Do you know what today is? It’s OUR ANNIVERSARY!!
For 19 years, we've been connecting Black people all over the diaspora to their African roots and transforming the way we view African and ourselves.
We’re ready to celebrate our journey by sharing 19 facts about AfricanAncestry.com:
- AfricanAncestry.com was founded in 2003 by Dr. Rick Kittles and Dr. Gina Paige.
- We are the FIRST genetic ancestry tracing company that is 100 % BLACK-owned.
- C. Anita Byrd was our very first African Ancestry customer. You can learn here why she was interested in learning about her roots beyond the transatlantic slave trade.
- Our first national reveal was the Honorable Ambassador Andrew Young in 2004.
- LEVAR BURTON was the first celebrity to join the African Ancestry family, tracing his ancestry to the Hausa people found in Nigeria today.
- AfricanAncestry.com has the LARGEST database of African lineages of any genetic ancestry tracing company.
- We do not sell or share the DNA samples of our customers—EVER.
- AfricanAncestry.com provides SPECIFIC results, including the present-day African country and ethnic group, when results are African.
- AfricanAncestry.com was a Black Enterprise Innovator of the Year Award Nominee in 2005.
- AfricanAncestry.com has participated in many festivals across the country, including the Pan African Film Festival (7 years) and the National Black Arts Festival (5 years), revealing the ancestry of countless celebrities, including Taraji P. Henderson and Regina King.
- In 2009, AfricanAncestry.com traced the lineage of Chadwick Boseman to the Limba people in Sierra Leone.
- In 2010, AfricanAncestry.com embarked on a 14-city We Are Africa Road Tour.
- AfricanAncestry.com partnered with ARK Jammers’ African Reconnection Program and the return home of 146 “Camerican” descendants to Cameroon in 2010 and 2011.
- We have partnered with schools, colleges and universities nationally to connect young people with the power of their African roots.
- In 2015, African Ancestry Radio launched on Sirius XM Radio.
- We hosted the first ever Remember Who You Are Identity Summit in 2020.
- AfricanAncestry.com is the only genetic ancestry tracing company whose test is used to confer citizenship in Sierra Leone.
- We’ve helped more than 1,000,000 people discover the roots of their family tree.
- AfricanAncestry.com is in the business of being Black. We love Black people.
The work we do connecting Black people to Africa is an ancestral imperative. No other genetic ancestry company cares about Black people the way we do. Period.
It has been our honor to be in service to our brothers and sisters for the past 19 years and we plan to continue to help many more Black people across the Diaspora to discover their African roots for many years to come!
Knowing where you're from is a critical component of knowing who you are.
Find those missing pieces of your identity with this transformative and powerful experience.