“I was so excited when the doorbell rang and my DNA results had finally arrived. I was in total disbelief and, at first, did not open the envelope. Eventually I opened it, read the results and just started to scream. My mother and daughter ran in and I just blurted out that we are from the Mende tribe in Sierra Leone,” said an excited Leah Armour, as she spoke with the Weekly Gleaner.

Armour is just one of the many African Americans who are interested in finding out their African roots. She said that her life and outlook have changed ever since she received the results. She did the DNA testing on her mother’s side and is now working on getting DNA to find out her father’s origin. She plans on using her brother’s son to establish paternity.

“I now think more spiritually and globally. I have been trying for the past 4 or 5 years

to find out about my ancestry both for spiritual and medical reasons,” she continued. Leah has since been on a quest to find other people of the Mende tribe who are currently living in the United States.

For years many people have tried to reconstruct the genealogy of their ancestry, sometimes resorting to private investigators to do the research. However, there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. African Ancestry, Inc., a Washington-based firm, is exclusively selling tests to establish ancestry, using their extensive database: Genetic Lineage from Africa.

As more African-American and Afro-Caribbean people try to get in touch with their roots and have developed a new-found interest in Africa – the Motherland – more people are getting excited about genetic testing. Simply put, anyone who wants to know if they have African ancestors and where they come from, which ethnic group they belong to, can now pay $349 and take the test.

According to Gina Paige, president of African Ancestry, Inc., “We offer a service that traces the African ancestry of maternal and paternal lineages based on DNA.” She said that the DNA offers insights into people’s historical past, but admits that the process gets difficult “as we go back into slavery.” African Ancestry, Inc. provides a bridge from wherever people are, be it the Americas or the Caribbean, to Africa.

After consenting to the terms and condition of taking the DNA test, the customer receives a kit that contains a swab-like toothpick along with a bar-coded envelope. “We try to maintain the confidentiality of each clients as most people are sensitive to the newness of DNA,” said Paige.

Once the test is ordered, a kit, either the PatrioClanTM Test or the MatriClanTM, is given to the client, who will wipe the insides of his or her cheeks with cotton swabs and mail them to African Ancestry, Inc.

Jackie Pitter, a retired civil servant living in Far Rockaway, said that when she learned about the African Ancestry program she was “quite excited, so I contacted Howard University, but DNA testing was not available.” She visited Senegal along with her two children and some friends. She said that she was so overwhelmed that she was on the continent of her ancestors. “I visited Goree Island off the coast

of Senegal, the place where they kept the slaves who were awaiting the

voyage of the Middle Passage.”

But still determined to find her ancestry, Pitter made frequent inquiries and checked for updates until she found she could get tested. “Alex Ailey found his roots through linguistics,” said Pitter. “I did genealogical investigations, which took me as far as 1804 in North Carolina, not Africa.”

Sometimes someone who thinks that they are African American, ends up being native American with some European mix. The level of accuracy in the maternal testing is high; 95 percent of the time a match is found to be African ancestry. With paternal testing, 70 percent are of African Ancestry; 30 percent are of European origin.

If African Ancestry, Inc. does not find an African match for a client, then with the client’s consent, a search is made using a European database. The results are confidential.

Over 11,000 Africans are currently in the database, which is updated twice a year through the efforts of Dr. Rick Kittles, at Howard University. Dr. Kittles, who is co-director of the Molecular Genetics Core and Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology, works in collaboration with researchers on the continent. As well, over 30 countries in West and Central Africa are included in the database, which were part of the Trans-Atlantic Trade that took place from about 1600 to 1850.

According to Paige, the most common areas where ancestors are matched are Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Cameroons.

As for Pitter, eventually she found out through the same African Ancestry DNA testing that her mother was a Bamileke from the Cameroons and is now planning a visit. “I have met with officials of the Cameroon Embassy in Manhattan. I have also received first-hand information about my ancestors. It is such a blessing that this science exists. We are the first generation to know where we are from.”