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Genealogy: “It’s like being lost and found at the same time”

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mwkruse
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Black Intellects: Genealogy: “It’s like being lost and found at the same time”

Ms. Fair is one of thousands of African-Americans who have scraped cells from their inner cheeks and paid a growing group of laboratories to learn more about a family history once thought permanently obscured by slavery. They are seeking answers to questions about their family lineages in the antebellum South – whether black, white or Native American – and about distant forebears in Africa.

The DNA tests are fueling the biggest surge in African-American genealogy since Alex Haley’s 1976 novel, “Roots,” inspired a generation to try to trace their ancestors back to Africa. For those who have spent decades poring over plantation records that did not list slaves by surname and ship manifests that did not list where they came from, the idea that the key lies in their own bodies is a powerful one.

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Family reunions via DNA are not always warm affairs. When Trevis Hawkins, 37, a black oncology nurse from Montgomery, Ala., e-mailed a white man with the same surname whose DNA matched his this year, the man seemed excited. But after Mr. Hawkins gave him the address to his family Web site, which includes pictures, he never heard from him again.

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For Nickesha Sanders, who already knew her great-great-grandfather was a white slave owner in Tennessee, the appeal of the DNA test was the promise of a link to Africa. “I wanted to be able to connect to my history before slavery,” said Ms. Sanders, 26, a student at Texas Southern University. “I wanted it to be more than, the boat stopped at the shores, then slavery, emancipation, civil rights, all that struggle.”

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Ray Winbush, a psychology professor at Morgan State University, said being told that his ancestors hailed from the Takar people of Cameroon served to underscore his disconnectedness, both from an ancestral tribe he knows little about and from an American society that can still be a hostile place for African-Americans.

“It’s like being lost and found at the same time,” Mr. Winbush said.

Comments

6 responses to “Genealogy: “It’s like being lost and found at the same time””

  1. jim Avatar
    jim

    I’m sure there’s a sermon in there somewhere…interesting observations.

    Reply
  2. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Jim, one of the things that really struck me about the article was the human yearning to have roots; to have a historical identitiy.

    Reply
  3. Dana Ames Avatar
    Dana Ames

    When people find out I’m adopted, they usually want to know if I have searched for my “real” parents. When I explain, I make a distinction between by parents and my biological parents; my parents are the ones who actually parented me. So far, I have no desire to find out any more about my biological family than I already know, except for medical history. I thought that might change after both my parents died, but it didn’t. I am of the same ethnic background as my parents; that’s what I care about most, strangely enough.
    I have a photo of my oldest maternal great-aunt holding me not long after I was born; that to me is the symbol of how I was so thoroughly loved and enfolded into my adoptive family, and I have embraced that as my familial identity. I realize that other adopted children see things differently. I have been very truly blessed.
    Dana

    Reply
  4. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Dana, my nephew and niece (through my brother) are adopted and I think they have a similar story to yours. They are approaching thirty. We will see as they get older.
    It is curious how this works out with different people. I have a great-aunt who was adopted who would very much like to know more about her biological parents. On the other hand, my Mom (not-adopted), has no interest at all in family history. She is not opposed to others learning about it or talking about what she knows. It just has no interest for her.
    I think it is interesting to meet people and see what they offer up as the things that “identify” them beyond job and residence. It says a lot about the narratives we each place ourselves in.

    Reply
  5. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    Except in certain cases where there’s absolutely no data about ancestry, I’m not sure how helpful DNA information is really likely to be.
    As I understand it, they’re testing for either matrilineal or patrilineal markers – in other words, the ethnicity of your father’s father’s father, etc., or your mother’s mother’s mother, etc. Go back 10 generations, and that’s two people out of 2,048. So 95 percent of your ancestors can come from one place, and yet the tests may direct you to another.
    Even if – and again, I’m not sure about the science – the tests were to take into account ALL ancestors, I still doubt their helpfulness. In my case, it would show pretty much every population in Europe. I suspect most Americans, with the exception of fairly recent immigrants, are in the same boat.

    Reply
  6. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    I think you are right, Andy. I know they have surname projects where they will compare your DNA analysis with that of various surname groups but I don’t know how much more they can tell you beyond your straight paternal or maternal lines.

    Reply

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