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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 1999-11 > 0942545104


From: <>
Subject: Re: Black Irish
Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 21:05:04 EST


In a message dated 11/13/99 8:22:14 PM EST, Bearacuda1 writes:

> Black Irish covers a lot of territory. My mother siad my g grandfather was
> a black Irishman but in tracing the family, he was from England 7
generations
> removed and all Puritan from New England!
> Also, Black Irish is NOT melungeon. Melungeons have been found (some DNA)
> to be part Indian, part black and some Portuguese. They are properly
called "
> tri-racial isolates".
> It's my guess that the uneducated masses in the last century didn't know
> what to call someone of unusual coloring...how about the "black Dutch"?
> Helen Hewitt

Greetings, Helen:

Yes, there are in fact African American/Native Americans and they have a web
site at: <A HREF="http://members.aol.com/angelaw859/index.html">The African
- Native Genealogy Homepage</A>

Some people, I suppose, use the term Black when referring to people, or
classes of people, like they use "Black Sheep of the Family." I have always
assumed that Black Irish meant a nix of African and Irish. I could be wrong?

BTW what is MELUNGEON? I looked it up in Websters, The American Heritage
Dictionary and The Standard Encyclopedic Dictionary without success. Is it a
medical term?

Rick Blaney
Boston

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