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Professor Lennard Davis Covered On BBC

The Distinguished Professor's odyssey to unravel his family history led to unexpected places.

Lennard Davis has already written extensively about his personal history with DNA testing to confirm a family secret in his book Go Ask Your Father: One Man's Obsession with Finding His Origins Through DNA Testing. (The story was also the subject of a This American Life radio broadcast originally aired in 2005.)

Davis's discoveries were not over when he confirmed that his Uncle Abie was, in fact, his father. In 2014, he began hearing from a man named Lancelot Tauoa in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Tauoa's own DNA test revealed that he was related to Davis. It took four more years to find their common ancestor, a man named Charles Morse stationed in Pago Pago during WWII. The story has been covered by the BBC as "The Mystery Samoan in My Family".

Lennard Davis and Lancelot Tauoa stand together

Above, Lennard Davis and Lancelot Tauoa stand together. Photo courtesy Lennard Davis.