African-American's roots revised

[Blue_Tires]

If you're an African-American, tracing your roots back to the ancestral continent is hard enough — but tracing them back to the ancestral family? That requires genetic testing, plus family-history scholarship, plus trips to Africa, plus a little bit of faith. William Holland has filled all of those requirements, and to celebrate, he's planning a cross-continental family reunion for Memorial Day weekend in Virginia, where his ancestors were once held as slaves.

It's taken more than a decade for the 43-year-old Atlanta genealogist to fill in the story of those lost generations — a story that leads back to Cameroon, and then even further back to present-day Syria. The historical record is so fragmentary, and the genetic analysis is so imprecise, that Holland couldn't possibly achieve iron-clad scientific certainty about the precise family relationships. But the story that Holland has pieced together is consistent with the genetic tests as well as with the tales told by families in Africa and America. And just as importantly, the story finally feels right.

"What makes this more conclusive is that they had an authentic story that many people could verify," Holland said.

Holland's initial investigative work took him back to the Civil War era in Virginia, where he found that his great-grandfather, Creed Holland, was a slave who was put to work as a wagon driver for the Confederate Army. That led Holland and his brothers to sign up for membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans — which was a controversial move at the time.

But Holland didn't stop there: He wanted to know how it was that Creed's ancestors became slaves in the first place. So he took advantage of a trend that was just getting started back then: genetic testing for the purpose of finding family connections. After a couple of false starts, Holland found enough matches to justify focusing in on a region of Cameroon in West Africa.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/14/11690543-african-americans-roots-revised?lite

[NOLALady]

1. Thanks for the post.

So far, my genetic testing has not revealed a specific African nation. Hopefully, results will be better as more people are tested.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. Mine hasn't revealed it either

But my mom (of all European descent) turned up relatives in 3 places we KNEW they would (Republic of Ireland, Germany and France) and two we never expected: Norway and Italy. Who knew!

I'd love to be able to dig far back into my African roots. Our story begins (my father's black roots - Irish and Native we know as much as we can) in Virginia . . . when a run away slave got sold down the river to Alabama in 1832.

[psychmommy]

3. Thanks this is so awesome.

It gives us all hope to find a connection before slavery.

[MADem]

4. Skip Gates has done this on his geneology programs on PBS....

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/

I love the possibilities!

[duhneece]

6. I want to have my DNA tested

I guess it's worth it to have both tests (mitochondrial from my mother's and ??? from my father's side).

[MADem]

7. Shop around--there are so many varieties of tests.

There are also a lot of differently-purposed tests, at different prices. The most common cost is about a hundred bucks, but for more you can get more--not sure how useful the info is. I've just started looking into this myself, and I tend to research and dither for a long while before I get off my ass and actually go for it!

Also, if you are male, you get more info from your own DNA, I think--so any female persons would be advised to send in the DNA of a full-blood (not half blood) brother rather than their own.

Did you see that show Who Do You Think You Are when they did Blair Underwood? They did one of the newer tests on him, and they found his TENTH COUSIN in Cameroon, which means that they found a connection that was made before his ancestors were taken. I got chills watching it. I love the fact that our bodies can tell our stories, even when our fellow humans try to eradicate our basic truths! And for people who just have NO CLUE--because of abduction into slavery, or absence, or adoption-- as to one side of the family or another, we can get information that answers a lot of questions and maybe even solves a mystery or two! The larger these databases get, the more information will be revealed.

http://www.andersoncooper.com/2012/02/23/blair-underwood-takes-his-father-to-africa-to-meet-a-cousin/

[Number23]

5. Wow. That is so interesting. I'd love to do the same but who has the time and $$?

Besides Mr. Holland, that is?