60. Releasing Ancestral Shame with Walter English

Have you traced your ancestral roots? Regardless of what your answer is, let’s talk about it! In this episode of Parenting Decolonized, I welcome Walter English, an artist and the Founder of Brister English Project, an organization that offers 20 hours of free genealogy work to Black people to help them discover and learn about their hidden roots and ancestors. Listen in as Walter and I talk about the power of genealogy and DNA testing in releasing shame about your family’s history with enslavement. In this episode, we talk about…

• Walt’s experience learning the truth about his African-American ancestry.
• How your family history impacts your parenting.
• Why I decided to get my DNA tested after being resistant to it.
• Overcoming the resistance to genealogy and using it to learn, liberate, and find pride in yourself.
• What is the best ancestry/DNA testing company?
• What to do with your DNA results.
• ….and more!

If you’d like to donate to the Brister English Project, visit https://linktr.ee/formerlovepoet.

Sign up and join the waitlist to get your 20 hours of FREE genealogy work: https://bristerep.me/take-action

To connect further with Walter English:
Visit his website: https://bristerep.me
Follow him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/formerlovepoet
Connect with him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaltWayMusic
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FormerLovePoet Read the TRANSCRIPT here:
Don't forget to share, rate, and let me know what you think of Parenting Decolonized Podcast on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/parentingdecolonized and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/prntgdcolonized!

This episode of Parenting Decolonized is produced by Crys & Tiana.

Episode Transcript

(00:12):
Welcome to the Parenting Decolonized Podcast.I'm your host, Elanda Williams, entrepreneur,
conscious parenting coach, and single momto one amazing tyler. I'm on
a mission to help shine the lighton how colonization has impacted the black family
structure. If you're a parent thatwants to learn how decolonize your parenting,
You're in the right place. Let'sdo this. Welcome back to the Parent

(00:35):
to D Colonized Podcast. I'm yourhost, Eilanda Williams, and today I
have with me w English from theBrister English Project. Thank you so much
for joining me today. Thank youfor having me. I'm so excited to
have a conversation, especially now whereI'm at in my life trying to really
reconnect with my ancestral roots. AsWalt is someone that I found via TikTok

(00:57):
and he does genealogy. What canyou explain what the Brisker English Project is?
And we're gonna talk about it morein depth after that. The goal
with the brisk English Project is toshow American descendants of chattel slavery a history
that is more than just slavery anddreams. So what we do is we
do about twenty hours worth for genealogywork free for black people to help them

(01:22):
discover the ancestors, discover their rootshere that has been hidden or not talked
about for so long, and I'lldo it for free. I'll have a
long list right now, but we'reworking. It's beautiful work and the fact
that you do it for free iseven more amazing, especially since we should
have this for free as reparations.I say when people donate, especially folks

(01:44):
of the light of you, it'sreparations for research to know where we come
from. It's so big, andI don't think a lot of people understanding
until it happens. That's just likethe path I'm on. For a long
time, I resist it because Iwas just like, well, I don't
want these It was for me.The DNA TAS was the first thing that
I was like, I wanted tofigure out my African roots, and that

(02:05):
was existing because I was like,these places are they can sell your innation
blah blah blah. And then Iwas just like, you know what I
need to know and I've got myresults back and it said fifty nine percent
Nigerian, and I think there's becausethey're not infirt of me Somalian and something
else, right, but twenty sixpercent European. I almost lost my mind,

(02:29):
my mind. I was not happyabout that. And so when you
start to look at these, especiallysomething like that, that twenty six percent,
I was pissed off because I wasjust like, we know what that
means, right, we know Idon't have to be a quarter European.
It means that there is absolutely somerape happening in my lineage, and so
it's scary for me to even thinkabout doing something. I don't necessarily want

(02:52):
to face right to that. However, it is part of my history.
So in breaking all parts of ourhistory to me is that you how did
you start this for yourself? Liketheth that you were really interested in?
Like how did this all stop?I started researching my family in two thousand
and eleven, and I didn't knowmuch. My parents were still alive during

