You want to learn as much as you can about your family: where they came from, what their stories were, and how their experiences shaped yours.
Some of this work may be aided by the science of DNA ancestry testing. And some of it is also social, relational, cultural – and sometimes difficult to trace. It can span countries and centuries.
Here are ways to trace the roots of where your ancestors came from.
DNA ancestry testing can help you learn more about yourself and your family roots. People often use them to learn about their ethnic makeup and family history. But you should keep in mind that the results regarding ethnicity and genealogy may not be perfect and depend on each company’s database.
There are many reasons why you might want to have a DNA test done. Some reasons include:
- To find out more about your origins. DNA testing can be used to trace your lineage back up to 10 generations. The tests can also help you learn more about where your ancestors lived, although this may be at the level of a region and not a specific city. When DNA test results are accurate, you can even find out if you have living or recently deceased relatives.
- To establish paternity. The most common use of DNA testing is to resolve paternal disputes. Children inherit genes from their biological parents. A DNA paternity test compares a child’s DNA with that of the alleged biological father. The paternity dispute would then be resolved if the alleged father’s genes showed a 99.9% match.
- Forensic science. Just like fingerprints, a person’s DNA is unique. At crime scenes, investigators collect DNA samples such as hair, skin, semen and blood. Forensic scientists will then analyze this DNA to help solve crimes.
- Checking for risky variants. DNA testing allows doctors to look for gene variants that may increase the risk of certain medical conditions or genetic conditions. If you and your doctor decide that this examination would be helpful, it can help determine treatment options if you are found to be at risk for a condition. Keep in mind that scientists haven’t found all the gene variants for every condition. And many conditions are too In addition to genes, there are other risk factors.
The accuracy of DNA ancestry depends on the amount of data collected by the testing center. There is a wide range of DNA sequences. The more DNA sequences there are from people from your ethnic group and ancestral geographic range, the better the accuracy.
Many people come from heterogeneous backgrounds, meaning their family trees include people from more than one racial/ethnic group. This may affect the accuracy of the test results. But if the testing companies have enough DNA data from your lineages, you may get more accurate results.
DNA tests can be inaccurate for reasons including:
- Each company has its own database and results may not be final. Most DNA testing companies use common genetic variations in their database as the basis for testing DNA accuracy. So you may get different results if you use different companies. Some ethnicities from Africa, East Asia, South America and South Asia can be more difficult to trace because DNA testing companies have limited DNA data in their databases to reference.
- DNA testing companies do not look at all possible genetic variations. They target a relatively small number of the millions of SNPs found in your DNA.
- Y-chromosome DNA tests only look at your paternal line, so results may be limited.
Tracing your family history isn’t just about taking a DNA ancestry test. It often involves scouring research, interviewing family members and searching online databases for clues. It’s not always easy, especially if data is missing or incomplete. But there can be moments that make the hunt particularly rewarding.
Meet lace makers who make intricate creations world or bobbin lace in tiny Moca, Puerto Rico, is seared into Ellen Fernandez-Sacco’s mind. When she discovered she had relatives who made lace, she learned enough to make a small bookmark. For Trisa Long Paschal, seeing her great-grandfather’s signature on census documents was a joy. And Mary Elliott screamed in the Library of Congress when she discovered letters between her great-great-great uncle and Booker T. Washington.
These are among the cherished memories of family historians.
For some, the spark starts early. At the age of 14, Paschal suddenly began to enjoy the memories that older relatives shared at family reunions. Armed with a notebook, she asked questions about everything, deciphering nicknames like Bruh, Red and Boot.
Over the past half century, Paschal has collected bits and pieces of history from both sides of her family and inherited bags of photos. She and her brother Elmer built a large wooden sign with a gold family tree that their maternal grandparents proudly hung in their home in Pine Mountain, Georgia.
Finding those stories can be challenging for many reasons. While some families can trace their roots to Europe in the 16th century, African Americans like Paschal often hit a wall in the 1870 census, the first to name their ancestors after the end of slavery.
