DNA testing filling in blanks for blacks

People get chance to trace their roots at Juneteenth event

Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, June 12, 2006

Shirley Hollingsworth has long been interested in learning about her family lineage. The retired financial analyst from Montbello believed for years that her ancestors came from Sierra Leone in west Africa.

Science proved otherwise.

In February, the genealogy buff attended a fundraiser at the Blair Caldwell African American Research Library in Denver and learned about DNA testing done by a Washington, D.C., company called African Ancestry Inc.

Hollingsworth paid $260 and sent in a swab of saliva. About a month later, she learned that her maternal ancestors came from three tribes in what is now Ghana and Guinea.

Armed with this knowledge, she now plans to visit that region to learn more about her roots.

Hollingsworth is one of about 200 black Denver-area residents who have taken the DNA ancestry test in recent months.

The owners of African Ancestry discussed their work and sold some tests at a Juneteenth event Saturday in Colorado Springs. They also offered the tests and answered questions Sunday afternoon as part of a Blair Caldwell library fundraiser.

"For this community, you hit a brick wall when you get to the 1860s," company president Gina Paige said. "That's the first time African-Americans were recorded in the census."

Kenya Luvert, 31, of Aurora, and her family have traced her father's side to Ethiopia, but there are remaining gaps in the ever-growing family tree. She came to Blair Caldwell Sunday to get information. She's on the fence on the test, which would cost her $300.

"I will probably do it sometime," said Luvert, who was among the 25 people who stopped by the library Sunday.

Terry Nelson, a manager at the Blair Caldwell library, took the test as part of the February fundraiser. She plans to arrange a meeting of local test-takers so that they can find common information that could augment the library materials.

James Tucker, publisher of the African American Voice, asked the company to join the Juneteenth Expo in Colorado Springs because the event focuses in part on honoring the community's ancestry.

Juneteenth refers to the June 19 observance to celebrate the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, a Union general in Galveston, Texas, declared the end of the Civil War, freeing the final 250,000 slaves in the southwest. That was more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Local events are scheduled next week.

City Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth was among about 15 prominent Denver area blacks who learned their ancestry during the February library event.

She said news that her maternal ancestors came from two tribes in Cameroon has had a "life-changing effect" on her. She picked up a paternal test on Sunday for her brother.

Since February, Wedgeworth said she's done research at the library on the tribes her maternal ancestors came from. She's been communicating by e-mail with groups in other parts of the country who have the same ancestry. She also plans to visit Cameroon with City Council member Michael Hancock, who has similar ancestry.

"Because of slavery, a lot of our whole history was wiped out," she said. "Now we can find ourselves as a people, and bring that information and that empowerment to future generations of kids and our families. That is a very powerful thing to do."

African Ancestry is one of at least seven companies that offer DNA ancestry tests. The combined maternal/paternal test costs about $500.

This is how the test works:

The test for maternal lineage uses mitochondrial DNA from saliva and the test for paternal lineage uses Y chromosome information.

The genetic sequence - shown in a series of letters for the maternal line and series of numbers for the paternal line - is compared with thousands of sequences compiled from African indigenous people and groups from other continents. The company then says it finds matches in more than 95 percent of their tests.

Paige said almost all maternal tests done by blacks find African roots. But 30 percent of the paternal tests reveal European ancestry.

Paige said about 7,000 people have taken the test since the company opened in 2003. She said Denver ranks fifth among U.S. cities in the number of test takers.

Iris Hawkins, former president of the Black Genealogy Search Group of Denver, which has about 100 members, took the test in February and found out that her maternal ancestors came from Sierra Leone.

The 77-year-old retired college counselor from Denver said the DNA test is a good tool for genealogists, but only provides one piece of the puzzle.

People searching for their roots still need to pore through paper and online records to fill in the gaps.

"There's a lot you have to do before the DNA is going to be of any great help," she said.

Interest in genealogy has been growing across many communities and the DNA technology is advancing quickly, said James K. Jeffrey, collections specialist in genealogy at the Western History and Genealogy Department at the Denver Public Library.

"This whole thing is relatively new," he said. "It's not even the cresting wave. It's the rising tide. This is so new even the labs haven't figured out how much they can do with it."

Sponsor changes for this year's parade

• The traditional Denotement parade will continue this year as part of the local celebration of the end of slavery. But the sponsor has changed.

• The Five Points Business Association, which ran the parade for the past 37 years, lost a lottery held by the city on May 23 for the parade permit, said association director Marva Coleman. She said her group is not involved in any holiday events this year.

• The Kingdom of Glory Christian Center, a new nondenominational church in Five Points, won the permit and says two dozen groups so far are participating in the parade, scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday.

The parade will stretch along Welton Street, beginning at Humboldt Street and ending at 24th Street.

• The church also will sponsor a two-day festival, Saturday and Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Sonny Lawson Park at Park Avenue and Welton Street, church volunteer Dawn Marquantte said.