Overall searching reflections

My topic was Melungeons and other tri-racial isolate groups.  I always searched for “Melungeon” first and then attempted to find information on any/all of the other groups if nothing was found with that initial search.  The topic was not well-covered at all in some of the databases.  For instance, PsychInfo, PubMed and American Fact Finder had virtually nothing on the subject.  Others such as ProQuest DIALOG, LexisNexis, Google Images, WorldCat and JSTOR did have some really good results. 

I didn’t get the opportunity to do a lot of “strategic changes” to my searching.  If the database had any results on my subject at all, I retrieved them with a simple search and, in most cases, narrowing it down at all just led to getting no results.  In a couple instances, I did add the limiter “Appalachia” and was still able to get some hits.  I did have it re-emphasized over and over how very different a results list can be when the search term is pluralized. 

 I have been reading about Melungeons for around 15 years or so now so I didn’t find a lot of scholarly information that I wasn’t already at least somewhat familiar with.  I did learn some information which I consider more “trivia,” though, that I’d like to share:

 *Nearly 200,000 people in the US self-identify as Melungeon

 *Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley and Ava Gardner are all rumored to have Melungeon ancestry

 *From the 2006 article "What Is a Melungeon?" by Melissa Slate: "Some Melungeons carry distinct physical characteristics that have been handed down through generations. Frequently the presence of an Anatolian bump is noted, being about the size of half of a golf ball and located on the back of the head in the midline just above where the skull and the neck meet. The two front teeth and the two on either side have a ridge on the back near the gum line and also curve outward creating a shovel tooth while the front remains perfectly straight. Some Melungeons have been known to have six fingers or toes."

*In the 1997 newspaper article "The Mysterious Melungeons: The Descendants of a Forgotten Appalachian People Seek The Truth About Their Ancestry" by Ralph Berrier, Jr. in The Roanoke Times: "Melungeons had a bad reputation in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They were seen by some as wild mountain people who raided the lowlands and made counterfeit coins or moonshine. Though the outlaw label is exaggerated, some of it can be traced to the years after the Civil War, when roving bands of Melungeons allegedly wreaked vengeance on people who had earlier persecuted them."

*Melungeons were sometimes referred to as “ramps” after the wild-onion type plant of the same name that grows in Appalachia in the spring

*I also saw mention of a tri-racial isolate group I was not formerly familiar with:  the Turks of South Carolina.

SAGE Journals Online - Free choice database

Available through TWU, the SAGE Journals Online homepage's advanced search feature gave me these results when I searched for "Melungeon" with no limiters. All seven are full-text PDF articles:

The above search was limited to "SAGE articles available to me."  When I limited the search, instead, to "all SAGE content," the results were the same - seven.

The best hit:

One content thing I learned:  From the 2007 article "Mixing It Up: Early African American Settlements in Northwestern Ohio" by Jill E. Rowe comes this quote: "During this time period, there were a number of intermarriages and couplings between indigenous people, European explorers, ethnically diverse shipmates, and free and enslaved Africans in this section of the country.  Descendants of these unions were dubbed Melungeon, mulatto or colored, depending on the discretion of oft-illiterate census takers."    I had never thought about "couplings" between "ethnically diverse shipmates" as being a common occurrence in centuries past, believing it was more verboten than perhaps it was.  Perhaps it was simply more hidden.  I also didn't know there had been confusion between Melungeon and mulatto racial identities.  Some of my readings have helped drive home the point that Melungeon was really not a self-identified group until more recent years.

One searching item/tip I learned:  I liked the "search within" limiters on this database.  I had options of only articles available to me, all content or my "favorite journals."  I could also limit by publication or discipline.  Those options aren't ones available with every database.

Search process:  It was straight-forward and simple.  Even the advanced search was easy to understand and not overly complicated.  I didn't receive very many results but the journal articles I did find were all available in full-text and very informative.

Image database - Google Images

Google Images - initial search for"Melungeon"

Some of my favorite (top/best) images:

A typical Melungeon family:

Probably the most famous face of the Melungeon group:

A photo of a couple members of the Brass Ankles group in South Carolina - another tri-racial isolate group I have been researching this semester:

A photo with a mention not only of Melungeons but also the Guineas of West Virginia, another tri-racial isolate group I've been reading about this semester:

And, finally, yet another tri-racial isolate group, the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina:

One content based thing I learned:  I was amazed at how many different web pages I found discussing various tri-racial isolate groups.  A click on an interesting image led to a click to see the page it came from which led to more and more information - including personal narratives - about these groups.

One searching item/tip I learned:  I really didn't learn anything new or different here.  I've been using Google Images since there's been a Google Images and - just like regular Google search - it's very basic, easy and user friendly to use.

Search process:  Very quick, easy, interesting and fun!

Statistical/Numeric - American FactFinder

American FactFinder homepage (US Census Bureau site):

From the homepage area called "community facts," I searched for information on the town of Sneedville, TN in Hancock County which is commonly accepted as the origins of Melungeons and an area where many Melungeon families still reside.  I looked at the racial makeup of Sneedville and no mention of Melungeon or tri-racial groups is found:

Using advanced search, I did a search for "race and ethnic identity" within Sneedville and TN and could find zero results for "Melungeon" and "tri racial."

Best hit:  No best hit as no mention was found of subject.  Note:  The other statistical and numeric options (BLS, etc.) offered in our lab were also searched with, again, no mention of "Melungeon" or the other tri-racial isolate groups aforementioned.

One content based item learned:  I did not learn anything new about my search project topic(s) as no mention of them were found on this site.

