The African Kinship Reunion - TAKiR

27/12/2025

Happy First Day of Kwanzaa!

21/12/2025

Genetic Connections Discovered — Project Update

Our identity-by-descent (IBD) analysis is now complete for a major portion of the Illinois Family Roots Pilot Program. The results continue to demonstrate extensive, measurable genetic connections between Illinois participants and individuals in Ghana.
https://www.takir.org/statistics/

At a glance:

226 Illinois participants have discovered genetic connections to Ghana

1,202 unique Illinois ↔ Ghana genetic relative matches identified

2,307 unique Illinois ↔ Illinois genetic relative matches identified

Current processing status:

247 Illinois kits included in IBD analysis out of 375 samples received

95 Ghana participants currently show U.S. matches (from the samples analyzed to date)

Match prevalence:

97.2% of Illinois participants have at least one genetic match

91.5% of Illinois participants have at least one Ghana match

In the numbers:

91.3% of Illinois ↔ Ghana matches fall in the 3–6 cM range

8.7% fall in the 7–19 cM range

All genotype profiles are statistically phased and quality-controlled and analyzed using the peer-reviewed Refined IBD algorithm. This approach allows us to reliably detect smaller shared DNA segments than methods that rely on unphased genotype comparisons.

To help participants interpret centiMorgan (cM) values and what they may indicate about genetic relatedness, we recommend the DNA Painter Shared cM Tool until we integrate the Bonsai Tree algorithm for tree building and provide maximum likelihood estimates of genetic relatedness.

More results will be shared soon.
https://www.takir.org/statistics/

20/12/2025

Carbondale Public Library
Saturday, January 24, 1 - 4 pm

The Illinois Family Roots Pilot Program invites you to an afternoon of learning and participation at the Carbondale Public Library. This community-based project uses DNA testing and genealogical research to help Illinois residents discover and reconnect with their African heritage. Come hear an ov...

14/12/2025

"She added that because it’s a new program, there are constant tweaks being done.

“This is a pilot program where we are learning what is needed for the larger program,” David said. “So I am not only spending the time in my research and genomics, but also understanding how people navigate the website, like, what do they need? What do they not need? It’s just been a learning process.”

She added that some participants have expressed frustration with the waiting period, which she understands.

“But I’m glad that they still allow me to be on [their] journey with them,” she said “And once we do start to roll out the results there, I believe they will be really, really happy and really excited about it.”

https://evanstonroundtable.com/2025/12/11/dna-test-results-to-help-black-residents-trace-their-ancestry-expected-next-week/

Fact check: This program is open to every county in the state of Illinois.

About 5 years ago, LaKisha Tawanda David traced her family's ancestry back to Ghana through genetic testing. For her, a Black woman in America, the

10/12/2025

🧬 Behind the Scenes at TAKiR

Ever wonder what happens after you send in your DNA kit? Today we're working on the technology that transforms your raw genetic data into meaningful ancestry insights!

We're integrating our DNA processing system directly into our website's admin dashboard. This means our team will be able to monitor and manage the entire process from one place – from the moment your sample arrives at the lab to when your results are ready.

Why this matters:
Instead of running things manually behind the scenes, we're building a streamlined system that lets us process your data faster and more reliably. Think of it like upgrading from a paper filing system to a digital one – same great work, but smoother and more efficient.

What's next:
• Automating the quality control checks
• Building the ancestry analysis integration
• Streamlining the DNA file upload process for those who already have results from other companies

We're expecting to start releasing results next week! The initial results will be available first, with enhanced visualizations and detailed breakdowns rolling out in the days that follow.

This is the kind of work that happens behind the scenes to make sure your results are accurate and meaningful.

We're building something special here – technology designed specifically for exploring African genealogy.

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your journey! 💚

08/12/2025

"...what is the probability that two randomly chosen African-Americans descended from enslaved Africans forcibly transported to North America share at least one such transported ancestor in common?...the probability is approximately 19-31% that two randomly chosen African-Americans born around 1960-1965 possess at least one shared African ancestor [who was trafficked to North America]."

