Understanding Your Y-DNA Results

Und e rst and i ng You r Y- DNA R e su lt s
Your Africandna Password: _________________________________________________
Enclosed you will find a certificate showing that you have had your Y-DNA analyzed by
AfricanDNA. The results represent your actual DNA sequence’s differences from the Cambridge
Reference Sequence (CRS) and are listed on your certificate. These values are also listed on your
personal page at our website. To access your personal page, please go to www.africandna.com
and enter your kit number found on your certificate and the password provided at the top
of this page.
Africans exported as
Analyzing African Results. Enslaved Africans who arrived in North America came from
four different regions of Africa: Senegambia, Sierra Leone, and the Winward Coast (Upper
Guinea); Gold Coast, the Bight of Benin, and the Bight of Biafara (Lower Guinea); West Central
Africa (Angola); and South East Africa (Mozambique and the Indian Ocean). The Upper Guinea
region follows the West African coast from Senegal to Liberia and stretches inland to Mali and
the northern Ivory Coast. The Lower Guinea region runs from eastern Ivory Coast to western
Cameroon. The Angola region extends from the Republic of Congo to Angola, and South East
Africa includes Mozambique and islands in the Indian Ocean. These regions are shown in the
map below. European shippers of slaves divided theseregions into sub-regions, and it is sometimes
possible to link descendents of slaves in America to African ethnic groups from these sub-regions.
Morocco
slaves came from
these major regions:
Upper Guinea, Lower
Algeria
Libya
Egypt
Western Sahara
Guinea, Angola, &
Mozambique and Indian
Mauritania
Mali
Ocean Islands.
Source: Drs. Linda
Heywood and
Niger
Chad
Senegal
Sudan
Gambia
Burkina Faso
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea
Côte
d'Ivoire
Sierra Leone
Ghana
Benin
Togo
John Thornton
Nigeria
Ethiopia
Central African Republic
Liberia
Cameroon
Somalia
Uganda
Equatorial Guinea
Gabon
Congo
Kenya
Democratic Republic
of the Congo
United Republic
of Tanzania
Upper Guinea
Zambia
Malawi
Angola
Lower Guinea
Mozambique
Zimbabwe
Angola
Nambia
Botswana
Madagascar
Swaziland
Mozambique & Indian Ocean Islands
Lesotho
South Africa
YR20408
Understanding Your Y-DNA Results | 1
Nor t h Ame r i c an Tr a d e R oute s
Chesapeake
Carolinas/Georgia
New Orleans
Rhode Island
Senegambia
Winward
Coast Gold Bight Bight
Coast of Benin
of Biafra
Sierra Leone
“I was able to trace the family
trees of several prominent
Angola
Mozambique
Madagascar
African Americans deep into
slavery, following the paper trail.
And then when the paper trail
This map is an adaptation of the original work by Dr. David Eltis.
ended, we tested their DNA
in an attempt to discover
the origins of their mother’s line
or their father’s line on the
African continent.”
- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The map above represents the origins and destinations of ships transporting enslaved Africans
to the United States according to actual shipping records assembled by The Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade Database under the direction of Professor David Eltis, a member of our Advisory Board.
The thickness of the arrows corresponds to the number of slaves shipped from each geographical
location. By 1820, almost all of the 400,000 slaves imported directly into North America had
arrived. None of the political entities existing in Africa before 1820 survive intact today. As a
result, people who descend from the same ethnic group in Africa in the 18th century, for example,
might live in several different countries in Africa today. Since ethnicity is a very fluid category
in modern Africa, and the names of the same ethnic groups vary from country to country and
language to language, connecting a modern-day person with a particular ethnic group of the 18th
century is complex and not always possible.
Internal movements, especially in the 19th century, have led to the migration of many groups
into areas they had not occupied in the past. As a result, when these populations are tested today
they may be found in regions in which they did not live during the period of slave trade. One
example of this is Cameroon, where many matches to African Americans might be found despite
the fact that this country contributed only a miniscule portion of slaves to the trade. Most of these
matches in Cameroon are from ethnic groups that likely lived in Nigeria or Angola during the
18th century. Because Cameroon connects the regions of Lower Guinea and Angola, it is
sometimes difficult to differentiate genetically between the two.
Determining the ethnicity of an individual in Africa is also problematic since, for example, many
Africans might derive their ethnic identity from a father when their mother is from a different
ethnic group. Ethnicities are also more fluid in the cities, where people are detached from their
original residences (sometimes by several generations) and have ethnicities different from that of
their rural cousins. Thus, the more researchers discover about the migration and ethnic history
of individual donors in Africa, the more this will help in making connections between modern
ethnic identities and those during the Atlantic slave trade period.
