What DNA testing do you mean? Is there some kind of new process out? I knew that they could test for various specific disease markers which went along with certain races or places of origin ie central europe but nothing widely covering all ethnicities.

Know what you mean though, as an “Australian” of very mixed heritage with an even more mixed extended family, the boundaries blur for me a bit {particularly culturally & what I belong to & what I’ve absorbed or call my own etc}, & it can get annoying the assumptions people make that I should be one thing or the other – not as I am – a mixture of various influences (genetic & otherwise).

Sorry to hear about your mother. I miss my grandparents.

A recent Public TV program has brought the DNA ethnic testing into our heritage back to the front page. It’s really an interesting topic.

I remember when I first moved to Florida (1976) and the local paper carried an article about somebody who wanted his grandfather’s gov’t service records changed to indicate that he was NOT a memeber of the “colored corps” of the US Army for WWI. In those days if any person that looked “white” was known to have any blood relative that was “black” they were put in the “colored corps.” Well, he tried to take it to court and failed. He just didn’t want to recognize the truth.

I had a next door neighbor family when I lived in LA, Calif. that was from New Orleans. They had a rather large extended family with a mixture of people from black to white and everything inbetween. The grandmother, on a daily basis, denied any African blood. She verbally abused her son-in-law and disowned her darker skinned grandchildren. One of her granddaughters fell into the same mental trap by telling fellow student that she was Hawaiian. TOTAL fabrication! (and sick for ones mental health!)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hsgene164628516feb16,0,2446576.story?coll=ny-health-print

Oooh, but I can’t WAIT to find out I’m not as ‘white’ as I think I am! Bwahahaha!

When I found the album of my grandmothers’ jewish ancestors, they looked sephardic, or as if they could have descended directly from Haile Selassie. And that’s not just my reggae imagination talking, either!
heee :)

Hey thanks for the links, & good article – I wonder if those tests are available over here, I bet pricey to have done here!. I remember seeing Roots back when it came out, got me very interested in geneology and tracing our family tree & I found out a lot following the paper trail – although I already knew we were a big mix.. I think the tests would benefit those people with very closed minds, tho’ could send some into even more denial, but be liberating to many others.
With Aboriginality in my mix when I was a kid had relatives living on “reserves” & I was back & forth tho’ immediate family lived in town. Nothing was ever discussed openly but some family associations frowned on more than others – & confused me when small, with some elders saying we were Irish, French, & whatever & some saying Aboriginal. Aboriginal history wasn’t taught at school much either & Aborignals couldn’t vote till the 1960′s. Technically my father couldn’t till then, though he did & denies any association still, though his mother and aunt finally openly embraced their heritage well before they died. My father’s problem was the times, a child of the Depression, and steeped in fear of no work & discrimination & just plain stubborness. I think many in that generation denied their ancestry for those reasons and wanting things better for their kids. I can see why they did it but for today it should be done with – for future generations it’s leaves a huge hole
culturally – not having anything to belong to but mass advertising. Unfort. you see it happening here with new emigrants to Australia and it’s a shame so many wonderful traditions are lost this way – it leaves in it’s wake a disconnected feeling I think. The test might be a good way to connect for many people again. I know personally following the paper trail for me was empowering and I feel more connected & aware of people in other places. For the record have the following ancestry; Irish, French/Channel Is., Aboriginal(Darkinung,Darug & two others not fully confirmed but we now have links with the Tiwi in Northern Territory & visit family there when I can – they live in Humpty Doo), Czech/Jewish/pre-1850 Bavarian border area; then extended family = Phillipino, Mauritian, English, & Chinese/HongKong. A real mixed bag!

Henry Louis Gates talks about the various Jewish/Hebrew populations that are black African and have only been verified with this DNA testing. There was a program about the “lost Jews” of South Africa on PBS a couple years or less ago. Did you see it? The problem in the US is how various ethnic and cultural traditions got forced into each other during the slave era and, how everything was justified with such outlandish notions both pseudo-scientific and biblical.

Mercy! What don’t you have mixed in there! {{{hugs}}}

i wonder if a time will come where the majority of all peoples look the same… ??

Theoritically it’s possible… at this point I’d say we’d look more asiatic after mixing of every type. I don’t think it’s really gonna happen because not enough of the world’s population has that kind of mobility nor do I think genetics would evolve in that way. But, what do I know…

i have heard it hypothesized asian would be the dominant feature in that case. i think it would be a shame, the variety of human appearance is fascinating and wonderful! :-)

No….I did not, but I’ll look and see if Netflix might have it. Was it titled “The Lost Jews of South Africa”?
Thanks :)

The Lemba, The Black Jews of Southern Africa.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/israel/familylemba.html

(found at: search PBS.org)

National Geographic

has an ongoing test for genetic markers. For 99 bucks, you get a DNA test that will show where your ancestors came from, and it will help contribute to a study of the migration of humanity. Neat stuff I thought.

Well.

In the United States, you can look at photos from just WW2 and see how less “ethnic” looking we are. That movie about D Day, the director mentioned how hard it was for him to capture the look of GIs from that period, because we are about 3 generations from that war, and a lot of melting has been going on in our National pot.

Re: Well.

interesting… :-)