Trace Your Own Genetic Journey!

by Abigail Knowles Wolfe (BPRW)

BDN has reported on the trend of DNA testing as applied to researching African American heritage and specifically the African American Lives documentary featured on PBS. Hosted and narrated by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. the genealogical study focused on tracing African American celebrities’ family trees back multiple generations to prove ancestry and familial migration patterns over the centuries. “For generations, we have been unable to learn about our African heritage or our family trees … what if we could trace our roots?” Gates Jr. wondered aloud as the show’s narrator.

Sure, these tests were completed on celebrities for a two part television series. It must cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars to research one’s own history right? Wrong! National Geographic through the “Genographic Project” offers African Americans and other ethnicities alike the opportunity to trace their ancestry back thousands of years for the price of $99. Sponsored by IBM this project seeks to fill in the blanks in human evolution by utilizing a diverse sampling of DNA.

Submitting your own DNA for inclusion in this study is optional. A simple inner cheek swab is taken and sent off to the lab. One swab equals one individual tested per kit. The study will trace either mitochondrial DNA which is passed down each generation from mother to child and reveals direct maternal ancestry or the Y chromosome (men only) which is passed down from father to son revealing direct paternal ancestry.

The study guidelines indicate that African American’s test results will show the initial movements of one’s ancestors within the African content and migrations that have occurred within the past 10,000 years. The study is described as, “… the anthropological story of one’s direct maternal or paternal ancestors – where they lived and how they migrated around the world many thousands of years ago.”

Human beings all share a common ancestor who lived in African some 60,000 years ago. This fascinating study seeks to uncover some of the “lingering mysteries of our history as one human family.” For many it may be the first real window to discovering a fascinating history never before known. For humanity at large it should help propagate the notion that we are more alike than we are different.

For more information log onto: https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/participate.html