Origins

A while back I started some very amateur genealogy research and stated on the blog that I wanted to know my origins by the time the first snow fell. Well, we had a little Alberta clipper move through over the weekend, dropping just enough white stuff to make my little corner of the world look like a snow globe. The roads slicked up in the unseasonably cold temps and reminded me of my promise to reveal what, besides sugar and spice and everything nice, this Kentucky girl is made of.

So here it is: so far as I can tell, as far back as I can go, I am Irish, English, German, Welsh, with perhaps a dash of that peculiar and controversial Appalachian blend, Melungeon. (If you've never heard of the Melungeons and their claim to be the descendants of early Mediterranean settlers who intermingled with the Native Americans and whites of the mountains, go look them up--Mom's relatives used to talk about how they were part "Portugee" and she never put any stock in it until we learned that nearly every surname I found going back 4 generations on her mother's side is a Melungeon surname.)

I am a mixed bag. Which makes me, like the rest of you dear readers, uniquely American.