FTDNA's New MyOrigins

AncestryDNA African Results

First African Born DNA Relative! Merry Christmas

I finally got an African match. They were born in Sierra Leone and they also have ancestry from Ghana. Very exciting. I am still waiting for AncestryDNA results!

December 2013 23andme Ancestry Composition Update

Conservative view

Standard view

Speculative view

23andme Transfer to FTDNA: More Questions Than Answers

So, I transferred my 23andme raw data to FTDNA. This is what I got for population finder.

Only surprises here is the Middle East at 8.39% and the Finnish, Russian part of the Europe. Some have told me that if your Native American is too low to get picked up by the calculator, it will often give you Finnish/Russian for Europe. The Middle East is incorrect, IMO. My West African  numbers are pretty consistent across all companies, give or take a few points.

Africa (West African)	Mandenka, Yoruba	69.79%	±0.36%
Middle East	Palestinian, Iranian, Jewish, Adygei, Bedouin, Bedouin South, Druze	8.39%	±2.90%
Europe	Finnish, Russian	21.82%	±2.99%

Information About African Origins of Enslaved In Eastern United States/Chesapeake Region

My maternal ancestors came from Kentucky, TN, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia. In this post, I will discuss the general preferences and characterizes of enslaved populations in this area. According to (Author), certain ethnic groups such as those from The Gold Coast, Angola-Congo and Gambia were preferred for slavery due to their “fitness” and stocky robust appearance. Slaves from Calabar (Cameroon) from the Bight of Benin were the least preferred because they had a higher tendency to be depressed and commit suicide.

Such a preference for physically robust Africans was due to the need for hard labor on rice and tobacco fields.

From 1720-1740, Virginia and South Carolina imported slaves from three primary regions: Biafra, Benin and Congo-Angola. Specifically in 1730, Angola was one of the main sources of enslaved women and men imported in many Chesapeake colonies such as Virginia and South Carolina.

Senegambians were the most preferred group of Africans, especially the Fulani who were thought to be great domestic workers because they were perceived to be more intelligent due to “mixed ancestry”. Those who worked in the fields came from ethnic groups such as the Goree, Serer, Balante, Papel, Mande and Temne. Igbos and Angolans were also commonly purchased for field labor.

In Louisiana, the French had a preference for Bambara slaves due to their skills in harvesting important crops such as rice, maize, and millet.

Looking at my DNA Tribes African matches, does my matches make historic sense?

References

Holloway, J. E. (1990). Africanisms in American culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Wood, B. (2005). Slavery in colonial America, 1619-1776. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

DNA Tribes SNP Analysis Part 2

  

Compare these results to Africa9 Dodecad