Romani people on the Virginia Peninsula

[Tri-Racial Isolate]

Hello guys, I'm new to genealogy and struggling to track down the origins of my family and my people, the Qarsherskiyan community, a group of multigenerational mixed-race families from the Eastern part of the US. We are similar to Melungeons, and so, for obvious reasons, a lot of our family history and records were destroyed or altered or kept hidden for our own good. Now it's making it a real headache for me to learn what I seek to know.

I got a tip from a relative but idk what I'm doing, still new to this, but apparently some of my ancestors 6 generations back were Romani people in the USA, and their descendants in Newport News, Virginia and other areas on the Virginia Peninsula and all over Hampton Roads and the whole Tidewaters Region have intermarried with people of various races and ethnicities, and this is likely where my descendants came from. Does anyone know where to find information on individual Romanis or Romani families in the area during this time? It would be much appreciated.

[Darnity]

Google "Romanies in Virginia" and have a look at what that finds to see if that gives you some useful information.

One of the finds from the search was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_Americans

Prof Ian Hancock is an expert on Romanies in the US and there's this article by him in a recent Travellers Times: https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/features/when-did-romanies-first-arrive-america

I can't remember where it is but one of the big libraries in the US holds a good collection of books about the community.

You might also find this of interest: https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/features/traveller-languages-american-roads-ian-hancock

Hope this is of help.

[Tri-Racial Isolate]

Thank you so much for your help. Some of this is new links I haven't yet read. I'll check them out to see if they mention surnames or anything.