Conversation so far:
what were the melungeon origins?
Children of European and free black unions had intermarried with persons of Native American ancestry.
Are there any other interesting aspects about Melungeon?
The term Melungeon has since sometimes been applied as a catch-all phrase for a number of groups of mixed-race ancestry.
what was the Melungeon's greatest accomplishment?
in your opinion, what is the most interesting part of the article about Melungeons?
Other peoples frequently suggested as Melungeon ancestors are the Black-Dutch and the Powhatan Indian group, an Algonquian-speaking tribe who inhabited eastern Virginia when the English first arrived.

Question: why were they assigned the ethnicity of their mother instead of their father?
Self-contained rewrite: why were the Melungeon assigned the ethnicity of their mother instead of their father?