Talk:Melungeon DNA Project

Article deletion

stephen; You deleted the article Melungeon DNA Project for no good reason. You said it was commercial. It is not. Jack Goins, Penny Ferguson and Janet Crain are the administrators of this project. They receive no financial compensation.

There have been very important findings come out of this project already. There is full disclosure to the public of surnames, haplogroups and genealogies. There was not from the first two Melungeon DNA Projects.

Please do not delete this article again. It was very unfair as 5 days is not enough notice. There was serious illness preventing us checking on this page.

This is a project of value and if it is deleted again, I will be force to conclude vandalism.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Emuchick (talk • contribs) 22:09, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

where are the genealogies you speak of. I can't find them anywhere and I am very interested in reviewing the results. 98.150.110.57 (talk) 17:08, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

It actually probably needs to be deleted, since this is just one DNA project of thousands on FTDNA.com, and is outdated-many of the Y-DNA testers tested under 111 markers, and we know now that just because two people share a haplogroup does not necessarily mean they are genealogically related. There was no genealogical standard of proof for the conclusions and findings made. There are numerous issues with this particular DNA project and should not be touted as a non commercial enterprise when there are numerous in house references back to it's own author, Roberta Estes' commercial website, "DNA explained". This was also a biased project and should not be elevated above any other works on the so called "Melungeon" peoples of Appalachia, which most writers to date who have written about "Melungeons" have a bias against the actual people they are studying to label them this moniker, and also come from the "Yankee" industrial era families who are commonly German or Swiss in their own background (i.e. Will Allen Dromgoole, Walter Plecker, Roberta Estes). This is a borderline racist study with errors throughout, cherry picking historical narratives to flush out the findings that were mostly presented in brief table and footnote form, rather than actual pedigrees and genealogical standards of proof. Example: multiple claims of family ties and groups in the table without showing or explaining these relationships. The references are terrible and not proof read: Littell's Living Age was named Little's Living Age in the references, "Author unknown" when in fact the author's name is right in the series' title, which they misspelled. Among other issues like referencing themselves without any way to verify the validity of the source. This is a most amateur study and should not be touted as anything but. 98.150.110.57 (talk) 14:38, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

Explanation of findings

It would be useful if someone would explain the findings so far on the Y DNA and mTDNA. I don't know enough to know what I'm looking at, and probably many other people don't either. What are the findings so far? Surely these could be given as of a particular date. It's a fascinating project.--Parkwells (talk) 02:39, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

That is the issue; because they have shared only part of the project publicly, it is almost impossible to fact check the findings, unless you do all the pedigree work yourself for the people mentioned- and then you realize that this study is fraught with errors. For the longest time, I thought this was a good resource- it is not. I am also an administrator for a couple of FTDNA projects, so I personally am aware of the features and functions that can be shown or hidden. In Roberta Estes', Jack Goins, Penny Ferguson, and Janet Crain's FTDNA project, they turned off the "Activity feed", not allowing any collaboration between members or discussion of the study. This is a big red flag. 98.150.110.57 (talk) 14:44, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

Haplo-group testing is not conclusive enough to determine ethnicity and we all know full well that genealogies are subject to change based on new evidence. The Melungeon DNA Project and its leaders are making broad generalized statements that are not sustainable based on the historical records nor on scientific grounds. The so called "Melungeons" are not a mystery group of people. They are mixed-blood Indians plain and simple. To say they were biracial Euro-Africans is not the full truth and saying that 20th century research has found that to be the case is misleading and possibly even fraudulent. Paul Hienegg would have us all believe that anyone not listed as White, in the records, are African and this a gross misreading of the records. His attempt to relabel Indian mixedblood communities as Free Africans is no different than Walter Ashby Plecker's propaganda to do the same in the 1930's and 40's. DNA can help genealogy research, but it can not define ethnic groups. Present all the facts not just the cherry picked factiods. SPC 05/31/2010 13:08, 15 January 2011 (UTC)Documenter08 (talk) 13:08, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Although *technically* described as a 'technical advisor' to this DNA Project Roberta Estes is in fact an administrator and is founder and owner of the commercial company DNAeXplain and has teamed with Family Tree DNA to jointly offer personalized DNA analysis for customers as early as 2009.

This should not be a Melungeon DNA project as only Melungeon customers of FTDNA are allowed to join. Anyone testing with other companies are not represented and must pay FTDNA for another test if they want to join this project. This page should be deleted. Ms Estes as well as her co-administrators have publicly identified her as an administrator:

• http://www.jogg.info/62/files/Estes.pdf
• http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/melungeon/2010-12/1293843189
• http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/melungeon/2010-12/1292864990 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.27.15.31 (talk) 06:42, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

You should read Heinegg's work more carefully before condemning it. He traced many families to descendants of white indentured women and Africans in colonial VA, by court records, land deeds, and other documents, not to mixed-blood Native Americans. White and African servants were more commonly working and living together in colonial VA, and created many mixed-race families. Jack Goins has found similar evidence in his research of Melungeons.Parkwells (talk) 14:48, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

My comment had nothing to do with Heinegg. I have read Heinegg's work, very carefully, in fact. There are many inaccuracies in his genealogies, not including the many 'probably' 'might have been' 'said to be' and 'question marks'. Heinegg may have *traced* these White and African servants through court records, deeds, etc., but seriously how can you trace a Native American through court records and deeds when but very few even had surnames? They were invisible for the most part. Jack Goins research is clearly biased. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Documenter08 (talk • contribs) 15:28, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Notability?

I am struggling to see how this topic is notable. I see nothing cited that indicates that the 'Melungeon DNA Project' has any mention in 3rd-party sources. Certainly the study of Melungeon DNA has taken place and we have the research paper to prove it, but that doesn't mean there is a notable thing called the Melungeon DNA Project (and no, a FamilyTeeDNA project site doesn't count - the company will create such a project page for anyone who requests one so its existence says nothing about notability). 50.37.124.19 (talk) 20:20, 29 November 2016 (UTC).