(03:15):
the time, or at least mydad. My dad was and he never
talked about the family. My momnever talked about her side of the family.
My grandma's one hundred years old,she's still here and she doesn't talk
about it. I understand during thetimes and stuff. So I said,
you know what I want to lookand I don't want to bother them and
like trigger anything because they grew upin the South during segregation, and so
I'm like, I'm gonna just doit myself. I started back then ran

(03:36):
it to I didn't have all theresources I have now, so I ran
into a lot of roll blocks Afew years back, I want to say
about seven, probably seven six sevenyears ago, a friend, a historian
friend of mine, said that shehas every bit of resource and she can
help me out, and so wekind of tag team did and I found
out a lot about my family.In twenty twenty one, I found a
photo of my grandpa Robert, mygreat grandfather, Robert English. Never seen

(04:00):
them before, Like my dad alwaysspoke about how his father was very dark,
and he said his daddy probably couldhave been the same way. You've
never seen a photo of him.So once I saw that photo, I
remember pacing around like my living roomfor like an hour, just in shock
and awe. And after that,that's when I found the slave schedule with
brist on it. And then Ifound a slave ship manifests, and I'm

(04:21):
like, I want to give thisinformation out to people, to the good
and the bad. If you wantto know everything, I wanted to share
that with the community. And Ijust know how much it costs to hire
a professional genealogists. Certain website startedoff at three thousand dollars, and I
don't believe, like you said,black people should pay for that, And
so that's what kind of started it. I just I saw those photos,
saw all the history. I didthe DNA test afterwards, met a cousin

(04:44):
and met a few cousins actually atthis point. So just that me having
that feeling, I just wanted toshare that, share that with my people.
It's beautiful too, because like yousaid, I don't come from a
family that talked about these things.I have pictures, right, but my
family does not talk about anything.And I really am interested in My Grandma's

(05:04):
still alive. She just celebrated hereighty sixth birthday. But my father side
I don't know anything about at all. I was told that even that he's
adopted, so there's a big blankthere. I don't know anything about that
side of the family. Even onmy mom'side the family, I don't know
anything really pass my grandmother. Andit's so funny because when I did the

(05:26):
DNA test. I've been told ourwhole lives like, oh yeah, you're
the whole thing, you know,like Phos talking about we have Native Americans
and I thought, and I waslike, uh no, we are definitely
not. Now we have Messo Americans. Linear six percent six just six percent.
Actually it may be two point sixpercent. Actually it's very small percentage.

(05:48):
But because of the way my familylooks, it's assumed that it is
Native Americans, but it's not.And so Europeans. That's what it is.
A quarter being something like twenty sixpercent. That's a large percentage of
your DNA and that's going to comeout in the way that our hair looks

(06:09):
and our skin color looks and everythingelse. That's what that is. It's
not a marriage. And that's ahard pill for a lot of people to
swallow. And I think that's thefear for some people getting into this.
What am I going to find?How can people think about history in the
way or genealogy, I should say, in a way that sort of helps
them get rid of something shame thatthey may feel as descendants of enslaved Africans

(06:32):
in this country. It's a hardpill, like the kind of swallow where
I'll tell people when looking back inhistory, like you said you're twenty six
percent, I'm ten percent. I'mmostly Scottish. I'm ten percent or nine
percent Scottish. Now like I thinkone percent something Irish fell off at some
point. But ninety percent of meis all over Africa. But that ten
percent and comes from my mom's sideof the family. It's the Peterson's,

(06:55):
but they descended from a kittens andthat's a Scottish last name, very Scottish.
Doing my research and I found outthe man who enslaved my family on
that side was Scottish, was Thomasmckimmon. But not only that, when
looking at the records, and Ithink that when we view history etlist,
especially during genealogy, got to compareyourself for the worst, and a lot

