Survey of demography, anthropometry, and genetics in the Melungeons of Tennessee: an isolate of hybrid origin in process of dissolution.

The Melungeons of eastern Tennessee and neighboring Virginia are a remnant of a once extensive population of triracial origin. The present survey of 177 persons for demography, morphology, and serology suggests a predominantly Caucasian people with some Indian and possibly Negroid admixture. While inbreeding was common in the past, there is a marked tendency toward outmigration and outmarriage in the present community as indicated by birthplaces, by isonymy, and by differential gene frequencies by generations.