Thanks. My mother always described said her paternal grandmother was
described as a little Black Dutch woman. Now I can send her a clear
description of what the term means. Her name was Margaret (Elizabeth?)
Kelly who married Maatthew Daniel Carden. They married after 1880 (so not
on that census) and she died before 1900 since he is in the census with his
three sons and his mother and stepfather are living with them. His eldest
son, James Edward Carden, always said he was born in Coffee Co. Since both
AL and GA have a Coffee Co, (haven't checked TN), I am at a loss as to how
to verify the marriage or where to begin looking. I have checked both
Russell Co, AL and Muscogee CO, GA. Both died in Russell Co, AL. Anyone
come across this information in their search?
----- Original Message -----
From: Beth MacDonald <bmacd(a)dmci.net
To:
<CARDEN-L(a)rootsweb.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 4:05 AM
Subject: [CARDEN-L] Melungeons
Arthur, Sharon and all who were also interested in Melungeons,
This was most interesting. The Melungeons are apparently an
historical group of people about whom there is some controversy....at
least varied theories. They were a group of people in the Southern US,
especially Tennessee, who were said to be swarthy and dark haired with
"shining blue eyes". There is the possibility that they are the result
of various mixed bloods: black, native american, white...possibly
Portuguese. It seems that they were sometimes counted on the census as
black, but were not enslaved and were usually counted as white.
The sites I was sent for more information were very helpful:
http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/FenwickMt/index.html
http://www.melungeons.org/
I don't know about all of you, but in our line there are lots of shining
blue eyes!
Beth
==== CARDEN Mailing List ====
This list is for the discussion of Carden Genealogy only. Any violations
(ie.
spam) will result in immediate removal from the listserver. To contact
the list owner email listowner jimd(a)wings-n-things.com