Thursday, March 5, 2009

The Haley-Baff Y-DNA Connection

Many of us read Dick Eastman's posts over the weekend that highlighted the Y-DNA connection between Chris Haley (nephew of novelist Alex Haley) of the USA, a patrilineal descendant of a Baugh man (apparently pronounced "Baff)", and a Baff family descendant who is the father of June Baff Black in Scotland. I was intrigued.

Roots Television has produced a nine minute video, hosted by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, in which we see Chris meet June, they discuss their common heritage, and appear at a session of the Who Do You Think You Are? Live! conference in London on Saturday last.

The Og Blog post describing the video is here, and you can Watch the video on RootsTelevision. Thank you, Chris, June, Megan and RootsTV!

When will we see Chris Haley in an ancestral Scottish kilt? After he gets his legs shaved, he said! When will June finish her Baff genealogy? Sooner rather than later, I'll wager. I suspect that Megan and Chris will help her with it.

In genealogy research, we often discover that our ancestors are very human persons. One of my favorite sayings is that "there are things that happen in a moment that take a lifetime to explain." In this case, it's been several lifetimes, but the end result is a bridging of cultures that connects one family to another family in a personal way.

I can hardly wait for my Y-DNA results to come back. I received a test kit for Christmas from my daughters, and I sent them it off in January to GeneTree.

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