My whole life I always wondered where I was from. Friends of mine could rattle off various places their ancestors hailed from, but me? I always said the same thing: “I’m African American.”
I was always jealous of those people who have an understanding of who they are as people, especially since I never had. I’m African American, but what does that mean? Who were my ancestors? What part of Africa did I come from? When did they come to America? So many questions that I began to think I would never have the answers to.
After Thanksgiving break, my friends and I saw a special going on through Ancestry.com. If you bought three DNA kits, you got the fourth one free. Perfect timing. I would occasionally go onto the Ancestry site but would always exit out when I saw the $99 price tag. With all of us splitting the price, it came to about $50 a person.
Since we ordered the kits around the holiday season, many people had cashed in on the deal which delayed results. The test was fairly simple. You spit into a tube and then ship it back in a prepaid box. The worst part is the waiting. I would check my email daily to see if my fate was sent to me but day after day, nothing.
The morning I got my test results, I had never opened an email faster. In just a few seconds, I would finally have an identity.
To no surprise, much of my DNA is composed of African decent. My main four results were from Ghana, Nigeria, Scandinavia, and Great Britain. The part I was most excited to see was that I had English heritage. Anyone that knows me knows I have a strange affinity for England and sometimes slip into an accent. Sometimes intentional, sometimes not.
There were a few other surprises in my DNA, like Ireland, Middle East, and Iberian Peninsula.
Knowing now what I’ve always wondered is an indescribable. Not knowing who you are and where you’re from is a unique feeling, especially when so many of your peers have something they can trace. I know want to dig deeper into my family tree and see what else there is to uncover about my family.
Though this new found information doesn’t change me as a person, it does complete me.
HCXOXO,
Imani Taylor