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.