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Article: Genetics puts limbs on family tree Genetics puts limbs on family tree African Ancestry takes over where record-keeping stops By Paul Elias, Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO
- Article from:
- Oakland Tribune
- Article date:
- September 6, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2003 Oakland Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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THIRTY YEARS after Alex Haley's "Roots" launched a genealogical
renaissance, African Americans are exploiting the latest genetic
research to make once-impossible connections to their ancestral
homelands.African Americans who have been searching musty file rooms
in government buildings, churches and cemeteries for family records
often have been frustrated to discover that their ancestral trails
ended on this side of the Atlantic. Slave owners often changed the
names of their captives, and poor record-keeping has prevented most
searchers from tracing their bloodlines to Africa.
Now, African Ancestry Inc., with its growing databank of African
DNA samples, claims it can restore some of those ...