Amazing Discovery through Ancestry – My Black 6th Cousins Ancestry dot com has made a lot of changes lately. I hope they are for the better but they require some getting used to. When I took a look at their new (I think) Ancestry DNA insights page, at the top row of their DNA matches, I found the picture of a Black woman who, it said, has a *Predicted relationship: Distant Cousins **with me. Possible range: 5th - 8th cousins *Confidence: Moderate Naturally, I was surprised at this as I am lily white, Swedish and Irish and there is no record of my family owning slaves. However, using the new tools available on Ancestry plus my own family tree that I have been working on for the last twenty years, I was able to solve this mystery in about fifteen minutes. My grandfather , my mothers father, was Wesley Jacobson (1877-1963). His family on both sides settled Iowa in 1845 arriving from Kisa, Ostergotland, Sweden . Using the Disbyt Database, a huge Swedish genealogical data base, I was able to trace his ancestors back to Sven Bengtsson who had a death date of 12 OCT 1729 in Ulrika, Ostergotland, Sweden but no birth date. You can see him here on my rootsweb family tree http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=samsloan&id=I6668 Ancestry had another family tree that showed who his father was. His father was Per Hemmingsson, who was born 1630 in Kisa, Östergötlands Län, Sweden It appears that in about 1650 Per Hemmingsson, my 7th great-grandfather, led a group of Swedes to establish a settlement in *Bandundu *in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo>. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandundu_%28city%29 They named the community they established Kisa, Bandundu, Congo, giving it the same name as the name of their home town in Sweden. However, the settlement did not last long, as he died there. However, he had a son who was born there by his Swedish wife Gunilla Birgersdottir. The son was Sven Bengtsson (1650–1729) who was born in Kisa, Bandundu, Congo in 1650 and died in Kisa,Östergötlands Län, Sweden 1729. He is my 6th great-grandfather. After the death of Per Hemmingsson, it appears that the entire group went back to Sweden. However, before leaving for Sweden, being a fair minded and generous person, Per Hemmingsson contributed his own DNA to the local population and, as a result, I have a sixth cousin born in deepest Darkest Africa !!! Please note how early this date was. David Livingstone (1813-1873) was one of the earliest European explorers of Africa and he was “found” by Stanley in 1871. Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) is credited with being the first European to explore the Congo River, yet, my ancestors were living on the Congo River down in Central Africa in 1650 two hundred years before that and not long after the *Mayflower* Pilgrims <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrims_%28Plymouth_Colony%29> landed on Plymouth Rock. This is proven by the DNA test results. Indeed, nobody would even believe this incredible story but now we have the proof unless somebody can figure out another way I could possibly have a 6th cousin living on the Congo River in Africa today. Sam Sloan