I'm mixed-race & have been able to trace my mother's family tree back several generations (even on her maternal line from Austria).
For most of my life there has been a huge disparity in my family tree since my father is the grandson of formerly enslaved ancestors You read that right. He's the grandson of formerly enslaved ancestors. His newfound baby sister (who was born in 1964 and who is only in her 50s in 2022) is also the granddaughter of those same enslaved ancestors.
I tell that to people as often as I can because I'm tired of hearing people say that slavery happened too long ago to matter and that we just need to get over it.
I am the great granddaughter of formerly enslaved ancestors despite being born in 1975 to a white mother and a black father. Yet even more telling is that I was born just 8 years after the supreme court made interracial marriage legal in the U.S. Many of us are generationally closer to our enslaved ancestors than we even realize. Simply because we've been cut off from the histories of our ancestors. Click here to read the post about my parents The only way I have been able to reclaim some of the histories of the ancestors on my father's branch is through genetic genealogy. And it has been a long and arduous road, but I have now proven and documented several generations of my father's ancestors. I've also identified some of the families who owned my enslaved ancestors as a result of the research. Discoveries like that were painful, but important because I was able to unlock a wealth of information on my enslaved ancestors. Including documents that recorded their words and experiences.
As a result, I’ve become a passionate advocate of genetic genealogy. I’ve created this site to share the stories I've uncovered and how I've used genetic genealogy tools in the process. I also formed Legacy Reclaimed, a non-profit organization whose mission is specifically to assist descendants of enslaved ancestors and people with unknown parentage or unknown grandparents.
If you have questions on your own ancestry that you haven't been able to answer through traditional research, you may want to consider taking an ancestry DNA test. If you're uncertain which company to test with, my suggestion is that you should test with ancestry.com. They have the cheapest test (frequently on sale), they have the largest database (over 20 million test-takers as of 2021). Lastly, once you test with them, you can download your test and upload it for free to other sites (like MyHeritage & FamilyTreeDNA) to find even more matches.
I can also provide advice regarding testing (i.e. buy an ancestry test during one of their frequent sales; advice for providing a good sample that won't get rejected by the lab; tips for managing multiple tests under one account; and much more). I'll eventually type up a post with this information, but for now, you can use the contact form below to submit your questions to me directly.
Other things I can assist with: - Identifying predicted yDNA haplogroups of male descendants who have taken an atDNA test through ancestry.com or myheritage.com (23andme male test takers already have their yDNA haplogroup). - Providing info on what yDNA/mtDNA is and how it is used to further research or confirm/disprove connections. - Suggesting next steps based on predicted yDNA (or mtDNA from 23andme). - Assisting in finding matches across other consumer ancestry DNA sites. - Assisting new researchers on how to use basic triangulation to identify unknown ancestors. - Showing researchers how to scan, repair, or enhance old photos.
Use the contact form below to send me your questions:
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