Melungeon-L Archives

From:
Subject: [Melungeon] Re: Lindsey's post re names
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 15:30:09 EST

Hi Guys!!
Lindsey is exactly right when she says that you will have spellings that look
NOTHING like the original name. I was doing some research and came
unexpectedly on a WUSON family who was supposed to be connected to my
WILLIAMSON line.

Took me a while, but think about how the abbreviation WMSON might look in the
original handwriting. If the little "m" is written loosely, it might look
like a "u" and I think that is prob. how these Wusons began. No proof of
course, just what I think. It makes sense to me.

And that is one of the reasons why melange is not a suitable candidate for
the root word of Melungeon. The spelling is much too conveniently similar.
And linguistics do not work this way. The spelling is always much different
from the original word as in Lesley's Guillame/William example. And of course
the pronunciation may change somewhat but it is usually closer to the
original sound of the word than the spelling is.
Nancy S

This thread:

• [Melungeon] Re: Lindsey's post re names by