PLEASE REMEMBER:
During my research of this family, I have periodically run across suggestions that they may have descended from and/or intermarried with the Melungeons, a rather mysterious and controversial ethnic group centered around the foothills of the southern Appalacian mountains - specifically Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia.
There is alot of misinformation about this group on the internet (I hope I am not contributing to it) and many different theories as to their origin. I have read that they were aliens, Spanish survivors of the Santa Elena colony, the lost tribe of Israel, the lost colony of Roanoke, Turkish, "tri-racial isolates" (black, native american, and white), gypsies, the ideas go on and on...
The Hollen/Holland surname does not seem to be directly associated with the Melungeons, but rather with their spouses, especially the Belchers.
The surnames printed below are taken from a combination of Melungeon surname lists, mainly from an index of Brent Kennedy's book "The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People" and the letters of Walter Plecker, who was the Registrar of Vital Statistics in Virginia from 1929-1943. An avowed racist, Plecker identified names he thought to be Melungeon in order to have them classified as "other than white". He hoped that by doing this it would prevent racial intermarriage and thus "preserve" the white race.
Many Melungeons took on English surnames in order to avoid racial discrimination. This is NOT a complete Melungeon surname list, only those that I have seen connected with this family (some very loosely) through marriage...
BELCHER, BENNETT, BOLLING/BOWLING/BOLEN, FIELDS, HILLMAN, ISHAM, JONES, KING, MITCHELL, MOORE, PERKINS, ROBERSON/ROBERTSON, SMITH, WILLIAMS
In general, the most common Melungeon surnames (not all connected with this family) seem to be:
BOLLING/BOWLING/BOLEN, COLLINS, GIBSON/GIPSON, GOINS/GOWAN, MULLINS
Other surnames I have seen associated with the Melungeon group as well as this family (through less reliable sources) are:
BROWN, CLAXTON, CREWS, EASTRIDGE, ENLOW, FORD, GREGORY, HAMMOND, HOBSON, LEWIS, MORRIS, PITTMAN, PRICE, SPEARS, TUCKER, WALLS
Anyone interested in this uncertain but interesting aspect of the family should research further...
