Thank you for bringing up Henry Louis Gates' discoveries about his ancestry. He did a remarkable 4 hour series for PBS last February called African American Lives. Using professional genealogists and the newest DNA studies on Y chromosome, mitochondrial DNA and DNA admixture studies (looks at the percentages of DNA contributed by different racial and ethnic groups), Gates did comprehensive studies on nine famous and accomplished African Americans, taking their genealogy back as far as they could. It was one of the best series I have ever seen, especially because of the quality of the genealogy research. I recommend renting the DVD's from the library. Here is the web link. They discuss each of the tests and what they show. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/about.html --- ljcrain <ljcrain@pgrb.com> wrote: > > It is interesting to note that some white skinned > people carry African > haplogroups and vice versa. > > > Prof. Henry Louis (Skip) Gates Jr., head of Harvard > University's > African-American Studies department. Gates always > knew he wasn't 100 percent > African-American. According to family legend, > Gates's only white ancestor > was a slave owner named Samuel Brady, who had sex > with Gates's > great-great-grandmother Jane on his farm in Maryland > in the 1800s. But > recent DNA analyses turned Gates's world upside > down. There was no trace of > Brady on Gates's genome. Further testing revealed > that Gates, in fact, > carries as much Western European blood as he does > African-and that one of > his white ancestors was probably an Irish servant > who met Gates's sixth or > seventh great-grandfather sometime before 1700. "I'm > thinking I'm a Brady > and maybe I'm from Nigeria, and here I am descended > from some white woman," > says Gates. "It's incredible." > > Gates has both a European Y HG and mt HG. > > Cont. here: > > http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11080815/site/newsweek/ > > Janet Crain > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "helen sabin" <hsabin@cox.net> > To: <hill@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 7:16 PM > Subject: Re: [HILL] dna testing TALKED TO DEATH > > > > DID you do the Male DNA or the MtDNA Mike? Are you > comparing apples or > > oranges or male to female here? If the male, > they are more relevant -in > > fact, much more relevant than female Mt DNA > testing which is worthless for > > genealogy research unless one is too stupid to > figure out that light > > skinned > > peoples came from Europe and eventually from > England. I can tell you FREE > > Of CHARGE that due to your last name, your > ancestors probably came from > > England unless you are Black and then they > probably came from Africa! I > > can > > also tell you that the name HILL on blacks is > probably due to slavery days > > when they took the name of their masters. That is > much more information > > than you would get from the MtDNA tests. > > Helen > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email > to HILL-request@rootsweb.com with the word > 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and > the body of the message >