how can I find out more about my culture?

Question

I know this is gonna sound crazy. But I want to know what I am I know that I'm black and I'm proud of it. But I want to know where my ancestors are from. I want to know why I have high cheek bones and eyes that are small. I want to know why I have long hair and its thick. I have asked my parents about both of there families but the only answer I get is we are black. I just want to know about my culture and ancestors and how they came to America or if maybe they were  native Americans.

Answer

Hey Tori, I've used ancestry.com to work on building a family tree. It gives you somewhere to start and allows you to look through tons of national records. I advise against DNA testing to find out where your ancestors are from, because from what I've seen the findings are very inaccurate. We're alike in the sense that we're both black Americans who want to know how we got to where we stand today. I will tell you that reading is key. I think of this whole thing as being a gigantic puzzle. You have to put pieces together to fill in the holes, you know? Through reading, I've been able to learn about the history of the Americas and the people who inhabited this place pre-colonial invasion. I'll also speak to the older people in my family to obtain some oral history, because they're able to tell me a little about our ancestors further back. If this helps any, it's veryyyy likely that your ancestors are indigenous to the Americas (as most black Americans are). It may sound like a shocker to some, but it makes sense the more you know about American history. We were here before there was a such thing as a "Trans Atlantic slave trade". 😄 You don't know how many times I've heard other black Americans talk about having Indian ancestors, and they'll say "I have Indian in me." I'm just thinking..."No sweety! You ARE an autochthon to America." There was a time when copper-colored (black Indians) were classified as negros. e.g: If you look at the annual censes on ancestry.com you'll see after a certain year every brown (black) person in America was classified as "negro" or "mulatto". It wasn't until the 2000s whenever it became "politically correct" to refer to us as African Americans, when the majority of our ancestors were black Americans. 😕 It's all in writing. By the way, European explorers who made expeditions over here wrote about who they saw here and what they experienced. Although we're indigenous, our features may vary, as did tribes in different parts of America.

Answer

Ancestory.com or 23 and me.com they both do dna tracking to see where you are from

Answer

Ancestry.com

how can I find out more about my culture?

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