SAS 5: Beyond Ancestry: Can DNA Reconnect Families Separated by Slavery?

LaKisha T. David, Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology            
Beloved African Genetic Genealogy Lab

Many people understand genetic ancestry testing as a way to obtain ethnicity percentages or identify broad geographic origins. But DNA can also be used to identify actual biological relatives and reconstruct family connections disrupted across generations. Drawing on The African Kinship Reunion and the Illinois Family Roots Pilot Program, I will explain how genetic genealogy is being used to reconnect African-descended people with relatives and families in Africa—and invite students to consider what DNA can and cannot restore when the losses involve not only genealogical information, but also kinship, identity, belonging, and historical memory.

Dr. LaKisha T. David is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and founder of The African Kinship Reunion and the Beloved African Genetic Genealogy Lab. Her research combines computational genetic genealogy, family-history research, and community-engaged social science to identify extended biological relationships among Africans and members of the African diaspora and to examine how learning about those relationships affects identity, kinship, and belonging. She also leads the Illinois Family Roots Pilot Program, which provides eligible Illinois residents with DNA testing and genetic-genealogy support as part of a broader effort to advance genealogical repair. 

If this event is full when you try to register, please email chp@illinois.edu to be placed on a waitlist.