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Tracing Your Family Tree - Case Studies

Pearl Duncan has combined extensive DNA testing with years of research to trace her lineage back to Ghana. Leading the charge is writer, Pearl Duncan. Duncan has found her heritage with the use of nicknames, family stories and some cotton swabs of DNA. She found it in New York, Jamaica and Ghana.

"I would not have been able to do it in any other time in history," Duncan said in an interview with MSNBC.

She learned that her ancestors were Maroons - slaves who were brought from Africa to Jamaica more than 300 years ago, but escaped from their British conquerors and fought to keep their freedom.

For more articles on Pearl Duncan, visit www.pearlduncan.com/articlespd.htm


Motherland is the BBC's Genetics Initiative which looks at the genetic ancestry of British African Caribbeans. It will enable those chosen to discover more information about their Caribbean and African roots. The study looked at the genetic information of 200 British African-Caribbean people whose four grand-parents are/were of Caribbean origin.

The research collected was turned into a BBC documentary film was screened on BBC2 on Friday 14th February, 2003.

For more information, click here

Dangers of using DNA to trace your Family Tree
DNA tests divide Aboriginal community
Moves by 20 Tasmanians to have DNA tests to prove they are indigenous is leading the Aboriginal community to become divided. The group was among 1,100 people whose Aboriginality was questioned when they tried to join the indigenous electoral roll.They have paid for DNA samples to be taken and swabs sent to the United States for analysis.

Historical geographer Kaye McPherson says "The whole process is a farce. DNA as I understand it is a comparable process - you have to have something from the past to compare the present to; in Tasmania that's impossible,"

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre is also opposed to DNA testing, saying it is inconclusive.
Article taken from ABC.net
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