Finding the family tree

A D.C. company is using the latest genetic research to help black Americans make once-impossible connections to their ancestral homelands.

African Ancestry Inc. also is attracting the skepticism of some bioethicists who say its sales pitch raises unreasonable expectations.

Almost 30 years after Alex Haley’s “Roots” book started a genealogical renaissance, black Americans are exploiting the latest genetic research to make once-impossible connections to their ancestral homelands.

African Ancestry offers two types of DNA tests and says it can usually trace at least one family bloodline to specific geographic areas on the African continent.

It has compiled a DNA database of 10,000 people representing 85 ethnic groups from Africa. Each of those groups has telltale genetic markers not found in other people. Those markers were passed on generationally and appear in black Americans’ cells today.

The company’s most common test tracks mitochondrial DNA, a mysterious strand of genetic material found outside the cell nucleus and apart from regular genes.

Evolutionary biologists believe each person’s mitochondrial DNA is a copy of their mother’s, their grandmother’s and so on — a maternal thread that reaches back to the dawn of the species.

This led to the theory that all humans descended from an African Eve — though that theory was tested a bit last year when Danish scientists documented a case in which a man’s muscle cells contained mitochondria descended from his father.

Because mitochondrial DNA mutates more rapidly than regular genes, scientists have been able to track the rate of such changes, making it possible to identify individual bloodlines.

Forensic specialists tasked with identifying corpses have turned to mitochondrial DNA for years, identifying some World Trade Center victims with such tests.

African Ancestry also tests DNA in Y-chromosomes, found only in males, theoretically documenting a person’s paternal bloodline. But only males can take the Y-chromosome test, whereas both sexes can submit to mitochondrial screening.

It’s also more likely to show European ancestry because of “the dynamics of the plantation,” as company President Gina Paige delicately puts it.

African Ancestry assembled its database by plucking genetic sequences of African tribes published in scientific literature and by collecting DNA samples from volunteers in Africa.

So with a swab of Monica Myles’ cheek and for a $349 payment, the company was able to tell the family law lawyer in Mitchellville that she was descended, in part, from the Ibo tribe — one of the largest ethnic groups in western Africa, where most slaves came from.

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