GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2002-02 > 1012934280


From: "John F. Chandler" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Enough of Kon Tiki etc!
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 13:38 EST
In-Reply-To: GeraldFinnegan@aol.com message <152.861960d.2990b715@aol.com> of Mon, 4 Feb 2002 21:18:32 -0700


Gerald wrote:
> So there is no test commercially availvable that can provide info on
> individuals one generation back?

I'm not sure whether you are looking for confirmation of a link to a
known target or are hoping for help in picking out someone's unknown
parents. If it's the latter, you can forget about it. It's like
fingerprints, only worse -- there are millions of fingerprints on file
at various agencies all over the world, and criminal investigators
at least have some hope of "fingering" one of the "usual suspects".
There is no such massive database of detailed DNA profiles, nor would
a private hobbyist have easy access to such data as do exist. It's
also complicated by the fact that only half of each parent's DNA is
passed on to a child (aside from the Y chromosome, which is passed on
all-or-nothing, and the mtDNA, of course). If you have cooperation of
the child and at least one suspected parent (but preferably both), you
can test their DNA and show conclusively whether the suspected link is
true. This is done routinely in paternity suits where a lot of money
is riding on the outcome, but it's expensive. (I don't know exactly
*how* expensive.)

Needless to say, if you can't get cooperation, this approach is a
non-starter. In particular, dead people are pretty much off limits for
DNA testing.

John Chandler

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