develop a working definition of your subject.

On the opposite side of the coin is a useful tool called the "neighborhood-canvass." This DOES involve studying all families in the neighborhood and tracing them as well as Melungeon families. However, be careful. Don't assume every family in a neighborhood was Melungeon.

Whatever your choice of definition, just remember: start at a logical point and work backwards -- work from what you know back to what you don't know. Document every step.

As I mentioned, it is very important to remember that not all mixed-blood families were Melungeon. It's equally important to remember that not all families living in a community and having the same surname are necessarily related. This belief can be a giant pitfall in Melungeon research. Two good examples are the Gibson and Goins families.

There were Gibsons galore around here in the old days and they are here yet. There are at least three distinct lines and only one is Melungeon.

Not all Goins descend from the well-known Michael Goins who was called "a free mulatto" in colonial Virginia. There are unrelated Frenchmen and Germans who have the Goins last name or one of its variant spellings.

Mullins is probably even worse. There are English, French, German, Swiss, and adopted Mullinses. So make sure you have your families straight.

Another pitfall to avoid is the excuse "But Melungeons didn't leave any written records. What am I supposed to do?" When I hear this, I always know it either comes from a new, inexperienced researcher, or it comes from, and I hate to say this, but it comes from somebody who is a bit lazy. They think they just really can't be bothered to take time to do their own research. Research is hard work. Inexperience can be corrected, but I haven't quite figured out what to do about laziness.

Another thing I've seen a lot of over the years is people swapping their family trees. They take a little from each swap and truly believe they have done research. Their reasoning is "It must be true because I read it in three books." Not everything in print is accurate ... or even close. Warning: The old "publishing anything is better than publishing nothing" attitude is not only a pitfall to avoid it is a real hindrance in Melungeon research. There are just too many untapped primary sources out there to have to resort to plagiarism or recycling unverified information.

Books are great secondary resources ... sometimes ... but it's wise to check out your author and his or her sources before using their information. If the work is documented and the information checks out and you use it, make sure you give proper credit to the person who did the work. If their work doesn't check out, then you certainly don't want to be caught quoting them even with proper credit given!

If you are satisfied the work is documented and correct, then use the book as a guideline, but not as proof. As I mentioned earlier, so much of the work done on Melungeons is just recycled information that's been repeated for over a century and now it's accepted as gospel. So be careful with secondary sources.

Under this same category is a tendency for newcomers to believe that if they found family information at the so-called "Mormon" library or on the Internet, it must be so. The LDS Church and their family history centers and libraries are excellent resources. Just remember that people just like you and I compiled any genealogies you find there, or on the Internet. Those genealogies are only as good as their documentation and in most cases, documentation isn't even shown. The great advantage of using LDS sources is their extensive microfilm and microfiche collection of original records. You do have to have access to a branch library to use the collection though unless you can go to Utah. So be aware of the pitfalls in using the famous "Mormon" library records or the Internet.

By the time you reach this point in your research, you're ready to visit your bookstore or library again. Read every reliable history you can get your hands on concerning the area where your Melungeon ancestors lived. Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee or Haywood's History of Tennessee or any of Lewis Preston Summers' works are excellent for studying the Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina border counties.

As you progress, you'll find yourself eventually working backwards through Virginia. Any book written by F.B. or Mary Kegley is a real gold mine for our area of interest.

Study up on North Carolina and Virginia's colonial Indians. Be aware that Virginia was mainly occupied by Siouan and Algonquian-speaking tribes and there were dozens of sub-tribes in each group. Such a book as James L. Wright Jr.'s "The Only Land They Knew" is excellent for studying North Carolina's colonial Indians. Look for James Adair's History of the American Indians. Also, look for any book or article written by Helen Rountree or Virginia Easley DeMarce. Early Bureau of Ethnology bulletins by James Mooney are excellent sources as are his books. These books and articles will also give you good working bibliographies for more Native American sources.

Check your library or ask a lawyer friend or your banker where to find information on historical statutes. Hening's Statutes are excellent for preliminary work on colonial Virginia law. Most large libraries will have a copy.

You may be surprised to find that some of the laws you've been told existed really didn't. In Tennessee call, write, or E-mail the state archives in Nashville. The wealth of information they have will astound you. Tennessee Supreme records, criminal cases, and the like are available for purchase or loan on microfilm. All filmed county records are also available. One caution ... not all records for all counties are microfilmed whether in Tennessee or any other state. This is especially so for what is called "loose papers." These papers often relate to estate settlements and can be gold mines.

Visit county courthouses. If you can't visit and have the extra money, hire a local genealogist to be your legs there. If you can't visit the local courthouses, and most of us can't, ask your librarian to order microfilm for you. Most Tennessee and Virginia microfilmed county records are available on interlibrary loan. Most microfilmed North Carolina county records may be bought through some libraries at a reasonable fee. Your reference librarian should become your best friend.

