Genealogy Event - DNA Testing for African Americans

The field of African-American genealogy is wrought with challenges. Beyond the emotional difficulty of the subject matter – dealing with records which describe the captivity and subjugation of human beings – African-American genealogical research is also difficult because of a scarcity of records. Add to this the widespread record destruction in the Southern United States in general, and tracing African ancestors can be a formidable task. This is where DNA testing comes in.

Ja’el Gordon earned a B.A. degree in history from Southern University in Baton Rouge, and upon graduation in 2012 went to work on campus as Coordinator of Student Organizations and Campus Involvement. She earned her master's degree in museum studies in 2015. Her work toward the degree included staging exhibits of narratives of former slaves from interviews conducted by the Federal Writers Project in the 1930s. She is currently working on a doctoral degree in higher education at Jackson State University in Mississippi.