Reply #20: Ever heard of these people? [View All]

The Melungeons?

A few familes still remain in SE KY with names like McQueen, Sizemore, and Collins. Some folks say they are from Portuguese heritage? Others say they are maybe from the lost colony of Roanoke. Sir Walter Raleigh had dropped them off on the southern coast of NC and when he returned for them, they were nowhere to be found. Some think they joined with the native Americans, or were captured, and these folks are descendants of those early Americans. This was before Capt John Smith and the Jamestown colony in Virginia. For a long time in our history, the "Melungeons" were not permitted to vote - they were considered "mixed race".

My Great-Grandma was a Collins before she married my Grandpa Jim. She said she was one-quarter Cherokee? But nobody knows where her descendants originated.