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| Uncle Henry taking 23 and Me DNA with Karran Harper Royal |
A few weeks back my Uncle Henry Harrell took the 23 and Me DNA test with one of my relatives Karran Harper Royal. His Maternal Haplogroup revealed that he and our family descend from a long line of women that traced back to eastern Africa over 150, 000 years ago. His maternal haplogroup can reveal the path followed by women of his maternal line. That would be his mother Josephine Richardson Harrell, her mother Emma Vining Richardson Williams, Emma's mother Rosa Hart and Rosa's mother Celia Hart and so on.
His maternal line stems from a branch of L3 called L3f. Haplogroup L3f is an old offshot that traces back to a woman who likely lived nearly 46,000 years ago. Members of L3f live in a wide distribution across the Sahal belt of Africa, a dry savanna region on the southern fringes of the Sahara Desert, as well as in the northern regions of the Central African rainforest.
Between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago, L3f gave rise to two daughter haplogroup, L3f1 and L3f2. L3f1 appears to have arisen in eastern Africa and moved westward befor the peack of the Ice Age about 20,000 years ago, when the Sahara Desert expanded and rendered much of the northern part of the continent uninjabitable. Today the haplogroup is commonly found among the Yoruba adn Fulbe population of western Africa, and in the African-Americans who are descended from them.
His maternal haplogroup, L3f1b, traces back to woman who lived approximately 11,000 years ago. That's nealy 460 genearations ago. In 2003 I took the African Ancestry DNA test that connected by maternal lineage to Niger, West Africa. Tracing my maternal lineage, my Uncle Henry and I share the same maternal grandmother.
23 and Me revealed the DNA lineage for Emma Vining her maternal ancestors and her offsprings. Her children Josephine, Alexander, Rosabell, Alma, Ethel, Dorothy, Jimmy and Arthur can learn a lot about their maternal lineage from my Uncle Henry's DNA test. Also a warmhearted thank you to Karran for giving my family this wonderful gift. I hope everyone in my family appreicate this knowledge as much as I do. This DNA test confirmed that my mother and her maternal lineage has lineage to the people of the Sahel Desert.
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| Antoinette Harrell in Ingall, West Africa |
In 2003 I traveled to Niger, West Africa to met the Tuareg people. I saw people that look just like my family members. This one woman looked so much like my mother, I couldn't help but cry because I knew this was my people. A day that I waited for has finally come true. I had the opportunity to travel to several regions in Niger. The hair texture, skins tones, and featured reminded me of so many people including my Uncle Henry. Any genealogist who ancestors were slaves want to know where their ancestors orginated from.
My research hit a brickwall in St. Helena Parish, Louisiana. My traced my mother maternal lineage back by four generations. At that point I could go in further in research. Turning to DNA was my only option if I wanted to learn more about the maternal lineage. Matter of fact my mother only knew her grandmother Emma, she knew nothing about Emma's mother Rosa Hart.