One searching item/tip learned:  The multi-step "guided search" was a new type of search for me.  Searching by both "geographies" and "race/ethnic" groups really helped narrow down results when I searched for other groups that were not my chosen topic - "Cherokee" for instance.

Search process:  As just mentioned, when I chose another racial/ethnic group, I was able to really narrow down searches for very specific numbers.  I like the layout and interface of the site and find it generally simple to use.  I would have had a much better experience if the racial groups I searched for had been recognized on this federal government website.

LexisNexis Searching

LexisNexis "easy search" and "search the news" - 40 results

A natural language, advanced search for "Melungeon" in major world publications yielded exactly the same 40 results.

By clicking the "news" tab on the left side of the screen, I got a pop-up menu that contained the option "blogs and videos."  By searching "all blogs" for "Melungeon," I narrowed the results to 24.

I further narrowed the results by searching "all blogs" for "Melungeon" AND "Appalachia" - 4 hits

Best hit:  "Not black or white, but a breed apart" - Andrew Marshall

One content based thing I learned:  From the "best hit" article directly above: "Some claim Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley and Ava Gardner as fellow Melungeons; there may be as many as 200,000 people who can trace their heritage to the group.  And the Melungeons are by no means the only mixed community in America: others include...the Turks of South Carolina."  When I began this search project, I kept seeing photos of Abraham Lincoln among my search results for Melungeons.  This is the first I had read of people believing him to be of Melungeon ancestry.  I did not know as many as 200,000 could possibly be Melungeons and, in all my research that included all the other tri-racial isolate groups I've mentioned previously on this blog, I had never heard about or read of "the Turks of South Carolina."

One searching item/tip:  The "add index terms" part of the search page was new to me.  The selections of "company" and "industry" are not limiters I've seen on most other database search pages.

Search process:  Though I didn't find any results for my topic in the legal cases section of this site, I thoroughly enjoyed searching it for the lab assignment.  Being able to read all the transcripts of state and federal court cases was very informative and enjoyable for me.  What a great way to learn about legal cases - getting to read them word for word!

DIALOG Searching

DIALOG basic search for "Melungeons," no limiters - 329 results

DIALOG basic search for "Melungeon," no limiters -  272 results

DIALOG basic search for "Melungeons" with limiters of "full text," "peer reviewed" and "scholarly journals" - 3 hits

DIALOG basic search for "Melungeon" with limiters of "full text," "peer reviewed" and "scholarly journals" - 3 hits (though not exactly the same 3 - 1 result varies).

DIALOG advanced search for "Melungeons" and "Appalachia" with no limiters -  99 results

DIALOG advanced search for "Melungeons" and "Appalachia" with limiters of "full text," "peer revewed" and "scholarly journals" - 2 results

Best hit:  "What ain't called Melungeons is called Hillbillies" - Southern Appalachia's in-between people" - R. Rubin

One content based thing I learned about my topic:  In the 1997 newspaper article "The Mysterious Melungeons: The Descendants of a Forgotten Appalachian People Seek The Truth About Their Ancestry" by Ralph Berrier, Jr. in The Roanoke Times: "Melungeons had a bad reputation in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They were seen by some as wild mountain people who raided the lowlands and made counterfeit coins or moonshine. Though the outlaw label is exaggerated, some of it can be traced to the years after the Civil War, when roving bands of Melungeons allegedly wreaked vengeance on people who had earlier persecuted them."

One searching item or tip:  Though it did not aid me in my particular topic searches, the search forms customized for various industries were really new to me.  I hadn't seen anything like that before on databases I have used and will remember that way to limit is there should I have access to DIALOG again in the future.

The search process:  This was a database that I enjoyed searching.  I found it user-friendly and practical, returning lots of results for my topic which has been difficult to find results for on many databases this semester.  I found the use of plurals and limiters to make big differences in the results lists and enjoyed toying with them.

WorldCat

WorldCat advanced keyword search for "Melungeon" - 111 results

Note:  I used my own library system's  (CALS) link to WorldCat.  It does not use FirstSearch and so the results varied from the TWU database link which gave 115 keyword results.

CALS link:

TWU link (FirstSearch):

A "subject" search yielded only 5 results:

It was nice for a change to once again find a lot of results so I decided to do some limiting of the keyword search results.  I wanted to look at only nonfiction hits, no fiction so I limited by "content" to "nonfiction."  I still got 105 hits.

Out of curiosity, I then limited to only "archival material" and the hits dropped to 4.

The best hit:  "Becoming Melungeon: making an ethnic identity in the Appalachian South" - Melissa Schrift

A content based thing I learned about my topic:  I was fascinated to read this statement from the 2006 article "What Is a Melungeon?" by Melissa Slate: "Some Melungeons carry distinct physical characteristics that have been handed down through generations. Frequently the presence of an Anatolian bump is noted, being about the size of half of a golf ball and located on the back of the head in the midline just above where the skull and the neck meet. The two front teeth and the two on either side have a ridge on the back near the gum line and also curve outward creating a shovel tooth while the front remains perfectly straight. Some Melungeons have been known to have six fingers or toes."  I knew Melungeons usually have dark skin, Mediterranean features and, often, blue or green eyes but was definitely not aware of these other supposed physical features.

A searching based thing I learned about my topic:  I honestly didn't learn any searching tips that were new to me with WorldCat.  I have used it extensively over the last several years doing reference work in public libraries and have pretty much experienced all it has to offer search-wise.  I

The searching process:   I continue to love this database, though, and the way it so easily breaks down the types of materials by format and content (down the left side of the screen).  It makes it so very simple to select exactly what you are looking for.  The searching process with WorldCat is always a pleasure full of helpful results that can usually be fairly easily obtained for reading.