A mostly poor region, mostly of British ancestry (English and Scots-Irish primarily, which mostly date to the 18th century). However, multiple ethnic groups are represented in the gene pool, and people of Southern/Eastern European descent (Dating from the time of the industrial revolution) become much more common as one goes northeast
(Scottish and Cherokee in western North Carolina, the former since colonial times and the latter countless centuries before that) as well as Welsh in some areas, most notably Eastern Pensylvania, Dutch in the Catskills, and more recent arrivals of mexican, Puerto Rican, East Indian Chinese, Middle Eastern and other descent, coming from many other places in Asia, Latin America, and Africa (many of these settled there for a time at least, long ago, either employed in town labor or to work in the coal mines.) Prior to the U.S./C.S. civil war, many runaway slaves escaped into these mountains (see melungeons) making good use of their remoteness.

Coal mining has been a significant source of employment for some time, but for a generation or two, the human workfo...