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Archiver > APG > 2000-05 > 0957301462


From: "Eileen Polakoff" <>
Subject: [APG] Human family tree (NYT of May 2, 2000)
Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 17:04:22 -0400


Brian Mavrogeorge asked:
> This is a great article. Does anyone know/have handy a reference to where
one might find a trace of dna for an ancestor? How old does the
> dna survive in tissue? Assuming that one could obtain a tissue sample from
a suspected dead ancestor, how long ago could that ancestor have died and
the dna sample still be viable?
>
> I have a lock of hair from my great-grandmother. Would it work? Are there
other, less obvious, sources of a sample? I have a postcard
> collection from my great-aunt - would the stamps have traces of her saliva
and her dna? My very oldest possessions are some letters written in the
early 1800's - where might a dnasample be found on them?
>
I can't really answer the technical questions - Joan Mitchell is ver good at
this topic - but from reading dozens of murder mysteries and being a "Law
and Order" junkie... I do know that to get dna from a piece of hair you have
to have the hair follicle not just a cut of hair. I think dna survives for a
very long time... how else did they test those 8000 year old folks?

Eileen Polakof

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