Meaning that in a group of five older African Americans, it is more likely than not that at least one pair shares an ancestor in that genealogical timeframe.

All African Americans descended from enslaved Africans draw from a finite, bottlenecked, overlapping genealogical pool of transported African ancestors.

As genealogical trees expand backward, overlap becomes extremely likely even at modest sample sizes.

Agranat-Tamir, L., Agwamba, K. D., Mooney, J. A., & Rosenberg, N. A. (2025). Shared ancestors and the birthday problem. The American Statistician, (just-accepted), 1-18.

06/11/2025

I'm generating the individual raw genotype files for 343 participants. Of those, 247 are from the Illinois Family Roots Pilot Program, and 96 are from the Ghana Genetic Genealogy project.
After some basic quality control filtering, these files will have 1.6 million SNPs from across the genome (Chromosomes 1 - 22, X, Y, and MT)

06/11/2025

The first step in our return of results is to give you your lightly processed raw genotype file that you can use on any platform that accepts this format. Is there any information that you would like to see added?

30/10/2025

We have begun working with our university facilities team to renovate our lab on the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign campus so that we can eventually do all the DNA extraction and genotyping in-house. We expect renovation construction to begin summer 2026. In the meantime, we send the saliva samples to Illumina Laboratory Services for DNA extraction and genotyping, and we then process the genotype. Curious about how your DNA gets genotyped by Illumina Laboratory Services?

Let's walk through the protocol for the Illumina Ininium assay lab step-by-step.This workflow applies to the Illumina Infinium™ assay lab for HD, HTS, and L...

12/10/2025

Preliminary results:
US samples (196 samples from the Illinois Family Roots Pilot Program):
- Top 5 pairs: ~3,400 cM each (parent-offspring, identical twins)
- 13 close relative pairs (≥100 cM)
- Mean segment length: 11.91 cM

Ghana samples (76 samples):
- Top pair: 2,487.77 cM (very close relatives)
- 26 close relative pairs (≥100 cM)
- Mean segment length: 13.09 cM

Cross-Batch Analysis (US ↔ Ghana):
- No close relatives
- Maximum: 17.95 cM
- Mean segment length: 4.17 cM
- 925 unique pairs detected, in which one person is from the US and the other person is from Ghana

Cross-Batch
Per-pair statistics:
- Median: 3.621 cM - tells us the typical relationship strength
- Q3: 4.705 cM - tells us 75% of pairs share less than this
- Max: 17.953 cM - tells us the closest relationship found
- Mean: 4.37 cM - average relationship strength

Distribution:
- 79.1% share < 5 cM (very distant)
- 0.5% share ≥ 15 cM (closer relatives)

(Note: Maximum possible cross-batch pairs = 196 (US samples) × 76 (Ghana samples) = 14,896 possible pairs. Actual pairs detected = 925 pairs. Percentage detected = 925 / 14,896 = 6.2%.)

05/10/2025

Do you remember that we have the 7,581 DNA profiles from the OpenSNPs project? We are now merging those with the 1000 Genomes data. Why? To help build more robust trees for you.

One of our goals is to show you your DNA sharing with the 1000 Genomes to give you a general relatedness information that you have come to expect. But we also want to use your DNA to help build your genetic family tree for you. To achieve this, we need to expand the database with more DNA profiles. So even though you won't be able to contact the individuals from OpenSNP data that end up in your results, you can know that these are real profiles there to increase our chances of being able to build trees and to build them quicker than our funding for international testing enables.

02/10/2025

Meanwhile, we are now testing out our genomic analysis code pipeline to use 23andMe's IBD detection algorithm called phasedIBD.

"phasedibd is a Python package developed by the 23andMe Ancestry Research team to compute phase aware identity-by-descent (IBD) using the templated positional Burrows-Wheeler transform (TPBWT)."

(both versions of the paper in the comments)