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Genealogy is fast becoming popular among African-Americans and West Indians and DNA testing can now be used to trace your roots. With DNA testing it is now possible to quickly trace your roots back to ethnic groups in Africa. If all else fails, use this method to find out which ethnic group you come from and their geographical area. Companies offering genetic tests to trace ancestry are springing up all over the place and one company located in WashingtonD.C., specializes in tracing lineages back to Africa. The company offers two DNA based genealogy tests at about $349 a piece.
The tests are called the MatriClan Test and the PatriClan Test. The MatriClan Test looks at mitochondrial DNA. Unlike regular DNA, which is a combination of the mother and father, mitochondrial DNA is passed unchanged from mother to child. The PatriClan Test studies the man’s Y chromosome. Although this test can only be performed on men, it can reveal significant information since, like mitochondrial DNA, it is not a combination of the mother and the father and passes unchanged. They will collect your DNA from a cheek swab, then sequence a portion of the genetic material and then match that sequence against a database that contains genetic information from West Africa. They have a database, which includes DNA sequence information from natives of West Africa, which is where untold millions of Africans were procured for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
Although all humans are nearly identical on the genetic level, this company, in their database focus on the mutations that have occurred over time that caused variations between African populations that often lived in geographic isolation from one another. Their database contains DNA sequence information from approximately 10,000 people from about 90 West African ethnic groups. They also utilized DNA sequence information from other populations in Africa. They claim they can link about 85% of African Americans with their African ancestors ethnic group. Personally, my hat is off to this company because they are people of African descent who specialize in helping other people of African descent find out where they come from. They have taken a high tech route to roots recovery.
Purchase the travel guide Roots Recovered! The How To Guide For Tracing African-American and West Indian Roots Back to Africa And Going There FOR FREE OR ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET for more information
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