IN SEARCH OF THE BLACK DUTCH ANCESTRY OF THE MESTEE (MIXED BLOOD) GROUPS OF MY ANCESTORS. MELUNGEONS, CAROLINA PORTUGUESE, BRASS ANKLES, LUMBEE and REDBONES
THE ARCHER FAMILY: AND THE ROMANI GYPSY CONNECTION TO THE BLACK DUTCH AND MELUNGEONS
I have had the fortune (some racist would say misfortune) of being of several families of mixed ethnic heritage. When I say “mixed” I am talking of being of non Northern European ancestry and the “mix” also including Mediterranean and Eastern European ancestry and not just “non white” ancestry.
Some of these families are the Archer (Cherokee/Melungeon), Giddens (Cherokee), Mowery (Cherokee), Cole (Ohio Melungeon/Tuscarora), Webb (Tuscarora), Bounds (Welsh/Tuscarora/Melungeon), Wolf (Black Dutch), Wolfe (Black Dutch), Rousom (Mediterranean), Reasoner/Reasonaier (French Huguenot), Froman/Vrooman (French Walloon), Speers (French Walloon), Minnick (Black Dutch), Vinson, Miller (Native American/Black Dutch) and many many more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walloons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melungeon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_(Romani_subgroup)
The Roma Gypsy first came to the United States early and integrated with others of obscure ancestry other than Northern European. The origin of the Roma, also in error known as "Gypsy", is India, and they migrated to Europe in waves beginning some 2000 years ago. They are found from Russia to England to Spain and into North Africa and the Middle East.
The term “Black Dutch” is also used for the German Gypsy (Sinti and Roma) and they have been referred to as “Black Dutch” for quite some time. The term “Black Dutch" in America has been used for several mixed groups of peoples and families.
The Melungeons have also been called Black Dutch and the surnames I have associated to them are Archer, Adams and Cole.
I was born with the surname ARCHER, and the Archer family has a long history in the United States as well as one associated with “Melungeon type” ancestry and mixed blood ancestry.
I trace my Archer family back to Lawrence County Tennessee where they were on records as being of the trade of “Blacksmiths” and in this County they intermarried exclusive with the Byrd, Lyons and Cannon families. Before that they were in North Carolina near Hertford County. The Blacksmith trade is a possible clue to Romani Gypsy origin.
According to this website.
http://www.paulpolansky.nstemp.com/original%20research.html
How many times had I heard about itinerant Gypsy blacksmiths in Europe? In India I found the Lohar, still making their wares at curbside, a small hole scooped out for water, another for their coals kept red hot by the blacksmith's wife turning a bicycle rim to run the blower while their children sought out the buyers for their homade chisels and pliers.
According to author and Melungeon researcher Tim Hawshaw who prescribes a African Angolan origin to the Archer family.
The Archer family begins in 1647 America with related families; Archie, Bass, Bunch, Heathcock, Manly, Murray, Milton, Newsom, Roberts, and Weaver.
http://www.eclectica.org/v5n3/hashaw.html
However, Melungeon researcher James Nickens has stated to me that “The Archer family is mixed South Asian, Native American and Romani Gypsy ancestry”
It is known that the Weaver family was of a South Asian ancestry from Pakistan and Northern India and they and the Manly family, who have been thought to be from Romani ancestry, were related to the Archers.
My own DNA tests have shown some North India and South India matches as well as matches to Northern Dobruja Romania and Bucharest Romania possibly with some Romani Gypsy overflow and genetic drift. If any of the original Mestee Romani Archer blood remains in the DNA it is found in these results, because the original Archers intermarried with my Cherokee families during the 1800s. I also found it interesting that a Great Uncle bred World Class Arabian pure bred horses during the 1800's but he was of the Miller family. Horse Breeding and taming is another Romani Gypsy legacy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Romanians
Brent Kennedy, the forefather of Melungeon identity and research, has a MtDNA haplotype from the Siddi tribe in India that I believe is from a Romani Gypsy origin. In fact the Romani descend from several diverse ethnic groups.
Many Romany share the Siddi mitochondria and the Romany-related surnames that follow this particular mitochondrial line in my family (Mullins, Bennett, Rose, etc.) would seem supportive of a Romany origin.
http://www.melungeons.com/articles/statementfromkennedy.htm
From this website on Romani orgins by a Romani Gypsy:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rcctoronto/diaspora.html
We originated in India but were not one specific group of Indians, not all of one caste and not even one people. In the 11th century ad there was a group of petty kingdoms in Gurjara in the Northwest area of India in what was then the Rajput Confederacy. These were feudal-type societies composed of a caste of warrior-landowners ( Kshatriya ) and a supporting population of non-warriors composed of workers and artisans who did all the work for the ruling warrior caste. Some were farmers working with animals or bred and trained horses for the warrior caste who fought on horseback as cavalry. others were metal smiths, some entertainers, others craftspeople, silver smiths, gold smiths or laundry men and women, in other words, all the people needed to maintain a working society of people.
The Romani Gypsy are a mix in and of themselves of several groups in India, (the Siddi being one of them) but they are also of several Near Eastern, Persian, Turk, Greek and various Eastern and Western European groups.
Indeed, most Romani have 60% European ancestry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddi
From the Patrin Journal, a leading Romani historian of Romani Gypsy descent (look at the Siddi contribution):
http://www.geocities.com/~Patrin/identity.htm
But are Roma, in fact, Indians? From the very beginning, the population has been a composite one, and acknowledging that fact constitutes a third approach. Evidence points to Dravidian, Scythian, and even East African (Siddhi) input into the early mix of militia and camp followers. Once in Europe, the migration-by this time a conglomerate ethnic population whose diverse speech had crystallized into one language-encountered other mobile populations and in some cases joined and intermarried with them. Sometimes the Romani cultural and linguistic presence was sufficient for the newly encountered populations to be absorbed and become Roma in subsequent generations; sometimes the Romani contribution was not sufficient to maintain itself, and other, non-Romani populations such as the Jenisch emerged. During the centuries of slavery in Moldavia and Wallachia and under conditions of oppression elsewhere in Europe, Romani women bore unwanted babies by non-Roma fathers. Cohn has estimated the mean percentage of European "blood" in the European Romani genetic makeup to be 60 percent
The Kennedy MtDNA shows conclusive proof, in my opinion, of Romani Gypsy ancestry being in the Melungeons and most likely throughout many of the descendents of the Pennsylvania Dutch and the Black Dutch of the Southern United States.
Brent Kennedy was very close in his speculation of Turkish origin for the Melungeons, but it just so happens that it appears to be Romani Gypsy ancestry, Sub Saharan African, with some minor Native American and South Asian.
Having both Black Dutch ancestry from several families, like the Wolfe and Miller families, as well as my mixed Cherokee/Melungeon Archer family and mixed Tuscarora/Ohio Melungeon Cole family, along with my DNA results for North and South India and European Romania DNA. I have no doubt that at least a small portion of Romani Gypsy ancestry exist in our family today.
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