A firm in Houston, Texas that pioneered the use of DNA tests in genealogy studies is involved in a project in Africa
that could help researchers there trace migration patterns over the centuries and help African Americans to connect with their roots. Family Tree DNA and its partners will start by collecting samples from specific ethnic groups in West Africa.
Most black people in America know that their ancestors were in Africa, but they have little information about where in Africa they were or to which tribe or ethnic group they belonged.
The project being launched by Family Tree DNA, here in Houston, in cooperation with the Boston-based AfricanDNA.com enterprise, will begin by targeting five specific ethnic groups in Ghana that are known to have provided slaves to European traders during the Atlantic slave-trade era.
Read the full article in the October 27, 2009 edition of the voanews.com.
