Support Our Family's Birthright Trip to Sierra Leone

Seth Joyner is organizing this fundraiser.

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We are beyond blessed to share a deeply personal and truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reconnect with our heritage in a way that has never been possible. In honor of our long-lost grandmother, we'll be embarking on a birthright “family reunion” trip to Sierra Leone in November 2025 and humbly ask for your support to make this life-changing journey a reality!

This journey is about more than just visiting a country—it’s about understanding my family’s deep connection to the land, the history of our ancestors, and the cultural legacy that has shaped who we are today. Your support will not only honor our grandmother’s legacy, but will also allow us to strengthen our family’s bond through this shared experience and create a lasting connection to the land where our story began.

Ok, so why there? Why now? And why grandma?

This trip is the culmination of years of genealogical research. While we're still tracing the history of my paternal grandmother in the US, she did leave us one gift: matrilineal DNA evidence has uncovered a specific genetic match between her and women of the Mende people of current-day Sierra Leone.

These DNA results mean that our father (and our family by extension) is eligible for Sierra Leonean citizenship through a singular partnership between AfricanAncestry.com and the government of Sierra Leone--marking a profound watershed moment for us to access both our past and a future of possibilities!

Launched in 2019, these African Ancestry Family Reunions are specifically curated, all-inclusive, birthright journeys. We hope to make memories for the rest of our lives while we are both still able to, and before this window of opportunity closes.

Your donation will go toward airfare, accommodations, meals, citizenship application fees, and cultural activities. Any contribution you can make, no matter the size, will help bring us one step closer!

Experiences you’ll help create:

Visits to landmarks like Sierra Leone’s Bunce Island of "No Return”, where our enslaved ancestors were taken to the New World
Participation in cultural events to learn about the traditions of the Mende people and other ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, including a Mende naming ceremony for us