General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This message was self-deleted by its author [View all]Cairycat
(1,704 posts)my husband found out that he's about 1/8 African American. We were cool with that. He reached out to other people researching common ancestors, and now is Facebook friends with cousins in a variety of shades. His AA ancestry most likely stems from 17th and 18th century white female indentured servants having children with black male slaves. These children married other people like them (with some marrying people who were more white or black). His ancestors on his father's side were mostly free people of color. The necessity for these ancestors to carry papers proving their freedom is providential for genealogy in the 21st century.
Growing up, my husband's father was rather reticent about his family and background. Other than that, he really had no clue growing up.
I think many people who think of themselves as white might be surprised to find African American ancestry in their DNA, it's true. I think many people who think of themselves as black, have some white ancestry. My husband was recently featured on a local access channel talking about his ancestry, but another panelist, who would be readily identified as a black woman, had a white great-great grandfather who had children with both his black slave and white wife and raised them all together. So while our country bears the guilt of white men forcing themselves on black women in many cases, you can't just assume that was always the case. As is so often true with human behavior, it was often more ambiguous than that.