Review of the Rummy
The different theories concerning the origins of the Rummy are very discordant.
The most distant origin would go back up to the 5th century before J-C in China, where one of the first games resembling the Rummy would have been invented by the famous thinker Confucius. The Game of the Mah-jong, very popular in China, gives besides a lot of resemblances to the Rummy which we know today.
Other sources than we have return us in the 19th century, with an European origin. The Game of Conquian played in Spain gives a lot of resemblances to the Rummy. It would have been exported by the passengers across the world, notably in Mexico, country from which it would have passed to the United States.
Other theories maintain in the opposite that the game of Conquian would first have been invented in Mexico, then exported then towards Europe.
Another theory makes of the Rummy a natural evolution of the Poker. These two games indeed have similarities in the arrangement of cards in combinations (continuation, brelans, square) and in the printing and rejection of a card in every turn. The Rummy would be diverted from Whiskey poker, then called Rum Poker, which would then have given Rum, then Rummy (and become Rummy then in Frenchman).
Among all these very different theories, mystery remains still whole as for the first origins of the Rummy. What is sure, it is that whatever is its origin, the Rummy developed a different variant in every region of the world. Among most known variants, it is possible to name the following: Gin Rummy and Gin Oklahoma (United States), Kalooki (Great Britain), Rummy 500, Canasta, Okey (Turkey), Mah-jong (China), etc.
