This is something I have looked into over the past few years. I read a book also last year called "It didn't start with you" (by Mark Wolynn) that touches on this (DNA and epigenetics) and prompted me to look into my ancestry, digging deeper into the roots of my family. Piecing together the life stories of my ancestors, it gave me a lot to think about in regard to the intergenerational patterns that have occurred and inherited trauma that has come along with that. I have wanted to know for some time now where my ancestors were taken from in regard to Trans-Atlantic slave trade. My family comes from Jamaica today, but because of the event of the "Maafa" (Swahili for great tragedy), and the fact that their (those enslaved) identities and cultures had been brutally and barbarically stripped, from them it was healing to find out that 70% of my being originally descended from (mainly) Nigeria, Benin and Togo meaning I likely came from the Yoruba tribe. The remaining 30% of my ancestry was explanatory, looking at the history and atrocities of the British Empire. I have European ancestry from the owner of the coffee plantation, that one of my ancestors grew up on. As well as Hakka ancestry, a Chinese ethnic group from where my Great-Grandfather was from (Canton now called Guangdong) in China. This area, along with Hong Kong, the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories were once a colony of the Great Britain, thus when slavery ended many indentured labourers (including many from India) were sent to the Caribbean to make up for the lost work force.
Because of this Jamaica's national motto is "Out of Many, One People". Celebrating the population's multicultural roots. You can also see this reflected in the traditional dishes of the country, such as curry goat and roti, plus jerk chicken chow mein. Despite this, it has saddened me that my Great-Grandfather had his name anglicised to Allan when he arrived there. You can also see this with his surname, where I believe the only accurate part of it was Chin. At times I wonder if Chin-Den-Coy was likely Chin-Deng-Cai looking at family names in this location, but I will never truly know the answer, just what was written on his documentation. Learning more about Chinese family names and how important they were in regard to honouring your ancestral lineage, it is also heart-breaking that part of that heritage was taken away from him too. None the less I am thankful for what their stories have taught me, and I am in awe of their perseverance through terrible things, I could not even imagine enduring. I would not be here without any of them, or who I am either due to the inherited strengths they have given me. So I hope in time I can visit all these places, as I feel it would somewhat honour them somehow, walking where they once stood before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Maroon_Creole (Jamaican Maroon Creole)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jamaican_Patois_words_of_African_origin (Jamaican words in Patois of African origin)
