One of the early players in the past decade of Melungiana was the Gowen Foundation of Lubbock, Texas. The Foundation, with an emphasis on the Gowen (Goings) family name, was an early family research group which frequently discovered many of their investigations led to new and unrevealed Melungeon roots. Some Gowen members were opposed to the deviations of their family line leading to identification to Melungeons, but the foundation accepted all variations. As a result, the many family researchers continued to discover a surprising number of free colored and Melungeon lines within their lineage.

This unified group eventually expanded to have a large editorial board and extensive files on both the family and all other collateral lines including the Melungeons. A nationwide conference was held three times with Gowen people from across the United States and some foreign countries attending the event. Virginia DeMarce was a featured genealogical speaker at the third event. She is still known as an outstanding genealogical and Melungeon researcher with impeccable skills and credentials.

Over time, some foundation articles were highly controversial such as a lengthy, well written and researched document claiming an African heritage for the Melungeons. Some subscribers to the newsletter were pleased while others perceived the writer had surmised some early facts in his first premise in order to prove an African heritage for Melungeons.

The Gowen foundation and especially Arlee Gowen continues to provide unbiased and informative materials to this day for its members. It has contributed many files and theories as well as facts for the Melungeon movement. Their monthly newsletter is available electronically.

Melungeon books began to be in demand and publishers would publish and offer to sell anything connected to Melungeons. Most of the many books of the period had something worthwhile to contribute to the genealogy or history of Melungeons. This was a good phenomenon as more people became aware of the peoples called Melungeon.

The Vardy, Tennessee Melungeons, the most studied of the isolates, formed the Vardy Historical Society. They renovated their early missionary church into a museum, and moved the Mahala Mullins house down off Newman’s Ridge to Vardy. They began to meet monthly and offered tours through their Melungeon facilities. They also published a monthly newsletter, Vardy Voice, to paid subscribers. They continue to introduce pride and develop new area awareness for the Melungeon cause.

The Wise County, Virginia Melungeons formed The Melungeon Heritage Association and held four reunions with many speakers to enlighten those of interest in the subject. This group was highly influenced by Kennedy and revolved, mostly in a positive manner, around his charm. Books and articles on Melungeons plus many attendees at the reunions have made this group a positive contributor to the awareness of Melungeons.

Early in the Wise movement, unscientific speculation arose that Melungeons might have an origin connected to Turkey. The reality was that any country, with the right salesmanship, would embrace the opportunity to be the source of possible early discoverers of the North American continent. The Turkish theory was exploited for several trips with Kennedy and several of his followers getting vacations to the Eastern Mediterranean country.

In this same period, the theories of shovel teeth and the Anatolian bump surfaced. Kennedy used his superb showmanship to promote these anatomical differences as being a sign of a true Melungeon. People were spellbound as he demonstrated these telltale physical characteristics. They were overheard commenting in awe about his extensive technical and medical knowledge.

The decade also produced several theories of possible diseases in the Wise group as being uniquely Mediterranean/Melungeon. One of the diseases, sarcoidosis, does exist, but is not unique to the Mediterranean area. It is also known and identified as occurring throughout the Scotch and Scandinavian countries as well as some other countries. Close intermarriage among the group probably contributed to its obvious identification in a few known cases in the Wise area. None has been identified in the Vardy Melungeons. Continued medical investigations are occurring in both groups. This is good, in any racial isolate, as long as the information is confidential and objective.

Attempts were made to connect the more studied Vardy, Tennessee Melungeons with those in Wise County, Virginia. No doubt the underlying motive was to raise them all to the same publicized level of importance as well as tie them together as a homogeneous unit. No genealogical research has proved a connection between the two groups through either medical abnormalities or family lineage.

More recently a random mitochondrial DNA study was done in the Vardy and Wise areas. Unfortunately, the science is still too new to pinpoint distinguishing gene characteristics of specific groups or areas. The three billion bits of DNA of the human genome have just recently been mapped. Sequence variations denoting minor or unique groups of people are not understood at this time.

The DNA sampling was also suspect as many questionable Melungeons were included in the limited group. Final conclusions were even dubious as a Siddis theory of Melungeon origin was mentioned in the final presentation. The Siddis group from India had previously been suggested in many earlier presentations in a purely provisional sense.

In conclusion, it is very possible the movement is now slowly losing its genealogical identity through the efforts of a few who embrace the idea of being unique. Early in the decade the flurry of new awareness and publicity seemed to awaken new scholars to research the Melungeons. As the movement progressed, more and more non scholarly people claimed knowledge and embraced lineage. A hierarchy developed with some Melungeons competing to possess the newest pseudo facts and false credentials to direct their roots to the most well known of the early Melungeons.

History is being made with each new distortion. It behooves all those who respect history and their heritage to make every effort to control efforts of those who purposely or inadvertently exploit a proud people for their own self aggrandizement.