Gerald D. Franks,
Town Creek, AL.
But you wouldn’t know that by looking at me. I’m the typical American mixture of various European ethnicities (aka white), and I have Cherokee lineages as well (documented, not just family lore). While doing some genealogical work I decided to have my genome fully sequenced in case there were additional clues I could gain that way and for health reasons to identify any genetic markers for various diseases. I did the full genome sequence because I have a disease (sarcoidosis) that most often occurs among black females of which I’m neither (by appearance, although by one-drop I’m black), and although medical experts currently say there is no genetic tie-in (that it isn’t handed down from generation to generation) things may change in the future. I have my full genome sequence in the event that some new discovery occurs. And there it was, somewhere around 1.2% African. I asked someone in technical support if I was reading it correctly and interpreting the results accurately. The answer I received was essentially “it isn’t there unless it’s there.” You don’t have African markers in your DNA unless there is an African ancestor in your lineage.
