<p>John Bunch I was considered a free man (because his mother was free) in the 1660s and owned 450 acres in New Kent County, VA. Yet, it appears that John Bunch's mother was white and his father, John Punch, an African, resulting in an interracial marriage which was more acceptable in the 1630s.It was not just the few court records, deeds, wills or other records that survived which helped prove the results, but also DNA testing showed the link, especially with origins from sub-Saharan Africa, possibly the west coast region of Cameroon, in the Bunch lineage.Even with intermarriages eventually forbidden the Bunch family members had already married into white families with now little question of their racial make-up. http://tinyurl.com/kwzjqg9</p><p>---</p><p>John Punch and his wife are known as the first black and white couple in the colonies who left traceable descendants. - Harman, Cottrill, et al. "Documenting President Barack Obama’s maternal African-American ancestry: tracing his mother’s Bunch ancestry to the first slave in America", Ancestry.com, 16 July 2012.</p><p><strong>Melungeons</strong></p><p>The Bunch surname lines also became associated with core mixed-race families later known as Melungeon in Tennessee. - Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, 1995-2000</p><p>Melugeons - https://suite101.com/a/who-are-the-melungeons-a397742</p>