Chavies is a residential hamlet with U.S. Post Office located in Perry County

Perry County, Kentucky

Perry County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of 2000, the population was 29,390. Its county seat is Hazard. The county is named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, a naval hero in the War of 1812.- Geography :...

, Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Located deep in the eastern coal fields region of the state, it is serviced by KY 28 along the banks of the Licking River

Licking River (Kentucky)

The Licking River is a tributary of the Ohio River in northeastern Kentucky in the United States. The river and its tributaries drain much of the region of northeastern Kentucky between the watersheds of the Kentucky River to the west and the Big Sandy River to the east.-Origin of name:The Native...

. According to data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2000, it has a population of 422.
The communities name is a derivation of the Portuguese surname Chavez and was named after the first family to settle at this site. They were of Melungeon

Melungeon

Melungeon is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia, which includes portions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations...

descent from Western North Carolina.
Many residents of this area can trace their ancestry back to the Melungeons, and appear to have features concurrent with others of this ancestry as well.