[nickchris]

I think this is such an important aspect of who we are, and add the aspect of adoption to it.. it is very important to know who our ancestors are. There is an AA adoptee in this special as well. In addition the aspect of who Blacks are in the US and Americas.. DNA wise, is scientifically explored. Most of us are a mixture of at least 2 races, but the difference is how one inportant " factor" is slowly changing in this day and time, and how folks are changing the labeling of the Black race.
Tom Joyner as light as he is, has less cc DNA in him than Chris Rock, who is of a darker hue.. so Chris Rock is biracial per today's terminology. DNA will change our perception of how we view race, its more than the looks or phenotype.. which we seem to get caught up on quite a bit.

Has anyone seen this amazing show of DNA and history intertwined? The first documentary was shown last year, both DVD sets are available for sale too.


African American Lives 2 . Profiles . Henry Louis Gates, Jr. | PBS

[jjlutefisk]

We watched it, too. It was absolutely fascinating. I wrote to Dr. Gates and he wrote back, referring me to someone at the DNA company to answer my questions. My daughter is AA but my husband and I are CC. I was wondering if she was too young to do the test. I was told that they keep your dna on file and then if there are further matches in the future, they give you those results by email. It was explained to me that getting your dna tested is really the beginning of the journey to discovery, not an end-all definitive answer. That really appealed to me because I know that all of this is so new.

Thanks for bringing this up!

[nickchris]

No problem. That's cool!! :-) you got some good feedback. I plan on doing this with my sons (my bio kids) for a special project, plan on doing the mDNA and YDNA soon, so we will hopefully get the results in time for the summer vacation. The genetics search is new to me, but so interesting. I was waiting to do DDs (soon to be adopted) a little later when she is old enough to understand. But that if they keep the sample on file,, that is encouraging... keep me posted on what you find out.

[loveajax]

I definitely want to do the testing with my daughter. And it would be a dream if the testing came back to one specific area to go visit someday (when I win the lottery!).

Nick, was the adoptee the woman who runs the magazine empire?

I think now I haven't seen the whole special so I will have to TIVO it....I was also amazed at the whole "Native American" stuff and how disappointed many were to find that they did not have Native American DNA!

[Sleeplvr]

I have done mtDNA testing on myself. The results came back that my maternal ancestry is from Mozambique. As more groups are added to the database it's possible that it might change. I love being able to point to a specific country as a point of origin. I think it makes me feel more complete with real roots to my family tree.
I've already done a little research on the country and would love to visit one day. I have had one high resolution match with someone in the US so that person is a relative... the problem is founding out how we are related. She is researching Louisiana and I'm looking at Alabama. It looks like the family break occurred during slavery.

I am the guinea pig for testing in my family. I have some sort of idea of my family history and if my test results make sense I will have more confidence in the testing for my kids. For my paper trail genealogy I was able to trace my DD’s birth surname to a village in Japan. We have put that on the list of places to visit along with Mozambique. If my DD ever decides to look for her birth family she will an easy time of it because there are only a handful of people in the US with that surname.

If you check out the DNA forums you will find a number of adoptees who are trying to determine their ancestry. I think it’s kind of sad that some people don’t even have racial or ethnic identity because their adoptive parents were never given that information.

I’m hoping I can finish all the tests before the summer as my finances allow.

[nickchris]

Yes, same person, the aa adoptee is Linda Johnson.

African American Lives 2 . Profiles . Linda Johnson Rice | PBS

Originally Posted by loveajax

Nick, was the adoptee the woman who runs the magazine empire?

I think now I haven't seen the whole special so I will have to TIVO it....I was also amazed at the whole "Native American" stuff and how disappointed many were to find that they did not have Native American DNA!

That was interesting as to the small percentage of NA, as opposed to the larger percentage of CC. Therefore a lot of blacks who are thinking they have NA in their ancestry, when in fact they are actually mixed with CC.
LOL I think Chris Rock placed that new knowledge, in perspective, regarding *how* the combination of the African slaves, and the white genes came together most times involuntarily.

[loveajax]

Yes, I can imagine that there are some real good reasons why you would not want to necessarily think about your white "ancestors" based on what we know of history. Very sad.

[nickchris]

Oh yea its a matter of which vision is more palatable.
Sleeplvr sounds as if you all will have some interesting trips coming up. :-) I may have to get over my issues with bugs if we find out anything specific in any tribal link. LOL

[Sleeplvr]

Please... I will be staying at a resort in Mozambique. LOL... I wonder if they will be able to come up with a tribal link for me. If your family has been in this country a very long time your DNA may be too diluted to get a good match. The only people who are getting good reads are immigrants or people whose family stayed in one region for generations. I think Chris Tucker was one of the people who got an exact match for a tribe in Africa because his family stayed in Georgia pretty much from the time they arrived from Africa.

[nickchris]

LOL I hear ya. Then tracing my side should be easier, than Dh side, since the folks are from the islands. DHs maternal side may be easy, since I believe his mother's folks pretty much stayed in one state.