DNA Testing: 'Roots' Author Haley Rooted in Scotland, Too

USA Today published a big article today, complete with pictures. No that's not one of the USA Today pictures to the left, that's a picture I took a few weeks ago in London of Chris Haley and his new-found cousin, June Baff Black. You can click on the image to see a larger version.

In the USA Today article, Rita Rubin, writes:

When Alex Haley's your uncle, people assume you know everything there is to know about your roots. But Roots, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book whose veracity has been challenged over the years, deals mainly with Alex Haley's mother's family.

Thanks to technology that became available after the author's death in 1992, nephew Chris Haley recently uncovered a new branch of his family tree that extends not from Africa but from Scotland, through Alex Haley's father's family. And it appears to confirm part of the Haley family history recounted in the novel Queen.

The article then goes on at some length to describe the use of DNA, a new technology that was not available to Alex Haley when he was working on his genealogy. The article mentions the work of Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, chief family historian at Ancestry.com, although it doesn't mention all her involvement with the reunion. Megan was standing beside me when I snapped the above picture. Megan arranged for the DNA testing, did much of the research, and then arranged the meeting, getting the cousins to London on the same date to meet.

You can read this very interesting newspaper article at http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/genetics/2009-04-06-haley-dna_N.htm.

Notice the graphic at the top of the article that illustrates the DNA connections.