This familyresearch is cheating!

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According to the series, the story of Kunta Kinte was passed on from generation to generation, until it reached Alex Haley, who ultimately made his book and mini series. (And arguably, he copied some parts from other books, and made up something, and in the end it gives us a false, but great story.)

So, no, his way of research and storytelling is quite logical.

Actually if you have ever researched an american family history (especially a non-white history due to slaves being given their massa's names) you would have the same thing. I have researched my family tree for over 12 years, some family lines go back to egypt. Some don't go back at all.

When researching you go as far as you can on each line and move on.So if no info is found you move on to the next. Then you can revisit them. There is one line in my family that we cannot find one lick of information on. Later after asking the oldies in the family they said it was always rumored he was actually a freed slave that was "passin" but they never had proof. Following that path I did find a slave in mississippi that was the right age and first name. Surname didn't match because all slaves had their owners surname. Therefore we can't say for certain its the same one but is likely.

There is nothing wrong with flipping around between fathers and mothers- it's the researchers choice- I am related to William the Conquerer and it's not through father to father to father to father. It flips all the way back. If I didn't research every line I would not have found it.

Try maybe being less critical of others and realize it is a work of fiction- that he loosely based on his tree. He has the right to do it in any way he wishes...as we all have free will.

I am white and i find it very unlikely that any white person knows what its like to be persecuted repeately for over 400 years, stolen from your homeland, hung, whipped, raped and the list could go on and on so when you are critical of a black person for being defensive maybe think of that. I doubt many non- americans could understand the black american's plight for independence and true freedom. Equality is non-existant in this country no matter what face they try to put on it.

To OP. Cheating how?

I got the impression Kunta Kinte was the one who was adamant that neither he not his descendants forgot where they came from. Therefore he learned Kizzy some African words and how he was caught by the slavers. She in turn told Chicken George about his grandfather, Kunta Kinte, and who he was. Tom Harvey heard the story both from Kizzy and Chicken George. Cynthia Palmer heard about the African, Kunta Kinte, who was the grandfather of Chicken George. Cynthia later told both Bertha and her son Alex Haley about who their ancestors were, especially the old African, Kunta Kinte.

Why would Alex Haley try to find out about anybody else of his ancestors when he knew that he had one who was a slave and named Kunta Kinte? Of course he knew very little about him and exactly when he lived but that he saw as something he could find out.

For all I know Simon Haley never told him about his slave ancestor, because on his father's side the generations had been forgotten. Will Palmer surely didn't know much beyond his grandparents. Etc, etc.

I know that if I had heard that some ancient ancestor of mine was some interesting person than I wouldn't bother with if he was from father to father or if she was from mother to mother.

So he was trying to find if Kunta Kinte?
So what.He was the one who had become a legend in the family. Tracing his geneology the way he did was consistent with the family stories.

If I wanted to trace my roots back to Capt James Cook (as an example) I wouldn't be looking up my mother's family tree.

Love is never having to say you're sober.

Did you at least read the book or watch the movie? Alex Haley grew up partly in Henning, hearing the old stories about Chicken George, Kizzy and Kunta, which sparked his interest in these particular ancestor. Not only was he curios about these ancestors, as a writer, he was given clues by way of his Grandmother, Aunt and older cousin, who had at least known Chicken George. which enabled them to pass these stories down to Alex, which made his job of researching his maternal roots easier than the average black person. Using the information that he was given, all he had to do was put all the pieces together.

As a black woman who has tried to track my ancestors, it is almost impossible to trace your roots all the way to Africa without any prior information, especially since most of the documents were destroyed during the civil war so by the oral history that was passed down to Alex by is older relatives, he was given a huge advantage.

As for his father's family, he did do a book and movie called Queen, which was the name of his paternal grandmother, who didn't die until Alex was either in his late teens or early 20's so he was able to get first hand accounts of her life, from Queen, herself. So that's the reason he chose those particular ancestors.




You may be entitled to your own opinion but you are not entitled to mine.
Arimas, Samira