SOMETHING is brewing in the melting pot that is the US: a powerful desire among the people for an identity that precedes blue jeans and McDonald’s – something to link them to ancestral groups as diverse as Seminole Native Americans and Sierra Leone’s Mende people.
But the country’s turbulent history of immigration, slavery, and displacement of Native Americans means each American has a different story. To unravel the threads of this short but complex history, an increasing number of companies are promising to help Americans uncover their ancestry through DNA testing. This is a particularly poignant opportunity for African Americans, whose countries of origin are all but…
