My Bucket List: My DNA Tested By Ancestry

I refer to myself as an African American; I have no record of where my ancestors are from but many black families where

Nowadays, DNA is a crucial component of a crime scene investigation, used to both to identify perpetrators from crime scenes and to determine a suspect’s guilt or innocence (Butler, 2005). The method of constructing a distinctive “fingerprint” from an individual’s DNA was first described by Alec Jeffreys in 1985. He discovered regions of repetitions of nucleotides inherent in DNA strands that differed from person to person (now known as variable number of tandem repeats, or VNTRs), and developed a technique to adjust the length variation into a definitive identity marker (Butler, 2005). Since then, DNA fingerprinting has been refined to be an indispensible source of evidence, expanded into multiple methods befitting different types of DNA

DNA testing has overthrown the way police collect evidence in a number of criminal cases, especially rape and murder and consequently had a large impact on many past cases. However there are many disadvantages to DNA testing, such as a challenge of accuracy, the costs of DNA testing and the possible misuse of DNA. The prospect of a national DNA database in Australia has been heavily criticised with complaints of invasion of privacy and stigma against those with terminal diseases.

This paper explores the history and some interesting facts about DNA. The last couple centuries have seen an exponential growth in our knowledge of DNA. The history of the DNA can be traced back to multiple devoted scientist. This article attempts to summarize, and review the basic history of DNA while providing some fascinating information about it.

Together my family tree or Genogram and I see why it is important to know who we are and where we come from. I am an African American and both my parents are of African American decent. In the African American culture, many of our ancestors came to America by capture and not by choice. It is said that many African Americans were slaves and were a part of slave trade that was increased between the 15th and 19th centuries (Bennett, 2003; Van Sertima, 1976). Many African Americans were brought here to make their white or European owners money and cause them to be prosperous in areas of agriculture. There were white indentured servants, who could have worked to till the ground and make the harvest plentiful, but it wasn’t enough, so plantation owners saw it profitable to use African slaves as a solution to

There are several companies that analyze DNA for people. One of these companies is called 23 and me. This companies offers two services that ancestry and health plus ancestry. If I were to get my DNA analyzed, I would choose the health plus ancestry. This would give me information on my genetic heritage and health information. The genetic information received will be general areas of where my ancestors are from but also it would allow me to search for other people who would have family connections. The health

The ethnic group that I choose was Native Americans. I am of Caucasian descendant with Native American from my dad’s side. I really want to learn more about my heritage and family background.

Marcus Garvey, a ‘proponent of Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements” (), once stated that “a people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” (Good Reads Quotes) He was in fact very much so right. Most people in this world care about where they come from, who they descended from and where the backbone of their identity lies. Have you ever wondered why almost most orphans tend to look for their family lines or go out in search of where they belong? It is with this very essence my quest to look for answers and investigate about two very distinct yet similar groups. The groups I examine throughout this paper are Africans and African-Americans. What I seek to find out is why two very ‘distinct’ yet similar groups of people fail to see eye to eye, judging from the fact that Africans and African-Americans look alike, originated from Africa and their histories and culture somehow intertwine with each other. The main question here really is: what are the factors that hinder the relationship between Africans and African-American people.

I am a black man in America with no known ancestral history, the only historian in my family is my 78 year old grandmother, and at times her stories become vague and distorted with little recollection of her own mother. My last name is West, such a simple last name, there is high possibility that I

My group’s history is wide ranging spanning for many years and varying from region to region within the United States. I remember when I was young I use to talk to my mother a lot and asked her many questions like “Why am I called an African American?” She went on to explain that our race originally comes from Africa and we were part of a slave trade.

The background of an individual determines their approach and consideration of situations. The short story “Where Did You Get That Name?”, by Baratunde Thurston, demonstrates this precisely, when Baratunde, a young Nigerian boy, finds himself explaining the origin of his name to who he refers to as Father Nigeria, saying “I got it from my parents” (Thurston3), only for the interrogation to continue and the man to dismiss his explanation and ruthlessly assume that Baratunde “[had] no history, no culture, no roots…[and] decided to indict, judge and reject all of African America.” (Thurston3). “Father Nigeria”, being marinated in the Nigerian Culture all his life, immediately questioned Baratunde’s authenticity. Because Baratunde was only partially Nigerian, this man reverted to his culturally defensive mentality, and undermined Baratunde’s identity. Father Nigeria had come from purely Nigerian roots, and when a Nigerian exposed to American culture attempted to explain his name, he automatically reacted

That data revealed that for most Black people, their DNA comes from their African ancestors. Also, according to the results, most African Americans have some European ancestry or White background. The results also showed that African American living in the South have slightly more African DNA (83 percent) than those who do not live in the South (80 percent). The researchers suggested that Black people living in the South have more African DNA because a vast majority of African slaves were sexually exploited prior to the Civil War. Therefore, the slaves that were sexually exploited before the Civil War influenced the DNA of almost all African Americans today. This study proves that a race’s genetic makeup is a result of history. Therefore, the pain and anguish that African slaves endured is indeed, in the genetic makeup of African Americans today. When anger is internalized and unresolved, it becomes an issue. The anger that African slaves felt in 1800 has been passed down from generation to generation and has yet to be

Racial injustices are what have made America the powerful nation it is today. America was founded on the genocide of Native Americans and built on the backs of African slaves. In modern day America, strides have been made to provide all Americans equal opportunities to ensure assimilation and success in society however there is still significant work to be to ensure equality. In this paper I have researched the anthropological perspectives on race and ethnicity globally. I have also compared and contrasted varying researcher’s works to ensure I have a thorough understanding of this topic

During the visit to Ancestry.com, I learned about their extensive consumer base. Ancestry operates in over 30 countries and has 1400 worldwide workers. With 20 Billion records from around the world, Ancestry has grown significantly since its beginning. There are 2 million digital records received every day, and 10 million people are added per day to the family trees. In addition, there are 75 million searches that occur each day as well. Overall, Ancestry has 10 petabytes of data which has resulted in the development of 80 million family trees.

Family history is very important to an individual. By knowing where you come from, you can have a better perspective of your life. Having a clear understanding of your family background allows you to better appreciate the things that you would normally take for granted. The house, the car, and the average clothing may look better when one sees the sacrifices their family has made. They will see that their family has worked very hard just so their family can experience the better things in life. A persons roots and origin is one of the most important things to explore. It alone can bring you closer to self-discovery.