Interesting article on African-American genealogy

[theHandpuppet]

http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_10709.shtml

Feature Stories
The New Genealogy
by Ronald Roach
Feb 21, 2008

Dr. Ira Berlin, a leading scholar of colonial America and slavery and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, has written that “Heinegg’s work has been of inestimable value to genealogists eager to trace their family roots and to historians equally desirous of mapping the design of colonial society.”

Published to mostly positive reviews in major U.S. newspapers this past November, Bliss Broyard’s One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life — A Story of Race and Family Secrets captures more than a decade of research and family meetings to recount the life of Broyard’s late father and literary critic, Anatole Broyard. In addition to examining her father’s decision to withhold from his children knowledge of their Black roots, the author documents nearly 300 years of family history. One Drop takes an intimate look at a Creole family whose mixed race identity has been embraced by some family members while others, like Anatole Broyard, have kept quiet about their ties to Black ancestors.

To those who have closely followed his entrepreneurial exploits in addition to his scholarly pursuits, the news that Dr. Henry Louis Gates, the director of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University, is launching a company to help African- Americans learn about their ancestry through DNA tracing in combination with rigorous genealogical research may not come as a major surprise. Gates is well-known publicly as the narrator and producer of the “African-American Lives” series, the second installment of which aired this month on PBS. The series explores and highlights the ancestral roots of Black celebrities. The show has highlighted DNA tracing, a controversial scientific innovation that has grown popular among Americans seeking information about their ancestors....

“I see myself as doing a service for a field that’s deeply problematic because of the reluctance of some companies to reveal the complexity of the results,” Gates told The Associated Press in November.... MORE

[NOLALady]

1. Creole research is fascinating and challenging.

Some of the Broyards lived in my neighborhood and we attended the same school.

I've met Bliss on several occasions while she was researching her book.