(07:15):
of people, I don't think knowthe full spectrum of what the business of
slavery was. And so when Ifound Thomas mckimmon, and I thought ancestry
AI was messing up about his kidsand my great grandfather, my fourth I
think it's my fourth great grandfather,Isaac mckimmon. So his son Thomas ran
a breeding farm down in Bucks County, Georgia. That was something I wasn't

(07:36):
ready for. I knew that happenedin places, but I didn't think it
will happened to my family. Iremember seeing that and then I'm looking.
I'm like, okay, stuff ismessing up. Can't be right, trying
to look at the records, andthen I saw that his son was still
was a slave to him. Itwasn't ken, it was you were a
slave. He made his son breathedwith his granddaughter. And seeing that,

(08:00):
with black people having such such aggressivecommunity and just love for like family like
that, that did me in fora little bit, like I'm about to
leave that whole side for a second, just that little part, just to
come back to be like, Okay, I must have messed up somewhere.
I'm gonna redo all this. Andit just kept coming back to the same
and it's hard. I always say, I love finding the photos of my
family. I love seeing these coolstories or black people being fired men before

(08:24):
we were even free, and allthis other stuff. But it's that dark
side of history that we had tojust be ready to see. Because the
business of Flavory wasn't ugly dehumanizing discussingfile business, it just Is and I
was in it read on Twitter todayand someone was talking, you know,
whenever I mentioned before it's like blackparenting. My whole business is to help

(08:48):
black parents, specifically next the dotsbetween how colonization, the practices that we're
used doing colonization and the placement andour parenting because they're there. And like
a lot of pushback, you know, I made a pretty viral thing that's
still getting traction on a TikTok andI said that we haven't been able to
parent our own children but for thelast one hundred and sixty years, and

(09:11):
people were mad at me, like, how dare you? We've always been
parents, And I was like,Black Americans have not been able to legally
parent our children for one hundred youknow, but for the last one hundred
and six years. I understand whatyou're saying that back in the Motherland we
were parents. I'm not talking aboutthat. Once an enslaved African hits the

(09:33):
hit Stolen Land. Over here inTurtle Islands, our rights as parents were
stripped away. Now you hate thatall you want to, but that is
the reality of the situation. Andyes, we sound way to resist and
everything else. And also that hasimpacted how we parent and how we see
our children and how we deal withtheir behavior, and we have to contend
with that. But what I findis people need to just be like,

(09:56):
no, no, what about Africaand they do not want to talk about
like slavery out here. It's stillso much shame involved. And it took
me a long time to recognize theshame and mean when I would talk about
it, when I would talk aboutit, and it's really just because of
the way we were taught about it. We're not taught about the resistance.
We weren't taught about the brilliant wewere all taught and we're not even you

(10:20):
know, when we talk about enslavementin school, it's almost as if you
know, these kidnapped Africans and AfricanAmericans. Eventually we just rolled on and
just like, okay, I'm aslave now, Like oh, like no,
there was so much resistance. Therewas so much resistance that you've never
heard about. And I found onceI started really digging into our history from
a decon and I perspective, fromour perspective, it was really empowering.

(10:43):
And I think that how we vieweven genealogy, you're going to come up
with some feelings, but how canyou use that to help you learn about
yourself, about family pathology, justhelp you grow as a person, to
find pride in yourself, because Ifeel like that's a part of what's missing
in these conversations and really tackling like, Okay, yeah, they're shame involved

(11:05):
in the time. I feel this, but the onus of that shame didn't
be on us and needs to beon the monsters who participated. And then
this pactice. I think a lotof people believe that we just wrote,
like you said, like people,we just rolled over and said that's it.
So many people fall I created adatabase of resources to help people find
and insulated ancestors before and after slavery, and one of them is I'm drawing

(11:28):
a blank on actual name right now, but it's about black people liberating themselves.
And there's thousands upon thousands of newspapersof us doing that where we're the
whole fighter. We we liberated ourselves. That's what I'm looking to say.
We really liberated ourselves. And thisgoes back to slave revolts. Somebody I
just worked with on a project,one of her great great grandfather you traveled

