A free family history reference on historic surnames from three tri-racial communities of the American South, with the counties and parishes where those families settled.

If names in your family tree keep pointing you toward the same counties in Appalachia, southeastern North Carolina, or central Louisiana, you may be looking at descent from one of the tri-racial communities of the American South.

This free PDF pulls together historically documented surnames from the Melungeon, Lumbee, and Redbone communities alongside the core counties and parishes where those families were concentrated. All three groups sit on one list because the surnames — and often the families themselves — overlap.

What's inside

• Melungeon surnames tied to Hancock and Hawkins Counties, Tennessee, with connections into Lee, Scott, and Russell Counties, Virginia, Wilkes County, North Carolina, and later settlements in southern Ohio and central Louisiana

• Lumbee surnames from Robeson, Hoke, Scotland, and Cumberland Counties, North Carolina, centered on Pembroke along the Lumber River

• Redbone surnames from Sabine, Vernon, Rapides, and Calcasieu Parishes, Louisiana, and the neighboring counties in East Texas