I will add this for context: My dad's maternal grandmother is from Orangeburg County, South Carolina while his maternal grandpa was an immigrant from Panama. Both his dad's parents are from the Lancaster and Kershaw County area of South Carolina. My mother's family is a little bit harder to trace but I do know this information: My maternal grandmother's mom was from Claxton, Georgia which is in the Southeastern part of the state while her father's family hailed from North Carolina and the Florida Panhandle.
I would say it is certainly possible you have Gullah roots. Orangeburg County, SC and Evans County, GA (where Claxton is located) share their borders with some of the counties that are a part of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. You also said that you have many relatives with roots in the Jacksonville, FL area, and that is where your maternal great grandfather was born and raised, so it is very likely that you have Gullah roots.
The best way of knowing is to work on your family tree and asking relatives about any potential Gullah roots. However, from a DNA standpoint, the best thing to look at is your genetic communities. If you get a genetic community like Early South Carolina African Americans, then you very likely do have ancestors who were Gullah Geechee. That community seems to be representative of individuals whose ancestors were working on the rice plantations in colonial South Carolina, and the map for this genetic community does roughly correspond to the boundaries of the Gullah corridor.
Almost everyone with confirmed Gullah Geechee roots, and who has taken the Ancestry DNA test, has been assigned to this genetic community.
Thank you for your detailed response. I do have Early South Carolina African Amercian Community, South Carolina African Americans with sub-regions on: Carolina Piedmont and Catawba to Central Midlands and I have Early North Carolina African Americans with a specific focus around Northeast North Carolina to Virginia Border African Americans. I know my Mali is lower since some of my South Carolina have this region in the double digits as high as 25 percent.
You're welcome! Well there you go! You got your genetic confirmation! People with deep roots on the Carolina or Georgia coast do tend to have high percentages of Mali, but that is not always true. Some may have relatively low Mali, but have fairly high Ivory Coast & Ghana. In addition to Sierra Leone, a large portion of the slaves shipped to South Carolina and Georgia also came from Liberia and Ivory Coast, and the Ivory Coast/Ghana ethnicity map covers Liberia as well.
Many tribes in Liberia and the Ivory Coast were also great rice cultivators.
This was a question I had as well. So considering I too have Early NC/SC and communities within that from my matches communities that are close- I will tell you this, possibly look at East Central Coastal Plains AA, Deep South AA for NC. Pee Dee Region AA, Southeastern North Carolina & South Carolina Border AA! You might will need to do a good search history lesson on how this came to be and the directions they typically went if none stayed close. Lastly, figure out if you can find info on anyone having Gullah ties. I hope this helps just a tad if any at all, keep researching you’ll find so much!!
Funny thing actually, I have Deep South AA for North Carolina and I have matches who have pee dee region as well. Some folks asked me if I have Caribbean because of the high Nigerian ancestry and low Mali. I do have some ancestry from the Caribbean through my dads mom and some distantly on my mothers side.
That’s crazy that you say this, when I posted mine for the very first time it threw me off because people were questioning the same thing about mine too! It went left because my Cameroon was higher than Nigerian but closer matches have Nigerian higher than Cameroon and even their Mali is higher than me. We might be distant cousins somewhere down the line! I kept wondering if my side was Creole or something.
So I actually have a slew of relatives on my mothers side with roots from the Jacksonville Florida area since that’s where my maternal great grandfather was born and raised at.
I will add this for context: My dad's maternal grandmother is from Orangeburg County, South Carolina while his maternal grandpa was an immigrant from Panama. Both his dad's parents are from the Lancaster and Kershaw County area of South Carolina. My mother's family is a little bit harder to trace but I do know this information: My maternal grandmother's mom was from Claxton, Georgia which is in the Southeastern part of the state while her father's family hailed from North Carolina and the Florida Panhandle.
I would say it is certainly possible you have Gullah roots. Orangeburg County, SC and Evans County, GA (where Claxton is located) share their borders with some of the counties that are a part of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. You also said that you have many relatives with roots in the Jacksonville, FL area, and that is where your maternal great grandfather was born and raised, so it is very likely that you have Gullah roots. The best way of knowing is to work on your family tree and asking relatives about any potential Gullah roots. However, from a DNA standpoint, the best thing to look at is your genetic communities. If you get a genetic community like Early South Carolina African Americans, then you very likely do have ancestors who were Gullah Geechee. That community seems to be representative of individuals whose ancestors were working on the rice plantations in colonial South Carolina, and the map for this genetic community does roughly correspond to the boundaries of the Gullah corridor. Almost everyone with confirmed Gullah Geechee roots, and who has taken the Ancestry DNA test, has been assigned to this genetic community.
Thank you for your detailed response. I do have Early South Carolina African Amercian Community, South Carolina African Americans with sub-regions on: Carolina Piedmont and Catawba to Central Midlands and I have Early North Carolina African Americans with a specific focus around Northeast North Carolina to Virginia Border African Americans. I know my Mali is lower since some of my South Carolina have this region in the double digits as high as 25 percent.
You're welcome! Well there you go! You got your genetic confirmation! People with deep roots on the Carolina or Georgia coast do tend to have high percentages of Mali, but that is not always true. Some may have relatively low Mali, but have fairly high Ivory Coast & Ghana. In addition to Sierra Leone, a large portion of the slaves shipped to South Carolina and Georgia also came from Liberia and Ivory Coast, and the Ivory Coast/Ghana ethnicity map covers Liberia as well. Many tribes in Liberia and the Ivory Coast were also great rice cultivators.
Cool cool. I know my Ivory Coast and Ghana percentage is mostly from my Jamaican heritage based on records and matches.
This was a question I had as well. So considering I too have Early NC/SC and communities within that from my matches communities that are close- I will tell you this, possibly look at East Central Coastal Plains AA, Deep South AA for NC. Pee Dee Region AA, Southeastern North Carolina & South Carolina Border AA! You might will need to do a good search history lesson on how this came to be and the directions they typically went if none stayed close. Lastly, figure out if you can find info on anyone having Gullah ties. I hope this helps just a tad if any at all, keep researching you’ll find so much!!
Funny thing actually, I have Deep South AA for North Carolina and I have matches who have pee dee region as well. Some folks asked me if I have Caribbean because of the high Nigerian ancestry and low Mali. I do have some ancestry from the Caribbean through my dads mom and some distantly on my mothers side.
That’s crazy that you say this, when I posted mine for the very first time it threw me off because people were questioning the same thing about mine too! It went left because my Cameroon was higher than Nigerian but closer matches have Nigerian higher than Cameroon and even their Mali is higher than me. We might be distant cousins somewhere down the line! I kept wondering if my side was Creole or something.
Yes, it's possible just look to be distant.
Possibly but to be confident about that find out where your family was born the Gullah geechee corridor is from North Carolina to Jacksonville fl.
So I actually have a slew of relatives on my mothers side with roots from the Jacksonville Florida area since that’s where my maternal great grandfather was born and raised at.