(11:50):
with a bunch of other black peopleduring the war, during the Civil War,
and they would go, they woulddo away with Confederate soldiers, and
he made newspapers all over the place. Intially, yes, he got caught
in what they do with black people, but you know he fought. Yes,
there's shame. Once you get overthat, you see like it wasn't
a choice, it wasn't something theyjust accepted. So many of our ancestors

(12:13):
fought for just for us to behere. Yes, And that's why I
cannot stand that we are not ourancestors, because you could never hate that.
I hate that, Oh God,I hate when people say that.
But I feel like it's a lotof younger people. No, no,
no, A lot of older peoplesay that too. I feel like gen
Z because I am an elder millennialright on the very edge, and I

(12:33):
feel like we are coming into alot of realizations around the mis education in
this information that we've been fed ourentire lives around blackness. I also feel
like the generational like their shame.A lot of it shame and trauma,
A lot of it was rooted inan anti blackness within, like the older
black community because of respectability, politics, just needs are feel safe, needing

(12:56):
to be safe, So how doI assimilate? How do I not make
ways to keep myself and my children'sface? And then I think gen Z
though, which I think is yourgeneration, and are you a millennial?
Which was okay, so we okay, we want to say hey, but
I think the younger generations are peoplewho are like speakers. I feel like
it's going to be much harder fora lot of people, a lot of

(13:18):
the younger generations to feel fool likehow we were in miseducation. There's so
much information out there now in mucheasier way to access that information. And
I think a lot of parents whoare my age are like aut If they're
not going to teach you, I'mgoing to teach you. So we're trying
to really be better about making sureour kids understand history. But what one

(13:39):
of the things that I want towork on eventually when I got a little
bit more time on my hand,is a sort of history project where we
go back and we look at blackparenting through the generation. I don't think
people quite understand what we have hadto do to survive, and that is
not making an excuse for anything.A lot of black parents have been really
abusive in the name of keeping theirchildren's safe. But understanding the why and

(14:01):
really looking at the fact that,especially during like Deconstruction and that silent generation,
how that parenting under such a dressof all that racialized trauma of people
being lynched right in front of you, Like, really, we could never
because we could never resolve all theday the stuff they had to endure.
I don't think we would be cutout for that stuff and the things they've

(14:22):
had to do to survive. Weneed to understand that, and I really
want to do a project around likewhat that must have been, like how
that trauma affected each generation because afterthat it was like the Boomers, and
then after that Gen X and millennial, you know, we living through like
the Crack era and what that meantfor black parents, for our boomer parents
trying to parent us, you know, during the Crack Era is so much

(14:43):
all the time. But understanding historyis how we make sense of the present.
That's how we learn, I think, to not repeat some of the
ships that we've been going through.I don't sure why we're going to that,
No, yeah, no, I'llfeel it. Oh, like what
they got learned was history is alwaysto be remembered, but not always celebrated.

(15:03):
And one thing that I've seen,I forgot the exact name. I
don't have to find it because Iwant to show people the exact paperwork of
a plantation management like guy from Ithink they found it in nineteen twenties,
but it was an old plantation guyfrom early eighteen hundreds, and what it
displayed was how to manage slaves.And looking at that, it has a

(15:24):
lot of what black parents are calledparenting and the similarities between how you beat
a slave if they do X,Y and Z, this is how you
got to talk to him, Thishow you got to yell at This is
how you gotta work like they usedto teach that to kids starting off its
youngest five years old to their children. So just to see that ending the
sea over one hundred years later andthings have not changed, it's really eye

(15:46):
opening because I know all of us. Everybody wants to be like, don't
generalize, so let's keep it real. Most Black parents are traditional, quote
unquote old school parents, most ofus, and we have yet to really
understand the detriment as a community.Right. We keep trying to figure out
how we can progress as a blackcommunity. We as a people love writing
that out on social media. Thisis why we as people can't do this.

