The Blue Family from Kentucky

I stumbled over an article today that really, really fascinated me.  It was from Good Morning America, ABC News:  "Fugates of Kentucky: Skin Bluer than Lake Louise" by Susan Donaldson James.  If you are at all interested in genetics, go read it.  If you are interested in genealogy, go read it and skim over the technical stuff.  It had me enthralled.

About 1820 a man named Martin Fugate immigrated to Troublesome Creek, Kentucky from France.  He was blue.  Yes, I said blue.  The gene spread through the small community and the occurrence of blue people did too.  What had me do a double take was this sentence:

"The Fugates married other Fugate cousins and families who lived nearby, with names like Combs, Smith, Ritchie and Stacy."

Whoa... I have Combs blood in me.  Plus we came through Kentucky from North Carolina. Hmmmm, do I have any distant cousins in that area?

*Image: ynse via photopin cc