Sunday, June 8, 2008

Do you know who you are....

My People ......from Bamako,Mali....perhaps this is why I get chills when I hear/play my djembe....or perhaps this is where I got the gift of music....generations from far away...




The cutest baby ever playing the Djembe



As most of you know one of my favorite pastimes is genealogy research, I cannot fathom why anyone, especially African-Americans, would not want to know who their ancestors are...anyway, the latest and greatest is as follows. Just to give you a background, my grandfather's side of the family was from New Orleans, LA....he was Catholic, and his Great Grandfather was Cuban or Portuguese, something like that, anyway, I know enough about them, too much, my cousin Phyllis Lastrapes has done loads of research on that side..she's written books and done the whole nine.....

Now on my grandmother's side...this is where dna has helped tremendously. I had nil to go on, a few things that were word of mouth but for the most part, nada....so after having my DNA reviewed by National Geographic, they discovered all these wonderful things, gave me my DNA coding and off I went on my quest, I've found out so much so far.

For those are you that are considering researching your families...go to National Geographic, sign up for the Genographic Project...once you receive your info, if you are researching your maternal side, check out mitosearch.org, smgf.org, and familytreedna.com, you can learn so much, these wonderful databases connect so many families.

I discover new stuff like every quarter, so far I've been able to track down that my maternal ancestors were from Spain, and Africa....primarily Africa, I've learned several surnames, "Samake", "Rodrigues" which is Malian and Brazilian, how cool is that! I've also discovered a Malian musician, Sibiri Samake in our family tree....all kinds of neat stuff. There is nothing like "knowing" who you are.....

Oh, and on my husband's side, I am now ...related to yes...Mr. Alex Haley himself, RIP, how freggin cool is that????? His mother's family is some how connected to Mr. Haley... how is that for "Roots"..how ironic....anyway "know thyself" please....it's so easy these days!

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

My re-inspiration to seek my DNA!!


phynxsun

June 9, 2008 at 12:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mutt : )


Phynxsun

June 9, 2008 at 12:39 PM  

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