(16:08):
That in the third the moment thatwe center our children in the fight
for liberation and center them and makesure they're safe, they're liberated from our
parenting, like start stop seeing thingsas a social hierarchy within our family in
a detrimental way, and start partneringwith them. That's how we get free.
But that's a hard till to swallowfor people who are spoon said,

(16:30):
you know, white supremacy, culture, traits, and patriarchy every single day
and think that capitalism is about tosave us. That's why folks are willing
to invest ten thousand dollars to gosit up with Coach Stormy and not spend
one hundred and fifty nine dollars togo sit up at my conference because capital
they capitalism is going to save them, when really it's our children and not
that they're going to do the work. Is that we're going to be raising

(16:52):
up liberated people who will not allowthemselves to be pushed around by these systems.
Yes, so we're raising up revolutionaryWe're raising up the people who will
be like, nah, we're notdoing this anymore, and topably government,
but we're not willing to put thatwork in into ourselves in or do the
works to change our mindset. Anduntil we are, we gonna keep having
the same ridiculous conversations on social mediathat really don't move any needles, keep

(17:17):
us in the same place. I'mself passing about this, and I think
if we start looking back at history, and I would love to see that
documents. If we find it,please email us to me. I would
love in the show notes, andwe can really just start showing, like
stark examples of how parenting back duringenslavement, how some of that is merrit
into now. And even when Ishow people talking about like Black Breastfeeding Week,

(17:38):
I tell people like half the childrenborn into they died of malnutrition.
They were weaned at three four monthsand said gules actually said solids okay at
three four months. And then welook at what happens now and a lot
of Black communities when they hit threemonths, it's put cereal in their bottle.
That's a choking hazard. But whatyou've been told, I know this

(17:59):
works. This is what keeps thebaby quiet. They're not supposed to be
quiet. Exactly. Yes, whydo you think they need to be quiet?
Can we start forming dot here?Why do they need to be compliant
and quiet? That goes back toslavery? Exactly, It goes right back
to slavery. Everything you're saying everything. It's scary when you start to think
that, But then when you seeit, you can start making changes and

(18:19):
you can be like, I'm nottrying to be nobody's master. I do
not want to dicate that in myhome. What do I need to do
to change? Because you don't knowwhat you don't know, especially if this
is generationally you've been told how youraise a child. But when presenting this
information and with these facts and thisevidence right where you can draw conclusions really
clear line between the two, andyou still fight to be an offessor.

(18:41):
You're one of them black folks thatHarry's severing with a shot. And I'm
not going to sit here and waitfor you. That's what I tell people.
I'll tell folks and everything that youlike you said, everything goes back
to because brister people think. WhenI mentioned brister English, you when I
do, like this magazine think andI sent the guys up my stuff and
I'm like, yeah, you knowmy second great grandfather. He's like,
you mean your third great grandfather,your great great great great no no no

(19:02):
Bristols was born in eighteen fifteen,but he died closer to nineteen hundred,
and a lot of stuff even gonnawell I'm talking about the patriarchy. Seeing
what would be killing me is seeingsome of these how these men talked to
down days with the podcast and allthat other stuff they got, They are
literally saying the same thing that gota lot of people's great grandmothers and great
great grand aunts into what was knownas his mental asylums back then, are

(19:25):
insane asylums for the same reasons thatthey're mad, they're not getting they're not
getting any or they're mad. Thatwas one killed me. I've seen a
black woman get who was in eighteensixty five. It was I think March
of eighteen sixty five, so rightbefore we were quote unquote free, and
her husband and brother listed themselves asher doctor, and then they sent her

(19:48):
to an insane asylum, and allher paperwork it said the reason she was
in there is she gets upset whenpeople make her mad or something like something
along those lines of that, andthey called it like a frantic mania or
something like that. But like youkeep, they kept messing with her,
so she got angry and so thatwas enough to send her to a state
hospital. So like to see allthis stuff that comes because that's what enslavers
used to do if they were ifsomebody was disabled, if for slavers disabled,

