I'm looking over President Obama's genealogy, which was linked to in a comment under Deep Harm's excellent diary entry and provides this information about two of Obama's great4-grandparents
126 Samuel Thompson Allred, b. Overton Co., Tenn., 6 Oct. 1809, d. Carroll Co., Ark., 4 Nov. 1857
m. ... [ca. 1828]
127 Anna Bunch, b. Overton Co., Tenn., 27 March 1814, d. Osage, Newton Co., Ark., 21 June 1893
Anna Bunch, the daughter of Nathaniel Bunch and Sarah Wade Ray, provides a very interesting set of circumstances to President Obama's bloodline. Both the Bunch and Ray surnames are indicative of descendency from a population of somewhat mysterious origin. Throughout the American South, at the fringes of what was once within the sphere of Spanish colonial influence, there are pockets of dark-skinned persons which claim "Portuguese" ancestry, but whose story is much more interesting than that...
Recent DNA research suggests that these people, called by a variety of colorful names like "Turks", "Brass Ankles", "Red Bones" and, perhaps most famously, "Melungeons", share a very interesting history that sheds new light on the history of Appalachia and, because of the out-migration of this population to points west, the settlement of America.
The name "Melungeon" applies chiefly to the rather large group residing primarily in NE Tennessee and SW Virginia along Wallen's Ridge in the Powell River valley. In Sumter County, S.C., where I live, the surname Ray is prominent among the remaining "Turks" while in Tennessee, the same name (though spelled Rhea) is more prominent. Other surnames, like Gibson, Goins, Osborne and Collins are shared among the scattered population to this day.
A variety of theories have been advanced to explain their presence, which dates to (at least) the earliest days of white settlement west of the Appalachians. Some assert that they are a remnant population from the Roanoke settlement, which left but one clue behind when it disappeared, the word "Croatan" etched on a tree in the former colony. Historian Virginia DeMarce provides solid evidence that they arose from the population of free persons of color and native Americans living in Virginia's tidewater area in the early 18th century.
Princeton professor Elizabeth Hirschman, herself of "Melungeon" descent, believes, as DNA evidence suggests, they are part of a much larger movement of Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews and Muslims that moved around in Europe (the Sephardim, for example, sought refuge with the Eastern European Ashkenazim in the lowcountry and Germany) and perhaps came with the earliest Spanish explorers (Columbus himself was probably Jewish) and stayed behind with the indigenous population to escape the advancing Spanish Inquisition. She asserts they came here and transitioned to a primitive Baptist Christianity while also remaining heavily involved in Freemasonry as a way of maintaining contact with future immigrants in Europe and maintaining community here in the new world. She and her research partner Donald Yates (DNA Consultants link below) have collaborated on an article to be published by Appalachian Journal, Fall 2010, called "Toward a Genetic Profile of Melungeons in East Tennessee", an abstract and draft version of which is at:
http://melungeon.dnaconsultants.com/...
The "Turks" of Sumter, S.C. claim descent from a man named Yusuf ben Ali, and the name Benenhaley remains a common surname in the area. This patriarchal figure claimed Turkish descent, hence the name, while records involving the patriarchal figures of the Melungeons suggest that they claimed "Portyghee" descent. "Portuguese", in those days, was sometimes shorthand for "Jewish" when people didn't exactly want to claim Jewish ancestry.
I've omitted a great deal and simplified a very complex subject, of course, and there is reams of information at these links if you're interested in a more detailed exploration, DNA results (which show Hirschman's theories to be plausible, I believe).
http://www.melungeons.com
http://historical-melungeons.blogspo...
http://dnaconsultants.com/...
Yates makes a convincing case that the mysterious term "Melungeon", which dates from an entry in the 1814 records of Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church in SW Virginia, where a woman confessed anger toward a fellow congregant for saying the woman "harbored them melungins", may well be an indicator that those so named by others in the surrounding community (not a name they chose for themselves, that is to say) were unusual because of their cultivation and consumption of the eggplant.
I just found it interesting that President Obama finds himself (like Lincoln) sharing a genealogy with this group of Americans whose presence here predates the founding of the country and perhaps the arrival of the first English settlers. He's more American than his critics give him credit for, and so were the early Jewish and Muslim immigrants to this country, whose story remains to be fully revealed.
If Dr. Hirschman is correct, the lost history of immigration to the early colonies and the subsequent contribution of the descendents of these people will have far-reaching impact on the understanding of a much larger percentage of the population in this country than has been accepted.