Africandna.com Review
Tracing Your African Roots Through DNA
When Alex Hailey’s book Roots: The Saga of an American Family was published in 1976, it prompted many African American to wonder about their own root ties to the continent of Africa. A block-bluster Roots TV miniseries three years later captivated the whole country and inspired more and more African Americans to search for their African origins.
Unlike fellow Americans of European ancestry, they learned that there were few if any written records of history beyond the shores of our country. History for most of them began when their ancestors first set foot on American soil. Their African heritage remained a dark secret.
That is no longer the case. Today, there are tools and procedures available that enable African Americans to trace their roots all the way back to continental Africa and to specific areas and tribes.
The search has two parts. Using a company like AfricanDNA, the only company specializing in tracing African American ancestry through genetic testing, the client can get a DNA profile. This marker gives them a picture of their percentage of African genetics mixed with any European or Asian heritage.
The second part of the search involves historians and scholars who specialize in African genetics. Using the world’s largest database of African DNA markers, the company can the help identify the region in Africa where the client’s lineage most likely originated.
Clients can choose one or several genetic tests offered by AfricanDNA.
Paternal Tests – Male – Y/CS25
Men pass their Y chromosome on to their sons dating back to 60-70,000 years ago in Africa. These sons branched out into numerous families. By testing the 25 markers, the company can determine what branch in the Y-DNA family tree of mankind the client belongs.
Maternal Tests – Female mtDNA
Female inheritable DNA (mtDNA) passes from the mother to all of her children. The daughters pass it on to their children in a never-ending chain.
Many anthropologists think all people descend from a single African woman who lived over 120,000 years ago. By sequencing 1,116 base pair regions of your mtDNA, they test for 22 positions that identify which branch of the mankind family tree you belong to.
World Origin Tests
Typically, the average African-American has about 75 percent direct African ancestry and 25 percent of something else. Using unique tools called The Population Finder tool and the Family Finder test, AfricanDNA can determine the percentage of ancestry types.
As Professor Henry Louis Gates demonstrates on his TV show called FACES, the Population Finder can provide a profile for each client as to their base origin from regions across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Native America.
The Family Finder test can link matches with commons ancestors within the past 5 generations.
Combining this genetic information with historical data from slave-trade records helps African Americans trace their origins back to the African region where their lineage originated.
Because African ethnic groups and tribal identities were fluid in their movement like migration and forced slavery, African Americans often share ancestry with multiple ethnic groups.
Using an ancestry website like this to uncover your African ethnic mix and find new details about your unique family history with only a simple DNA test could open many doors to your past and to relatives you never knew you had.