If you're lucky enough to be able to travel to courthouses, be sure and plan your trip around historical boundaries rather than modern ones. County and state lines have changed an awful lot. People didn't always recognize boundaries either. The area where Lee County, Virginia, and Hancock County, Tennessee, touch allowed folks to transact their business in either county depending on need. Post-Revolutionary War Melungeon families tended to live near state boundaries and left records on both sides of the line. So be sure to study the political histories of their resident counties. North Carolina is especially a problem because of a fifteen-mile wide or so discrepancy at the northern border. Surveyors goofed up the line, so neither state claimed it. Anyone living there was never criminally prosecuted or required to do a lot of legal stuff for several years. Perhaps next year we can get Bill Fields to talk about "Squabble State."

Explore the manuscript sections and archives of the nearest colleges. You'll be amazed at what you'll find. They don't necessarily have to be colleges in this area. Folks from this area settled the West. They often left valuable papers to libraries and colleges in our western states.

The most neglected resource in Melungeon research is military records. Learn where they are and how to use them.

If you do all this boring investigating first, you'll avoid another pitfall: believing that Hancock County, Newman's Ridge, and Blackwater were inaccessible in the early days. Just about all early articles tell you how Melungeons picked out a spot no one could get to as they were driven up on Newman's Ridge where nobody wanted to be. This stuff keeps being repeated and many folks believe it. It's like "Well, it must be true because I read it in three books" pitfall. Investigation will show you the true situation. Here are some points to consider:

Greasy Rock was THE Tennessee weigh-station and campsite back in the 1760s when the first hunters and explorers came. Does anyone know where Greasy Rock is? [Answer: Sneedville in Hancock County.]

Does anyone have any idea of how many trappers, explorers, and settlers came through Greasy Rock before 1780? [Answer: Several dozen and probably more.]

Does anyone know the route people took to get to Cumberland Gap? [Answer: Either Boone's "Wilderness Trail" through Lee County or from Greasy Rock over to Snake Hollow and on through Claiborne County.]

Does anyone know where and how much land Vardy Collins owned? [Answer: Several hundred acres in Vardy Valley going all the way to the Lee County line.] That's an awful lot of land to own and keep in the family if Melungeons supposedly had to give up their good bottomland isn't it? It's not on Newman's Ridge either.

My favorite point on this pitfall I suppose is really a personal one. Anybody who's been to Vardy or Newman's Ridge is going to have a lot of trouble believing it was a great punishment to live there. It is one of the most beautiful places in the United States. Besides that it's hard to find anywhere around here without ridges---living on one wasn't exactly unusual.

Next find out which early newspapers are still available in the area, and don't forget religion. Most early Melungeons were Baptist. Find out what churches were in their area, and then try to find any existing church records. I've never met Jack H. Goins, but his valuable find in the Stony Creek Church minutes is a real jewel. It's a true example of what focused research can do ... Oh yes ... Jack documented his find so all the rest of us could locate and use the information too.

Probably the hardest thing to accept in Melungeon research is the willingness to accept what you find not what you want to find. I like one of my husband's favorite expressions, better known as "OCCAM'S RAZOR." On the other hand, don't make a problem more complicated than it needs to be.

I think Bill Fields refers to this as "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, then it must be a duck."

We don't want to forget though that there are mallards, teals, wood ducks, duck decoys, and several other types of quackers. Melungeon researchers are out to locate the origins of a specific kind of duck. So, form your plan and stay focused. If you decide you already know what you're looking for, you'll probably find it, right or wrong. Let your research guide you instead of guiding your research.

One last pitfall to avoid is not checking out family traditions. If possible, find out the source. Try to find out about what time the tradition first appeared in your family. This gives you a place and time so you can investigate any records that either help support your tradition or refute it.

Here's how this could work. Let's say you and I are first cousins on our father's side. You've lived in Hancock County all your life. Your daddy told you that his great-grandfather was 1/2 Cherokee and 1/2 English. Now my daddy moved off from here shortly after World War II and we didn't have any more contact with your family. Daddy told me that his great-grandfather was 1/2 Algonquian Indian and 1/2 English.

In this pretend example, your daddy and my daddy got their information from the same person-our grandfather, who got the information from our great-grandfather. As oral traditions go, we say the two versions are independent of each other or mutually exclusive. In other words, we have two stories concerning the same family coming from different people who had little contact with each other. The only problem is the Cherokee aren't Algonquian ... they're Iroquoian. Each family firmly believes their tradition was passed down accurately, remembered well, and must be correct. The likelihood is the family is partly Indian and partly English, at least in one of our great-grandfather's lines. That's about all that can be said with what information we have. It is our job as researchers to track down this tradition, sort out our information, and if possible, find out where the error lies. And of course, we will document our findings at each step.

There are several other pitfalls to avoid in Melungeon research, but we are running out of time. If you keep these things in mind you'll be armed with the necessary skills you'll need to collect, document and analyze your findings. You won't have to rely on copying what others have said or written -- which may or may not be correct. You'll have positive answers instead of just guesses and you can develop your next strategy with confidence knowing you're headed in the right direction.

Learn to develop and trust your skills. Don't just accept what someone else has done, using it as your own family history. And, remember what your first-grade teacher told you: If you copy off your neighbor, you'll get caught and they may not have the right answer anyway.

I wish all of you good luck and a safe trip home.

Thanks so much. I've really enjoyed this.

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