The vast database of Google Books allows for tracing the appearance of different words over time in literature.  The Ngram program as applied to Melungeon for the period from 1970 through 2008 shows a dramatic increase beginning in the mid-1990s.…

Proving I’m a Pell Meller descendant is impossible, by the standards some would apply to the word Melungeon.

Both of my father’s parents were born in central Bertie County, the area around present-day Askewville, traditionally known as the Pell Mell Pocosin.  My Johnsons, Dunlows, Whites, Hugheses, Millers, Willifords, and many other lines, all traceable to colonial times as living in that area.  The written record is abundant about where they lived, and the place name…

Questions about the Lost Colony continue to intrigue historians and archaeologists.  A conference this week in Chapel Hill explored newly discovered clues in a 16th century map.  Beginning in 2009, Arwin Smallwood has shared his research at MHA Unions, and suggested his native Bertie County as the likeliest place for the Lost Colonists to have resettled.  My own family research in Bertie County…

This study, released February 16, has generated a considerable amount of news coverage, which is justified by the major changes it reports.  Of special interest to readers in the Upper South is this finding: "And the top states for white/black intermarried couples are Virginia (3.3%), North Carolina (3.2%) and Kansas (3.0%)."

The first paragraph of the Executive Summary gives a thumbnail…