While everyone else in the Mid-Atlantic states braces for the 20 inches of snow we’re supposed to get stocking up on rock salt and bottled water, I’m hunkering down with some hot cocoa and a notepad in anticpation of PBS’s FACES OF AMERICA.
The latest installment in Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s successful genealogy series begins tomorrow.
According to its Facebook Fan Page, 12 celebrities submitted to DNA tests for the show: “Building on the success of African American Lives, Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. turns to the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore their family histories.”
I’ll be paying special attention to how DNA tests helped them do anything more than discern what part of the world they hailed from. Maybe this will help me decide if I should take one too.
My sister and I have toyed with the idea of taking DNA tests for the past several years. I’d love to know what part of Africa our black ancestors came from. I don’t know what keeps my sister from taking the plunge, but for myself, I think I’m a little afraid of what I might (or might not) find. After seeing the actor, Chris Tucker’s amazing discoveries in African American Lives that revealed his royal African ancestry, I’m afraid I’ll be disappointed if a DNA test doesn’t prove my rumored Scottish royal blood or fails to pinpoint an exact location of my African ancestry.
Maybe I’ll just leave it to chance.
I’ve already signed up for the root.com’s contest to win a free DNA tool kit. Some lucky winner will have it delivered by genealogy guru Henry Louis Gates, Jr. himself. If Gates shows up at my door, I’ll have my answer.
Would you submit to a DNA test and why?
Finding Josephine 