Bainet Origins with Ancestry DNA Estimates

Our Haitian parent took a DNA test via Ancestry recently. A native of Bainet, we find their results to be what one might expect of an average Haitian person: mainly sub-Saharan African in origin (and a mix of various parts of West Africa and West Central Africa) and some European ancestry (mainly French). None of this is too surprising, and we always knew our mother's family had some European ancestry. However, we believe she was trying to find more precise data on her African ancestry. Unfortunately, the algorithm and samples used by Ancestry appear to be rather limited on details or precision when it comes to sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, we see results broken down by nation without any additional breakdown on specific ethnic groups within these occasionally vast or large nations & regions. For instance, what does it mean to be 25% Nigerian, like our parent? Nigeria is a large country with dozens of ethnic groups. We know some of the modern-day populations of Nigeria were enslaved in Saint Domingue, like the Yoruba, Nupe, Hausa and Ibo, but this genetic ancestry estimate only confirms that broadly. Nonetheless, as the amateur, self-proclaimed genealogist, I shall endeavor to connect her results with my previous feeble attempts at tracing our roots in the context of Bainet and Haitian history.

First, the easy part. The 11% European ancestry, only designated as 5% French. We believe there must be issues or occasional problems with the algorithm for detecting French ancestry. Or, alternatively, one of our very distant forebears may have been of Spanish or Iberian origin and took a French name upon arrival in Saint Domingue. As for Wales and Scotland, these are perhaps misread for French ancestry or, perhaps, a remnant of a Scottish family that lived in Bainet in the 1700s. We refer, of course, to the MacGill family of colonial Bainet. The first of that name in Bainet appears to have been a Michel MacGille, who died in 1750. ANOM, which has digitized the parish books of Baynet, has Michel MacGille listed as a native of Montserrat (?), indicating that he may have been from the British isles but resident in the Antilles before relocating to Bainet. Perhaps the Welsh and Scottish ancestry indicated in the Ancestry DNA estimate is also from this man, who could have raped an enslaved woman like so many planters and colons in the Antilles. Overall, the European ancestry is likely from France, and inherited from free people of color, including families we have ranted about previously at this blog. 

The African origins, the fun part, is, sadly, the most difficult to make sense of. Overall, our parent is mainly West African rather than Central African. However, this West African ancestry is rather well-distributed across that vast region. Although Senegal is represented at 3% (perhaps a sign of distant Wolof ancestry, although "Senegalois" were not always defined as such in the records of Saint Domingue, Mali (18%) is rather high. While this is a problematic category and lacks ethnic breakdowns, we assume this "Mali" ancestry in Bainet is likely traceable to the Bambara and Mandingue populations. We know Bambara were a sizable minority of the enslaved population in 18th century Bainet. Mandingue and other related peoples were also present in Saint Domingue, some of whom were actually Muslims. The rather high Mali results obtained here may be a sign of an important concentration of Bambara and Mandingue peoples in Bainet or its environs in the 18th century.

How to interpret the Ghana & Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Benin & Togo results is also difficult. We know from French records that Cotocoli, Mina, Hausa, Borno, Nupe, Ibo, Fon, Arada, Thiamba, Ouidah, Dahomey, and Nago were exported to Saint Domingue. Again, the lack of precise breakdowns of the African DNA results means we cannot go much further than this. We can hypothesize a general descent from all or some of these aforementioned groups in Bainet. Likewise, the 14% Cameroon, Congo and Western Bantu Peoples is probably indicating some degree of "Congo" ancestry, and we know the "Congos" were numerous in Saint-Domingue. Nigeria, an enormous nation of rich ethnic diversity, included Yoruba, Hausa, Ibo, Fulani, Borno (Kanuri?), Nupe and others sold into slavery. That rich ethnic diversity in Bainet may have included a demographically important Ibo component, as Ibos were present in Bainet. Indeed, Geggus's research on the French slave trade found a significant number of captives brought to the South of the colony were from the Bight of Biafra, which would have included Ibos. 

Intriguingly, our parent is overwhelmingly of West African origin rather than Central African, which we interpret as possibly being evidence of a deeper ancestry among Creole slaves. Our thinking here is that the already demographically significant Creole slave population had less Central African ancestry by the late 1700s, and this group appears to have been the majority on some plantations in Bainet. Indeed, looking at some data on the Saugrain plantation in 1720, one finds that Creole slaves were already the largest group. The other Africans were mainly West Africans, with areas of the Slave Coast and Gold Coast represented among the bossales and a mix of other Africans from Senegal and Central Africa. By the late 18th century, Creoles appear to have outnumbered the other slaves owned by at least one Perronneau in the 1790s and on two indigoteries studied by Siguret. The enslaved workforce of Bainet appears to have been largely Creole, with significant Ibo and Congo presence. 

Of course, the above is just speculation based on limited data. Sex ratios, plantation inventories, and more precise data on the growth of the slave population in Bainet is required. However, we find our results to be generally in concordance with that of a summary of 45 Haitian Ancestry DNA results analyzed here. The main difference is that our parent had far less Central African ancestry and more Mali. We would love to see more data from Bainet and people with Bainet origins to see if this pattern is generally true in our region. As for the "hacked" results, they reveal trace amounts of Khoisan, Aka, Mbuti and Indigenous Americas ancestry. Presumably, because the results are less than 0.5%, Ancestry did not include them into their Ethnicity breakdown. We assume Indigenous Americas is probably Taino of some sort or another.