The Atlantic website posted an article by Sarah Zhang today that I found interested. She states that most people of European ancestry can be identified from a relative’s DNA – and that nearly 60 percent of people have a relative who is a third cousin or closer whose DNA profile can be found on GEDmatch. Her information is drawn from a study published in the October 11, 2018 online website of Science – which is a lot more technical. I recommend both articles.
Following is an excerpt from the Atlantic article:
With the growing popularity of DNA tests, such databases are only getting bigger and bigger. It’s not hard to imagine being able to identify nearly every American through a relative’s DNA.
This is a boon for people taking DNA tests precisely to look for family. Years before police realized that genetic genealogy—the combination of family trees and DNA—could be used to ID criminals and unidentified victims, people were using DNA databases to track down birth parents, sperm donors, and long-lost family. “It wasn’t a surprise to us at all. None of this has been a surprise to us. We have been using it for years and years,” says the genealogist Debbie Kennett. The Golden State Killer suspect’s arrest just woke everyone else up to the power of genetic genealogy.
Read the full article at the Atlantic.com website.
Read the article: Identity inference of genomic data using long-range familial searches – at the Science Magazine website.