Understanding Your Y-DNA Results | 2
Morocco
R e g i ona l R e su lt s
Algeria
Libya
Egypt
Western Sahara
Ethnic groups found in the
Lower Guinea region:
Mauritania
Ewe
Asanti
Fon
Fanti
Ga
Bamileke
Guang
Bamun
Gurma
Bariba
Hausa
Brong
Ibibio
Dagomba
Ibo or Igbo
Duala
Idoma
Edo
Igala
Efik
Ijaw or Ijo
Egba
Itsekiri
Kalabari
Mahi
Mali
Niger
Chad
Senegal
Sudan
Gambia
Burkina Faso
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea
Côte
d'Ivoire
Sierra Leone
Ghana
Benin
Togo
Akan
Nigeria
Central African Republic
Liberia
Cameroon
Uga
Equatorial Guinea
Lower Guinea Region
Gabon
Congo
Democratic Republic
of the Congo
Source: Drs. Linda Heywood and John Thornton
Tikar
Yoruba
U
Regional Results – lower Guinea. Your Y-DNA results were analyzed by our Board of
Advisers, which includes historians of Africa and the slave trade and social scientists specializing
in ancestry tracing through DNA. They have determined that your lineage most closely matches
Angola
that of people found in the Lower Guinea region. This region runs from eastern Ivory Coast to
western Cameroon. It includes three sub-regions linked to the ports described in shipping records. These regions are the Gold Coast, the Bight of Benin, and the Bight of Biafara.
Zambia
Zimbabwe
The Gold Coast region, which is modern day Ghana, was divided in the early 18th century into
Nambia
about 30 independent political entities, most of whom were members of the Akan/Fante/Twi
ethnic group. They had many wars among themselves, originating in dynastic quarrels and
commercial rivalries. These powers included the Denkyira, Akwamu, and Akyem kingdoms,
but came to be dominated by the Kingdom of Asante.
Botswana
Swaziland
Lesotho
South Africa
The Bight of Benin encompasses Benin and Togo as well as western Nigeria. It was dominated
by the Kingdom of Dahomey and its wars with its neighbors of the Fon, Ewe and Yoruba ethnic
groups. Although the region did not supply a large total of slaves to North America, they were a
quite significant supplier to Louisiana.
The Bight of Biafara is roughly the mouth of the Niger River in eastern Nigeria and was involved
in the Atlantic slave trade since its beginning. Most of the enslavement in this region took place in
the interior and involved people who today are of the ethnic groups known as the Igbo and Ibibio.
They were enslaved in small, inter-village wars. Much of the interior trading was monopolized by
the Aro Chukwu, a religious and commercial group.
Understanding Your Y-DNA Results | 3
R e a d i ng and Inte r pre t i ng You r R e su lt s
My Africandna Page. The information in this report and more is available to you in your
My AfricanDNA page online. To access this page, go to www.africandna.com and log in with
your kit number and the password written on the first page of this report. You can view the list
of names and email addresses of people you match by clicking on the section titled “Y-DNA
Matches”. To learn what countries and ethnic groups your personal results have matched from
the research databases, click on the section titled “Recent Ancestral Origins”. To view the results
displayed on your certificate, click on the section titled “Y-DNA DYS Values”.
Check out your personal
page to see who you
match in the customer
Reading My Certificate. Your name, kit number, and results from the Y-DNA test are
displayed on your certificate. Your Y chromosome was tested for 25 positions called “markers.”
The numbers beginning with “DYS” below are the scientific names of the markers, and the alleles
(pronounced uh-leelz) represent your Y chromosome’s result for each marker. While these
numbers do not have inherent meaning, other people who have the same or very similar results
share common ancestry with you. By comparing your results with similar results from research,
we can learn about your ancestral origins. This is what we have done to provide you the
information in this report and in your My AfricanDNA page. We also identify your haplogroup,
or the branch of the Y-DNA tree of mankind that you belong to. Haplogroups are thousands
or sometimes tens of thousands of years old and tell us about how major populations are related
to one another. You can find a description of your haplogroup in the Haplogroup section of your
My AfricanDNA page.
research databases
Which Family Line does My DNA Test Trace? Y-DNA is inherited only from the father in
each generation, without any influence from the mother. Each man received his Y-DNA from his
father, who received it from his father, and so on. As a result, by testing your Y-DNA you are effectively tracing your father’s father’s father’s (etc) family line. The presence of the Y chromosome
is what makes a person male, so only males carry Y-DNA, and they pass it on only to their sons.
The chart below illustrates how Y-DNA is inherited from each grandparent. The entries in brown
represent Y-DNA inherited from someone outside the family members displayed here, such as the
aunt’s spouse.
Contact
Phone: 713-868-1438
Email: [email protected]
www.africandna.com
Grandfather
Boy
Grandfather
Grandmother
Aunt
Uncle
Girl
Boy
Girl
Father
Mother
Brother
Sister
Boy
Grandmother
Aunt
Uncle
Girl
Boy
Girl
Understanding Your Y-DNA Results | 4