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DNA Testing Progress - Success!
I bit the bullet and paid for two DNA tests to trace our genealogy to the 1800s. The result - success! A sticking point we worked on for THIRTY YEARS is finally solved.
If you read back through my archives, you'll see how we were trying to tie ourselves to a Lumbee Indian family in South Carolina in the early 1800s. Anyone who has done research in that area can tell you that there are pretty much NO records. There was so much intermixing between the Lumbee Indians, blacks and whites, with much of it very unofficial, that the chance of ever finding more hard information was slim to none.
We had been working on the connection for thirty years. My grandmother worked on it when many of the relatives were still alive. My dad worked on it. I worked on it. There was just no more to find. We only had DNA left to prove or disprove the connection.
My dad was the last end down the "female line" - and we found another similar dead end down another "female line". I paid to have the tests sent to both men. A few cheek rubs and they send the plastic spoons back, and the testing began.
In about four weeks the results came back - POSITIVE. I did the double-layer DNA matching which is rather precise. It pretty much shows that the relatives we connect back to are the correct ones. We are jubilant, because it has been such a question for us for so many years.
Yes, DNA testing can be a few hundred dollars. But at this point we had spent a TON of money on this quest, between database subscriptions, field trips, archive requests and more. I imagine the DNA tests were the least of our expenditures when it came down to that.
Not only that, but my father is getting on in age, and this was a quest of his mom's. He was there to see the quest solved, and to be able to join in the sense of accomplishment.
Now THAT was worth it!
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