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| My Ancestral Map |
As we are inching closer and closer to the holiday season and one day before Thanksgiving, we are physically and mentally preparing ourselves to spend time with our close friends and family, trying to reconnect with people we don't get to see on the regular basis, and participating in as many events as we can before the year end; but this year I want to do something different. I want to spend this time learning more about my ancestral background especially when around this time we see Ancestry.com and 23andme.com giving Black Friday discounts for the DNA kits and other ancestry search items. I purchased a DNA kit from Ancestry.com around this time last year and gained my first DNA results earlier this year. In this article, I will be discussing my journey to my new DNA discoveries and why I encourage others to find out more about theirs through sites like Ancestry or through family members this holiday season.
Before I purchased my DNA kit, I had known and heard of a few friends and family members who had purchased one from one of the sites I mentioned previously. From their discoveries, they were surprised with the information they found. Many had assumed they were a part of a certain race such as Native American or Asian. Only 1% received the confirmation that their biological history included those ethnical backgrounds. Others used the sites to find possible family members and learn about their family history. Once I learned about their discoveries, it interested me to learn more about my history and ethnical backgrounds. Once I saw the Black Friday sales for DNA kits, I did my personal research to find out which company was the right choice for me. As you read the first paragraph, I went with Ancestry. I chose Ancestry over 23andme because it's today's most popular choice so I would be able to find a lot of possible family members. My other reason for choosing Ancestry was because the company continuously does their research in finding more DNA samples in more countries than what 23andme seemed to be offering at the time of my decision. When Ancestry finds out that their new samples is connected to the completed DNA kit you mailed to them, they update your ethnical background chart with the new information. As of this month, November 2019, my ethnical background has been updated three times. The last update was on November 18, 2019.
On the Ancestry website, you have the option to fill out a family tree. When you fill out information about your family that you know about, the company will connect other account members who included similar or the same family members as you and ask if there is a connection. If you say yes, they will help fill out the information on your family tree. When I placed my mother's father's father's information on the site, it lead me all the way to Europe. The person could have possibly been one of our ancestors first slave masters when they moved to the United States. I'm still receiving more possible family members to add to my family tree. I plan to confirm the information from my relatives before I add the members to the family tree. The only disappointment I received from the family tree is the fact that you can't add half related siblings. I figure that the site will fix itself when both siblings include the same parent as me. At the moment, I have one sibling interested in sending in a DNA kit, but I have yet to convince the other. Both of my sisters have a different parent from me and are completely unrelated to one another without me being the other piece that connects them.
When I gave my DNA sample to Ancestry by mail, I kept an open mind. I didn't make any real ethnical assumptions, but I thought it would be interesting to find some part of Asia on my profile since a lot of people always compliment my almond shaped eyes and say that they look Asian. I received my first DNA results on January 13, 2019. My DNA results were: Cameroon, Congo & Southern Bantu peoples; Benin & Togo; Mali; England, Wales & Northwestern Europe; Ireland & Scotland; Indigenous Americas- (North, Central, South); Ivory Coast/ Ghana; Germanic Europe; Norway; and Eastern Africa. When I finally saw my results, I was amazed to know more about my ethnical background because growing up, all I was told was that I was Black and African American. I was supposed to just accept the title without the thought to ask further questions. No one in my immediate family were interested in knowing more about our history. Since having these results, I can now confirm that I have no drop of Asian in me when people think saying I have Asian shaped eyes is a compliment. It was interesting to see that I was West and East African and that there were no sign of South African or Nigerian. With all the Nigerians I have met in the DMV (Washington, D.C; Maryland; Virginia) I figured someone within my ancestry came across a love connection with someone of that background.
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| The First DNA Results |
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| The First DNA Results |
Ever since I left Capitol Heights, Maryland and started being around people of color who knew something about their ethnical background, I became more concerned about knowing nothing about mines. I thought that if I took the first step into learning about my family's ethnical background that they would be interesting in exploring more about it. Somewhat they became a little more open about learning something about our history. They may have not been open to completing a DNA kit, but they have helped me create confirmations when filling out information for the family tree. Within exploring more about my new discoveries, I received more ethnical background updates on February 19th and November 18th of this year. By the third update, it now charts Nigeria; Cameroon, Congo & Southern Bantu Peoples; Benin & Togo; Mali; England, Wales & Northwestern Europe; Senegal; Ghana; Norway; Sweden; Indigenous Americas- North; and Spain as my ethnical background.
From this recent update it confirmed that it was in fact true that someone in my close ancestral history was Nigerian and it's the highest percentage of all the other regions charted. The only country I found surprising to see on my chart was Spain. Out of all the countries that I could have possibly been linked too, Spanish decent was crossed out a long time ago when I was in middle school. Around this time, a lot of people of African decent were always trying to claim that they either had Native American or Spanish decent in their ethnical background, but didn't have any real hard proof to confirm those beliefs. I didn't want to be apart of that stereotype so I crossed those possibilities out until I gained further proof; which I now have that says I have both ethnicities charted.
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| The Third DNA Results |
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| The Third DNA Results |
I know some of you are probably looking at the images of my ethnical background and thinking that the countries that have under 5% does not really count as part of my true ancestry, but in fact they still do count and you're not the only ones who feel this way. My immediate family would say the same thing to me when they saw the chart and I would reply with the following statements, "When Slavery and Segregation took place, it only took one drop of blood to be considered Black so the same goes with the other ethnicities" and "My 1% still counts because one of my parents have at least 5% and within my set of grandparents, they have close to 10% if not more." So, if you have taken or plan to take a DNA test and see any ancestries that are less than 5% you should still count them because they still give you information on your ancestors' journey and how far they traveled to get you here at this very moment in life.
From my experience turning in a completed DNA kit with Ancestry.com and receiving my results, I hope I have convinced you to take the time to learn more about your ancestral background through talking to family members while enjoying each others company at the dinner table during this Thanksgiving break or through purchasing a DNA kit with companies such as, Ancestry and 23andme while they are giving out Black Friday deals.
Have a happy Thanksgiving if you're somewhere in the United States and I'll see you next month as we wrap up the year with my last article for 2019 .
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