I know some of you share my interest in genealogy. The Boston Globe has an interesting story about how DNA, a cadre of volunteer genealogists and police working together lead to the identity of a young woman kidnapped about 35 years ago. http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/05/13/finding-lisa-story-murders-mysteries-loss-and-incredibly-new-life/vCCxbYYUD63kjIoIMJQiWM/story.html#comments
Wow, that was fascinating. Thanks for posting it.
What about this one… it even has COLLEGE connection
@jonri, have you done any of the DNA tests out there, and if so, which do you recommend?
Yes, I have done one, but I haven’t gotten the results yet. Which you do depends upon (1)what you want to find out, (2) whether you are a “one off” or part of a family doing it, (3) your suspected ethnicity, (4) how interested you are in genealogy and how much genealogical research you’ve already done and (5) the prices at the time you order the kit.
Look at this:
https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_testing_comparison_chart
I’d also suggest going to youtube and searching for Maurice Gleeson (Note double e). He has some really good videos that explain DNA testing and its limitations.
Fascinating story. I am a true crime addict and this tale was riveting - horrible but riveting.
I did the DNA test that isn’t 23andme. I never registered to be matched to relatives because I don’t particularly care for the ones I’ve already got in my life. It didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know about my background. My H did it as well and he learned that he has to trade in his liederhosen for a kilt.
I did 23andMe a few years ago for me, my whole family, and Mr R. It still updates as the ancestry, health, etc gets better.
I think if I could go back, I’d do Ancestry instead since I’d like to get in touch easier with family matches.
jonri has a good link!
ETA: I downloaded my raw DNA stuff from 23andMe and ran it through Promethease for health data. It correctly predicted that I was at really high risk for RA and lupus. This was way before I had recognizable symptoms. Go figure! (I don’t use it as a prediction, obviously, especially since several of the things it claims I’m at higher or lower risk for aren’t true, but still interesting.)
@techmom99 There are more than 2 companies that test DNA. See 23andme, Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, My Heritage DNA, Living DNA, National Geographic Geno 2.0 and, I’m sure, some others. Then there are other sites which let you upload results from different sites.
A member of my family did 23andme. Pretty amazing to see the actual DNA segment you share with other people. One person listed the city my dad’s family is from and lots of very common names. One matched one in our family with an extremely common name. We figured out the common ancestor in about 5 minutes. (I had never heard of the “match” before.) But in a different case, I got access to the tree and can’t figure out where the connection is.
@esobay Wow. That coffin must have been air tight. There are images of the child in the video on this link:
She looks like a sleeping child. She died 140 years ago. A man was disinterred near where I live a few years ago. He died during the Civil War and his family buried him in an air tight cast iron coffin. He was well preserved and I saw pictures of his uniform. The Smithsonian studied him; kept the coffin and released him to his descendants. A Kroger was built on the family cemetery.
The Globe wants me to pay 99 cents to read that article.
That’s weird, @Nrdsb4 It usually does that after you’ve read 10 articles in a month. It may just have been a pop up ad offering a cheap online subscription.
Indirectly related: there is an interesting recent episode of the 99% Invisible podcast about the “modern necropolis” of Colma, CA
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-modern-necropolis/
SIGH. Ancestry was unable to process my results…after I’d waited a long time. It took a huge argument to get my money back–minus the shipping cost. I was supposed to “request” another kit, wait for it to arrive, do the test and go to the back of the line and wait again.Ancestry doesn’t have the “capacity” to tell you why it can’t process results. If the first kit can’t be processed it also doesn’t have the capacity to let you go to the front of the line, so to speak, for the retest. You go to the back of the line with everyone else.
For anyone who is going to do it…this wasn’t my problem but it often doesn’t work if you do it first thing in the morning before you brush your teeth, according to the supervisor I spoke with. Of course, the instructions from Ancestry don’t tell you that!
@jonri, I think you will find this article interesting, if you haven’t already seen it:
Thank you @Consolidation ! Very interesting. It’s odd how much of our identity can be based on what we think our heritage is.
Ancestry sent me a message saying it couldn’t process my own DNA and to start all over again. I’m going to go with a different company but haven’t done so yet.
@jonri -
I did Ancestry. H put his results up but hasn’t found any family members yet. I really just wanted to be able to share with the children what they are.
A friend given up for adoption at birth has just found about half a dozen half siblings and her birth mother online.
One of the contestants on Jeopardy! last night had an interesting hobby. She works with a group that works with police departments to identify the relatives of John/Jane Does.
@twoinanddone - I saw that episode and also thought her hobby was fascinating. I wonder what her background is, educationally not DNA wise, that lets her do that.
I don’t think she was doing any DNA work, just ancestry research by computer.
@Consolation Thanks for posting the Washington Post story - extremely interesting!