Taking the path to discover my roots

I have a strong desire to know my lineage. Doing the research and genealogy was never an interest to me until now. I think having a son now I want to know so I can share with him. Fortunately my husband's aunt conducted all the leg work on his father's side. Because of ancestry.com I have discovered a lot on his mom's side. I just need to pow-wow with his aunts to get more information. As for me my mother's side is easy to research and a lot of it has already been done.

But that is it. My father's side is a struggle and I am hitting road blocks. Tracing my Black roots is difficult because due to slavery names were changed and census information is not necessarily always accurate.

I really would love to know what part of Africa my lineage is from. Thankfully science has come quite a longs ways. We can now send our DNA off and they can tell a lot from a DNA as to where we are from and what our make up is. So I was hoping all I needed to do was swab my cheek and voila all would be revealed. But since science is so complex I found out I cannot swab my cheek to find my African ancestry because that comes from my paternal side. The lady I talked to was so nice because she said, "All you need to do is have your father, brother, or a paternal uncle take the test." Unfortunately she did not know my situation.

After I hung up the phone I cried. What she did not know is that was not as simple as it sounded. When it comes to biology I don't know who my father is. I know who my Dad is, he is amazing and I love him to death. But at the age of 13 I got earth shattering news. The man I had met and come to love was not my biological father. But because my Dad is an amazing person he did not care what a test said and he continued being my Dad.

So here I am at the age of 25 still asking, "Where do I come from?" I stand at this path and I ask myself do I want to go down it? Do I want to go through the pain?

The answer is I do. Because at the end of the path is answers and in a sense there will be sense of completeness for me.

As is I start down this path I know it will be long and it will take time due to money and science. But I am full of anticipation to what waits for me along this journey. So here I go. . . .