Madison County Yellowbone

The Madison County Yellowbones, also called the London Ohio Yellowbones, are a group of multigenerationally mixed race extended families descended from escaped and freed slaves, Free People Of Color, early Black arrivals to Ohio, Amish settlers of Ohio, Appalachian Scots-Irish frontiersmen coming into Ohio when Ohio was part of the northwest territory, and in some families likely distant Native American ancestors from various tribes of the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, Appalachian, and Midwestern regions of the USA, depending on the family.

If you are a Madison County Yellowbone descendant, your relatives likely had one of a short list of last names by the 1990s, which includes Napper, Whitelow, Whitehead, Whited, Whiteside, McCoy, Miller, and other surnames recorded in these families in 1991. You may have ancestors who fought as Black Union Army soldiers during the American Civil War and likely have relatives who identify as Black but has blue eyes or has red or blonde natural highlights despite having an afro hair type. Many Madison County Yellowbone descendants have been adopting the term Qarsherskiyan as a self identification or endonym, and it was their community that coined the term for them, Darke County Yellowbones, and Tidewater Creole communities back in 1991, beginning to use the term online as the term began catching on by late 2019.

by Jamal Omar Whiteside January 27, 2026

Darke County Yellowbones

The term Darke County Yellowbones refers to a Triracial Isolate group documented by Walter Plecker and other genocidal, pro-eugenics leaders during the Jim Crow Era. It refers to certain multigenerationally mixed race families in Darke County, Ohio, USA. Many of these families have historic ties to the Longtown Settlement and descendants are now scattered around the USA with some potentially living abroad. In 1991, the Madison County Yellowbone community created the term Qarsherskiyan to refer to themselves, the Darke County Yellowbone community, and descendants of Atlantic Creoles brought to the Tidewater area of the American Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Only around 12 to 24 people self-identified as Qarsherskiyan at any given time until late 2019, when usage of the term exploded online and it began to catch on, and by the end of 2025 around 2,900 people self identified as being Ethnic Qarsherskiyan, with some of these people being descendants of the Darke County Yellowbones. The term Yellowbones is hotly contested and debated among descendants, with some proudly wearing it as a badge of honor and others seeing it as a slur or exonym.

The Darke County Yellowbones descended from Soulaan / Foundational Black American people and multigenerationally mixed race Free People Of Color living in and around Longtown Settlement in Darke County, Ohio, USA

by Jamal Omar Whiteside January 27, 2026