(20:11):
they'll still had to do all thestuff they had to normally do,
but they normally get either sense tostate hospitals or they get traded for goods
versus money most of the time mostof the time. So just to see,
like it's so much of our culturethat stems from that, that stems
from from that, and it hasn'tchanged. A lot of stuff has not
changed, and we keep carrying iton to people like well, you you

(20:33):
know, I learned that from mydad. He learned from his dad.
What did his grandfather learning from That'sexactly what it is. We are not
that far removed. You said secondgrandfather, right, So your great grandfather,
my great great grandfather, and thenmy grandfather Robert English. We don't
know exactly when he was born,Like Frederick Douglas says, a slave knew
his birthday just as much as thecows and chick instead. And he was

(20:55):
born into slavery. That's as muchas I know his birth. His Navy
car says one thing, the senseto say other things, but his grave
site grace don't say. He livedto be one hundred and five years old.
He died in nineteen fifty one,so guessing forty round forty six eighteen
forty six. He had twenty threekids. But my father was born May
of nineteen fifty one, my momor nineteen nineteen fifty two. My mom

(21:18):
was born in September fifteenth, nineteenfifty one. He passed away three months
after my mom was born. Mygrandma's almost thirty. My grandma, who's
still alive today, was almost thirtyyears old when a man who was born
into slavery. I think even wecan't grasp that we are not that far
removed, not at all from theplant. My grandmother's eighty six. That

(21:41):
means that her grandmother was most likelyin place, and that's only three generations.
I don't think we even can grasphow that is not that far away,
especially as further into the twenty twentiesand stuff like that it's just still
so far oh eighteen hundred. Really, y'all do the math here? Well,
you know when people put like thefact that Harriet Tubman and Rose Apart
lived during the same era, Ithink Ariasiman died in nineteen nineteen and Rose

(22:03):
Aparts was born. I think innineteen nineteen. We were the president around
that time because he was allied towas it all Nick was it Nixon,
or it was the president. Iwas allowed at the same time that Rose
Apart as well as Harry something.It was a lie that that served during
the time, like that was bornduring that time and then deserved as president.
I don't know that's a good exactingit. We're just far removed from

(22:26):
it. I think all people,please, we get tricked because everything is
in black and white and it feelsso far away, and people don't really
understand the economic impact of enslavement onthis country either. So all of this
stuff goes into the lie that itwas so far away and we're so far
removed, and we're really just not. Because if the first documented kidnapped African
was fared here in fifteen nineteen andthrough eighteen hundreds, you know what I'm

(22:48):
saying they worked for free. Thatis a lot. That's a lot of
people. I think someone was sayingthere was about four how many the fourteen
millions or four million in plate fourteenmill and I think slave people throughout throughout
the history of enslavement. That's alot of people, a lot of them
more bread. And that's the thing. A lot of our ancestors, like
you said, were like it waschattel slavery and it was an ugly business.

(23:12):
So as where can someone get started? Because you know, I now
have these funky fresh DNA. I'mtelling you this DNA just got me and
it's busy. Let me tell youwhy. It's English. Listen, it's
just so white because it's English,it's Irish, it's Scandinavian, okay,
and it's Romanian. I'm just like, damn, hello, white. And
I don't decide it's from um,I don't you know. I took the

(23:34):
test and usually I think it's amajor of the women's side. But the
test I took it doesn't really specify. I'm gonna take another do twenty three
and me because I want to findsome living relatives. All the relatives that
hit are white through like my secondcousin. It's really alarming. It really
messed me up. Sing it isone thing, but yeah, that's all.

