The Wanderers

I took one of those DNA tests to determine your maternal ancestral lineage and mine mapped to a group called The Wanderers or Haplogroup X.

This particular group came from northern and eastern Africa, west Eurasia, the Middle East, Europe and a group of indiginous people of North America.

I have been spending all day trying to find information on the net to further expound on this discovery. (No real work got done today between this and stalking oprah.com for DC show tickets. oh well)

Its funny because in my travels I've instinctually identified with certain groups of people. You know that feeling when you go somewhere and you think everyone looks like they're related to you? Then there were the times when people from Kenya and Tanzania asked me how long I've been in this country and if I had been back 'home' lately. Or the Eritrean parking attendant that every day told me that I should meet her Somalian friend because we looked so much alike. Then, when I participated in my Nigerian friend's wedding, I claimed her countrymen as 'my people'. LOL It seemed that everywhere I went I collected some African relatives.

Each time it felt nice to have people from these different African countries see me and recognize something about me that seemed familiar to them...and vice versa. So, today, I feel like a small piece of my puzzle has been illuminated.

I'm going to claim the northern and eastern African parts of my haplogroup, since the other Wanderers had to be descendents of them right?

Now, I've got to figure out how to get a paternal DNA sample so that it can be tested. With that done, I should be able to identify the percentages of each haplogroup that came together to create me.

I'll check back in with any updates over the next few months. This geneology stuff can be addictive.

Holla