In its own way, the Melungeon paper has gone viral, something very unusual for an academic paper.  We’ve received notes today from as far away as Australia and someone told us they say it on Fox News today. 

The AP picked up on the paper and set about to write their own article.  They did a pretty good job, all things considered, except for a typo or two (death years pertaining to photos should have been in the 1900s, not 1800s) and one slight error (the Melungeon male lines who tested were both African and European).  The academic paper itself is correct.

You can share in the excitement here:  http://news.yahoo.com/dna-study-seeks-origin-appalachias-melungeons-201144041.html

The good news is that this article has generated a huge amount of interest in the DNA project.  We’ve received lots of e-mails, and if we are lucky, people from lines previously untested will now test.

If you haven’t seen the original paper that the AP article refers to, you can see it at www.dnaexplain.com under the Publications tab.