Black History & Ancestry | Demystifying DNA Results with Paul Crooks

In this illuminating genealogy masterclass, African Caribbean genealogist Paul Crooks unpacks the truth behind DNA testing for African ancestry.

Many people turn to DNA tests hoping for clear answers about their roots—only to find that the results raise as many questions as they answer. Paul demystifies what these tests really mean and explains how to interpret them alongside traditional genealogical records.

You’ll learn:

• What DNA results can and can’t tell you about your African origins

• How genetic data connects with historical evidence

• Why understanding context is key to making sense of DNA percentages

• Practical ways to integrate DNA results into your family-history research

This session doesn’t promote or dismiss DNA testing—it helps you understand it.

Join Paul to explore the real power and limitations of DNA in uncovering your ancestral story.

🎟️ Plus Ticket

1. Full access to the event
2. African, Irish and Creole Culture of the Caribbean — ePublication (digital copy delivered via email after the event)

🎬 Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/T-K6Yp-UW8s

🌟 Premium Ticket

1. Full access to the event
2. African, Irish and Creole Culture of the Caribbean — ePublication (digital copy delivered via email after the event)
3. Descendants — digital copy of Paul Crooks’ latest novel (sent electronically after the event)

🎬 Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/BmI8rTjUEmE

💎 Deluxe Ticket

1. Full access to the event
2. African, Irish and Creole Culture of the Caribbean — ePublication (digital copy delivered via email after the event)
3. Descendants — digital copy of Paul Crooks’ latest novel (sent electronically after the event)
4. DNA Testing Demystified: Separating Fact from Fiction in Genealogy — eBook to deepen your understanding of genealogy (sent electronically after the event)

🎬 Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/mQanCy3o1XM

Be sure to follow Black History Speaker Paul Crooks on Eventbrite!

About The Speaker

Paul Crooks is a trailblazing genealogist and published author with a specialist interest in Black ancestry. He pioneered Black genealogy research in the 1990s, tracing his African Caribbean family history from London back six generations — to ancestors enslaved on a sugar plantation in North America 200 years ago, and further still to forebears on the Gold Coast of West Africa.

Paul gained national recognition with his acclaimed historical novel Ancestors, based on his family’s story, and he appeared as an expert on Black British genealogy on Who Do You Think You Are? with Moira Stuart. His second book, A Tree Without Roots, is regarded as a seminal guide to tracing Black British ancestry.

Paul is credited with inspiring an upsurge of interest in Black and British genealogy and is recognised as having sparked a movement in African Caribbean family history research, linking generations separated by slavery and reconnecting people of African descent with their ancestral heritage.