(23:56):
That's all that is. Walk afight racial. Did you take it
on ancestry money chance? I didn't. I did. I'm asking being cheap,
So I did it on old man. I did not do. Either
are the ones that people usually do. Put it that way, and the
database that they have is very smalland it's probably really really white, which

(24:18):
is probably why. But there's notone black person that shows that that's a
match for me. So I'm gonnasay through twenty three and me because with
twenty three and me versus ancestry,you can get that halflow group and that
you can be able to find closeto the tribes that you came from.
Because you know that whole Nigeria,all that stuff that's a colonizers, those
are colonizer labels to Nigeria did notexist. It was tribal lands, just

(24:41):
like out here. It was triballands. So I want to find what's
tribe in these countries that I camefrom. So I'm gonna use twenty three
and me. People keep saying useAfrican ancestry, and I was told not
to. I was sold this overpriced, especially since you don't get any
kind of familial connection and that halflowgroup. You can what they use,
which what they use, you canget that through twenty three. Yeah,

(25:03):
so the ha Blow group just tolike to clearly, I found out my
Haplo group even though I went throughancestry. I snatched my raw DNA results
from them, and like, there'sa third party source that I used to
figure out my Haplow group. Butwith the Haplo group, you're gonna go
back about eighteen thousand years before thetribe or anything, back to one woman
in Africa, and it won't giveyou like the full Hey she was a
part of X, Y and Z. It'll give you they were most likely

(25:26):
part of West Africa. They wereso like my Haplow group is E so
I'm one of the oldest. Andthen I did further research and see which
once broke off of me and whoyou know have Blow group E one,
B all this other stuff. Butthe best place, I say to the
check family. I mean, ifyou did your DNA results and then any
of these websites, you can actuallygrab the raw DNA and uploaded to a

(25:47):
third party site like jet match orget match, and with that you upload
your stuff. You get a kitnumber, doesn't matter what they use.
You upload your stuff and then youcan do a one to one match and
on their website people will list theiremail, their own number, ways to
contact them. They'll show you howclose you are that you know your second
cousins or possibly four fifth cousins.Jet Match is good and Ancestry just did

(26:07):
an update which kind of helped meout a little bit where it split where
my DNA comes from my mom's sideand my dad's side. So that's aw
a long like my dad's side basicallystayed to Africa, like all the Scottish
side, all the Stotis stiff camefrom my mom's like which I knew from
the research, but to see itin the DNA, but they do split
it out for mom and dad.Trying to think of another place, there's
a few sites out there, Ithink Genome Link, but I went for

(26:30):
too much on the Haplo group.They like they'll tell you where you originally.
That one woman in Africa, they'regonna they're gonna get you right to
her, but tribe wise, itwon't tell you much you might have a
general location like mine is mostly Ithink it mostly West Africa, West Africa
and South Africa, but mostly West. Going back, I think it's eighteen
eighteen thousand DP before present. Ithink I think it's around like that time.

(26:52):
But yeah, I'm sorry, Ijust went on the Hotel Jent.
We will be super interested and like, how can they if they already have
their DNA results, what can theydo with them? You know, outside
of them being on these website?What can I do with them? So
I love that you're getting your rawDNA results from that and so speaking of
that, so do I just gothere? And I requested, is there
an email? Like usually just generallyspeaking, is that what you have to

(27:15):
do? I went through an Ancestryand it was in their settings. I
believe it's probably my hairtage settings aswell. But there's a request for a
DNA you click that they have youcheck off, saying once they give it
to you, it's no longer protectedby them. It's in your hands.
And normally Ancestry sent me and whatI did with the request they sent me
an email with a zip file andwith a zip file and I don't know

(27:36):
how it is with my Hairtage forAncestry, it's a little bit they give
you like instructions at the top ofit about what's what, and when I
put it into that other third partysystem, I had to take that out
of like the notepad because it wasn'treading my stuff. I don't know if
my hairtage does that, but ifthey don't upload it to AKA get matches,
the best one geed Match. It'sprobably the best site that I've seen
that just collect so many people.I have over thirteen thousand cousins, so

(28:00):
I love it. It might havea big family on my mom's side.
My grandmother had a lot of childrenand so I'm really interested in this.
And then also just do you haveany for black people specifically, do you
recommend Ancestry over African Ancestry over twentythree made because when I was told,
you don't need to pay that muchfor your DNA result, especially if you're
not going to get any familiar connections. If you're not gonna there's no database,