Other barriers for people from a wide range of backgrounds include language, mixed heritage, migration patterns and politics.
“You always have to look for a solution,” says Fernandez-Sacco, an independent scientist who specializes in studying Latino genealogy and slavery.
Zayneldin Shourbaji of Howard County, MD, noted differences in tracing his father’s side of the family (from Tennessee, Egypt, and Syria in the early 20th century) versus his mother’s side (from the early 19th century in Illinois and Canada, all the way back to Scottish barons associated with William the Conqueror).
“It gets a little messier as we go back to the different countries,” Shourbaji says. Finding official documents in Egypt was difficult, apart from birth certificates and other personal papers or the occasional business document for family entrepreneurs.
Names can also be difficult. Several people may have the same name. They may have changed the spelling and name. Census workers could have introduced errors. For example, Paschal’s great-grandmother is listed as both Anner and Annie Johnson.
“If you have a very common last name, it presents certain challenges,” says Fernandez-Sacco. In Puerto Rico, “Fernandez is second, right after Gonzalez,” she says. Likewise, Pierre, Joseph and Charles are common surnames in Haiti.
Some people who immigrated from China to the US from 1882 to 1943 purchased documents for new identities as the “paper” sons and daughters of US citizens, as the Chinese Exclusion Acts, which drastically limited the immigration of Chinese people to the US, from were strength. From 1910 to 1940, many people came through the U.S. immigration station on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. read about Angel Island immigration station – and how it differed from Ellis Island in New York. If your family came through Ellis Island, you can check online database.
Family histories can become personal – very personal. Some family members do not want to discuss difficult memories.
‘I couldn’t get my grandfather to tell me something,” says Paschal. “He laughed at me and said, ‘Boo, you don’t even know what you’re asking for.’”
When you encounter someone who is reluctant to share what he or she knows about your family’s history, ask someone else, suggests Elliott, whose love of history led her to become a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.
Think outside the box when you hit a historical roadblock, Elliott and Fernandez-Sacco say. Delve into the history and culture of the period to add context to the lives of your ancestors and better understand why they made certain decisions.
They encourage researchers to visit historical societies, specialty research center companies, the National Archives, museums and places of worship. Also look at military documents and documents from the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (also called the Freedmen’s Bureau), which Congress created in 1865 and abolished in 1872.
You can also research people who are close to you but not in your immediate family. This includes indirect relatives (such as aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives), neighbors, people with the same surname, ‘playing cousins’ (children you grew up with but are not related to) and families whose names retain the same name. . popping up in conversations, like the Culpeppers that Paschalis heard about again and again. Mary Elliott called every Elliott in Starkville, MS.
To encourage storytelling and accuracy, Linda Jones created Afrobituary Legacy Writing to teach people how to write their obituaries and estate letters.
“A lot of information in obituaries is incorrect,” says Jones, because it is often “based on guesswork as people grieve” and feel pressure to get their loved one’s obituary done in a short time.
Family exploration and storytelling can be empowering. “It’s fun to see where you come from and how far your heritage goes,” Shourbaji said.
Elliott worked with a woman who realized this after admitting that learning about her ancestors helped her shed the shame of their slavery. “My teeth almost fell out of my mouth,” Elliott says. “Do you know how much it cost to get you here?”
As a descendant of business and community leaders who lost everything in the Tulsa Race Massacre, Elliott also encouraged the residents of Africatown, AL, to cherish their history and resilience. She appeared with them Descendant, a documentary about the Clotilda, a ship deliberately sunk after illegally transporting their ancestors from Africa. The descendants, who also had to endure the encirclement by polluting industries, recently opened a museum to tell their story. “Clotilda: The Exhibition” is on display at the Africatown Heritage House.
Family stories can also save your life. Elliott discovered breast and ovarian cancer in her family tree. It turns out that she and several women in her family are carriers of the BRCA gene.
“It is these histories of survival and resilience that have the power to heal and inspire self-care,” says Fernandez-Sacco. “Our ancestors are important.”
More: Get questions to ask your relatives about your family’s health history.