Fam, it’s been 8 months since I sent away my DNA samples and 7 months since I received the results, yet somehow I haven’t posted anything about it! Don’t worry, they weren’t earth shattering - I’ve just been busy. In fact, in many cases, my Ancestry.com test results did just what I hoped they’d do: confirmed connections that I already had in my family tree. And it’s been really cool to see both the family history and my own research corroborated in that way!
For example, the results confirm that I’m definitely a Cooper on my mother’s side and that we’re connected to the Cummings family. This supports the oral history that sometime during my family's life in slavery, likely in the mid-19th century, one of the Cooper brothers ran away and was adopted by, or was sold to, the Cummings family and took their name. (Frankly, I’m darn glad about this confirmation, because we hold a Cooper-Cummings Family reunion religiously every two years!)
Likewise, on my paternal side, it’s clear that I’m descended from the Littlejohn family. That’s neat to see because one of my most exciting finds has been an oral history interview of Jilson Littlejohn, the brother of my 2x great-grandfather, Rufus Littlejohn, that was conducted as part of the Federal Writers' Project during the Great Depression. As an African American studies major and a history lover, seeing my own family in that record set and in that period of history was really cool. (How have I not posted about that yet?! I will, soon!)
The results also confirmed my relationship to a few “new” members of that family, folks that had previously reached out to either me or other family members based on tests they had taken. We’re definitely related. But since those are new relationships and living folks, I won’t be posting about that here.
The Ancestry.com test results also opened the door to the fact that I may have some “bonus biological lines” to research, situations where – reaching back to my “greats” and beyond – it seems like the person who raised a child may not have been that child’s biological parent. I see this as an opportunity and not a problem. Family is more than just DNA – it’s the people who shape us and the circumstances that shaped their lives. So, more family research and stories to dig into!
My mitochondrial DNA test results were a little less exciting. I was hoping I would see some folks that I could clearly identify as being my recent maternal line relatives, based on oral history and documentation, but unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case just yet. I don’t recognize any names on the trees that are available for my matches, and several folks I’m matched with haven’t built their trees out enough for me to know. Yet, based on my Ancestry.com results, it does appear that I am descended from the women that I thought I was along that line. What that likely means - at least for those who’ve built their trees - is that my current mitochondrial DNA matches are related to me much further back in time. But who knows for the folks who haven’t built their trees. I guess we’ll see how that continues to shake out.
Meanwhile, I’m grateful for the folks in my matches who have responded to my outreach on both sites, and hopeful that others will do so, as well, so that we can figure out exactly how we’re related. How fascinating to see the descendants of my ancestors, to see how we’ve spread across the nation, to imagine our ancestors’ lives, and to wonder what our ancestors thought or hoped our lives would look like! How would they feel looking at all of us today, and seeing us work to learn who they were?
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