(28:22):
They destroy your DNA, which meansthat they can't give you any familial
connections to connect with. But itis a black owned company if you want
to support because it is, butit's like exponentially more expensive than any other
ones out there. I'm not toofamiliar. I've seen them before. I
do want to try them out eventually, so I have some experience with African
ancestry, but I know, likeI think they break it down to exactly

(28:45):
where you're from soul. They dothe benefit I say, over something like
ancestry where they kind of give you, hey, you're Nigerian, you're this.
They can break down the actual tribeif that's something that you care about.
If you're just looking for, likeyou try to connect with cousins to
find out more. Ancestry twenty threeand me are great if you want to
do Bena tests and someone I said, if you do want familiar connections,

(29:07):
or if you don't want to messwith the hasshold group thing and use like
a twenty three and me you startconnecting with people who are in Africa,
they can tell you like, thisis the tribe that we start talking to
people who you who are in thedatabase, and you just start like king,
you give me more information, likethat's the whole point of making these
connections that you've learned about it,so they can tell you straight up from

(29:29):
this tribe. This is who yourpeople are, yep. And I said,
if people are looking more soldier tofind family here, I don't think
a lot of people notice tip Itry to get. I gotta make a
video about it eventually on Ancestry.Now I'll probably probably also twenty three and
Me and all these other websites thatoffer like hints and stuff and where people
upload photos, and you've got thosephotos there. You can actually see all
lease on ancestry. Like I gota photo of my grandpa Robert, and

(29:52):
I can see who saved it andwho has him on their tree. Then
I contact them directly. And that'show I met my cousin and down in
Alabama. I didn't know I stillhave family down there. I did a
video on TikTok. He saw thevideo and he messaged me. He says,
you know that land that you talkedabout in that video, we still
have it in the family. Soeven just your cousins and you don't know
who knows what. So if you'relooking for family now and you don't want

(30:15):
to do DNA or anything like that, best thing gets to start your tree
on one of these websites. Iuse Ancestry and see who's out there.
I like to click on I'll putin my family information into the search bar
and then or to the search section, and I can see how many people
have him like my grandpa Robert,how many people have him on their family

(30:37):
tree his birthday, and I canjust call if those people allow allow themselves
to be contacted. So if youcome across, the white relatives don't like
to talk to us, but allthe black peop who are doing this work,
they want to find you. Theywant to find people, they want
to connect, and they want tofigure out who their family is. Thank
you so much for like all ofthis amazing information. The main goal of
me having walked on this podcast isto really help get the word out about

(30:59):
the Best English project. Like yousaid, he's doing this work that should
be free for all descendants of enslavedAfricans, but it is definitely not.
And so if you're listening to this, we're going to have a link in
the show notes for you to donateto this project, especially if you are
a listener and a follower of thatis someone of European descent. I really
hope that you will think about thisas a type of reparation and give of

(31:25):
yourself. If you're considering yourself ananti racist, this is the work.
This is part of the work isfinancing things, Yes, putting your money
where your mouth is to help blackfolks in some of these endeavors. So
we're going to make sure that allof his information is in the show notes.
And also where can people find you? You can find me TikTok,
Facebook, Instagram, all under thename Walkway or if you google form a

(31:48):
low poet, I'll pop up everywhere. Okay, awesome, and again,
thank you so much for your timeand for this work and its beautiful work.
I'm on the list. Okay,I'm just like when you don't get
to meet Okay, let's are youa part because it's two less don't know
if I told a story about howTikTok our followers shut that website down,
the original one because how they rushedit at one point. I'm on the

(32:09):
second one then because it's whatever's onthe link now, got you, we'll
talk, we'll talk. Thank youso much, and y'all thank you so
much for listening. Please leave arating and review, let me know what
you think about this episode on socialmedia and until next time, keep it conscious