Melungeon and mixed-ancestry history, one family line at a time.
Heather Andolina, president of the Melungeon Heritage Association, and co-host Brooke Gibbons interview guests about Melungeon and mixed-ancestry family history. Season six ties that history to the American Revolution: a Melungeon author, a documentary photographer and guests from the Daughters of the American Revolution talk about free people of color, land warrants and genealogical records.
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Melungeon Voices treats family history as a shared project. The Melungeon Heritage Association presents it, and the association's president, Heather Andolina, hosts it with co-host Brooke Gibbons. Each episode is built around its guests. The material is personal one moment and drawn from the archives the next. A guest remembers how it felt to spot common Melungeon surnames in her own family; elsewhere, someone reads out a land warrant from the North Carolina General Assembly. Across season six, the American Revolution keeps coming back. The episode with Melungeon author Wayne Winkler, a former president of the association, lays out the bind enslaved men faced when the British and the Americans each offered freedom. It also admits that good figures on what people of mixed ancestry did during the war are hard to find. Marvin Jones, a documentary photographer and founder of the Chowan Discovery Group, talks about the mixed community of the Winton Triangle and about ancestors who served. His conversation turns to land granted to soldiers and ends in an open question: had some of that land been confiscated from loyalists? Dr. LaTanya Bowman and Dr. Kersten Priest take the story toward abolitionism and the Underground Railroad through the Jamestown Freedom Pioneers. They name families, including the Pettifords and Weavers, who worked together on migrating caravans. That episode also mentions resolutions from High Point and Jamestown that were carried to a family reunion in Indiana and presented to tribal communities. Guests from the Daughters of the American Revolution explain the genealogical records the organization holds, the research help available through local chapters, and a Melungeon Research Group under its National Specialty Research Committee. Sibrena Stowe-Geraldino, a music manager, publicist, journalist and editor, talks about her own mixed ancestry, including ancestors who fought in the Revolution, and explains how to submit Melungeon ancestors to that organization. Her story of a friend's surprised reaction to her complexion is one of the frankest moments here. The register stays warm throughout. Thanksgiving plans, unwrapped presents and a quiet New Year come up before the interviews begin, and in one episode Brooke Gibbons circles back to a detail from the Marvin Jones conversation. The guests are openly enthusiastic, and one apologizes mid-answer for getting so excited. The show also has its own song, 'We Are Melungeon', released as its intro music and offered as a free download, and several episodes close on its refrain, 'where we've been is who we are'. Season six credits a grant from the VA 250 Commission and Virginia Humanities. A listener trying to document an ancestor can start with the Daughters of the American Revolution conversation or the Sibrena Stowe-Geraldino episode. For the wartime history, the Wayne Winkler episode is the natural place to begin.
Made for: Suits a listener researching Melungeon or mixed-ancestry roots, or one curious about free people of color in the Revolutionary era, who likes history told through surnames, land records and family stories.
What sets it apart: The heritage nonprofit its host leads makes the show, so the talk moves easily from Revolutionary-era history to practical genealogy, such as how to submit a Melungeon ancestor to the Daughters of the American Revolution. It also has an anthem of its own, 'We Are Melungeon'.
The Melungeon Heritage Association is a nonprofit organization that documents and preserves the history and cultural legacy of the Melungeon people of Appalachia, but also mixed ancestry peoples of the Southern and Eastern United States. This podcast brings the extraordinary stories, history, and cultural insights from an array of voices, within the Melungeon, and mixed-ancestry communities. Hosted by Heather Andolina, President of The Melungeon Heritage Association, and co-host Brooke Gibbons. Presented by The Melungeon Heritage Association (www.melungeon.org)
A land warrant turns your Revolutionary War curiosity into a family history case file.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A personal path through surnames, skin color, Melungeon identity, and American Revolution documentation.
Melungeon Voices follows a family story into the larger work of tracing Melungeon ancestry. Sybrina Stowe-Geraldino links family surnames to the region, reflects on how brown skin has been treated and honored, and talks through the process of submitting a Melungeon ancestor to…
A grounded look at Jamestown families, fugitive routes, and the practical networks that supported migration to freedom.
Jamestown Freedom Pioneers traces how Jamestown families figured in abolitionism and Underground Railroad activity from the American Revolution through the Civil War. Dr. Latanya Bowman and Dr.
Marvin Jones follows Revolutionary service, land warrants, and family research into the Winton Triangle.
Melungeon Voices follows Marvin Jones, documentary photographer and founder of the Chowin Discovery Group, into the Winton Triangle through records, family research, and the history of a mixed community.
Wayne Winkler ties Melungeon ancestry to Revolutionary-era choices, records, and uncertainty.
The episode sets Melungeon history against the American Revolution, before names like Melungeon, Croatan, and Brass Ankle had come into common use.
A grounded look at DAR efforts to identify Melungeon patriots.
This PlayNext review follows a DAR-centered conversation on Melungeon research, with Barbara Bishop outlining her work as the first Melungeon Specialty Research National Vice Chair and the effort to identify Melungeon patriots connected to the struggle for independence.
Quiet adventures in the British countryside.
Movie history with a widening lens.
California, explained through consequential conversations.
Host Heather Andolina interviews Sybrina Stowe-Geraldino about her mixed ancestry and how to submit Melungeon ancestors to the Daughters of the American Revolution.
This episode discusses the significance of the Jamestown Freedom Pioneers on abolitionism and the Underground Railroad from the American Revolution to the Civil War.
Hosts interview Marvin Jones about the mixed community of the Winton Triangle and his ancestors of mixed ancestry who fought in the American Revolution.
Host Heather Andolina interviews Wayne Winkler about the role of Melungeon and mixed-ancestry people during the American Revolution.
Hosts introduce a special episode featuring guests from the DAR who are working to identify Melungeon patriots from the American Revolution.
Melungeon Voices opens Season 6 by debuting its new theme song "We Are Melungeon" and interviewing Jess Arnold, creator of MelungeonRoots.com.
Danielle Romero, a New York-born YouTube creator behind the NYTN channel, tells host Heather how a Google search about her Goans, Drake and Chavez ancestors introduced her to the word Melungeon about six months before recording.
Bowling Green State University PhD candidate John King tells Melungeon Voices that North Carolina's eugenics law, under which over 7,000 poor and Black residents were sterilized from 1929 to 1974, extended to welfare recipients.
Hosts interview author Paul Johnson about his research into mixed-ethnic families in coastal Carolina, including the Sarah Stanley Grimke collection.
Hosts interview Bill Gibson about his family ancestry and the history of the Gibson and Collins families in Appalachia.
A podcast episode featuring an interview with Beverly Scarlett, a district court judge and author, discussing her genealogical research into her Harris family's mixed Black American Indian roots.
Introduction to a new podcast series about Melungeon history and culture, with membership reminders and a preview of an interview with historian Frederick Murphy.