West Virginia, 1937...

Caption
Scott's Run, West Virginia. Johnson family - father unemployed.

Source
Library of Congress

Sure looks like tough times for those folks. But I bet they made it through. Most people today wouldn't.

Tough people.

There’s always something on WV PBS about Scott’s Run during that timeframe

They are probably Melungeons, though they look to have more African blood then most. The Melungeons are the people of color descended from the original Jamestown settlers, indentured Africans, Powhatton Indians, other Native Americans and some East Indians. A lot of them have blue or green eyes. Most have sharper features and are very ambiguous looking.

Chuck Berry was a Melungeon. I have a good friend who is one too. Yes, both are related to me from a many great uncle and a lot of distant cousins of mine.

Their earliest ancestor in the US, Angela, was captured from Portuguese slavers by two cousins of mine, who were British privateers and indentured to my 12th great grandfather. She was one of the first 9 Africans in the US. They finished their indenture in 1627. They were never enslaved. Angela's daughter married a many great uncle of mine.

Their ancestors survived both the Starving Times and the Powhatton Massacre when about 90% of the other Jamestown colonists died in each event.

Many very successful African celebrities are descended from them.

Keith

Very Interesting Keith!!!
Thanks

You're welcome Scott. There's a lot of documentaries and articles on the Melungeons. White women were in very short supply in the US in the 1600s, compared to white men. Many white men married black and Native American women and then the resulting mixed race women, for generations. A lot of their descendants blended in with white people. The ancestors of the Melungeons got pushed out of mostly Virginia and North Carolina and settled in the mountains of West Virginia and became an isolated, unique population.

With their Native American and original white and black settler ancestry, they are some of the very first melting pot Americans.

Keith

Father unemployed lol

Cool stuff

I have an old pot bellied stove down in the barn looks very much like that one.

That young man's britches would bring top dollar today !

That old womans fingers look like they are a foot long!

Oh come on, not nearly as much as my tore up jeans

Actually you was on my mind when I typed that, and figured that if his was just a little bigger you would definitely be top bidder seeing how you would need a right to match your left, lol.

That's a sad picture. Feel sorry for those folks.

And probably Absent