Genetic Genealogy and the Increasing Police use of Commercial DNA Databases

They say when it rains, it pours!

In the last week by pure happenstance, I posted three articles relating to genetic genealogy on my Facebook page. (Psst...Have you liked the page yet? There's a good little group going over there!)

Two of the articles are on cold case resolutions thanks to the efforts of preserved DNA evidence combined with the research skill of genetic genealogists, while the final article deals with limiting police use of commercial DNA databases.

Case Resolutions

First, we learned from the Naperville Police Department about an arrest made in early June 2021 regarding the 1972 killing of Julie Ann Hanson, a 15-year-old girl from Naperville, Illinois. While the specifics of the DNA evidence were not elaborated upon, investigators were able to match their suspect, Barry Lee Whelpley, based upon this evidence.

The second solved case I posted about is believed to be the oldest murder case solved using genetic genealogy. Patricia Kalitzke and Lloyd Duane Bogle, two teenage sweethearts from the Great Falls, Montana area, were found murdered in 1956 with little evidence to pursue. In 2001 after re-examining a rape kit a DNA profile was able to be created. After ruling out various suspects with known DNA samples, the detectives uploaded the evidence in 2019 to various genealogy sites in hopes of gaining a match. This led detectives to a match with the family of Kenneth Gould. No arrests were able to be made, however, as Gould died in 2007.

Maryland's Limits

On the heels of both of these solved cases, and following high-profile cases such as the Golden State Killer and the Norcal Rapist being solved thanks to genetic genealogy, Maryland is putting some limits on the use of commercial genealogy sites. DNA was authorized to be gathered from criminal investigations in 1994 and the reach of this program was enhanced in 2008 by allowing the collection and storage of DNA from violent offenders.

This '08 expansion of the Maryland law was coupled with a stipulation that detectives could not search the state DNA database to locate relatives of a suspect. More than a decade later privacy experts wanted to expand this protection to all commercial databases, which were not included in the previous update.

Rather than an outright ban on the use of these commercial genealogy databases, Maryland will follow suit with how Montana and Utah have helped delegate these issues, striking a balance between privacy and law enforcement's ability to conduct the most thorough investigation possible. Defendants may turn to these websites to prove their case, a move lauded by the Innocence Project, and the police may only access commercial genealogy databases in cases of serious violent crime after exhausting all other resources and seeking permission from a judge.

In Conclusion...

I support using available DNA databases to link up cold cases or cases with no active leads on particularly heinous crimes to possible suspects. I support doing this only within established procedures. This means that many agencies around the country would need to create or adopt policies so they are ready to use them when needed. Oversight is needed so that police are not solely relying on commercial DNA databases to solve a crime, but using them instead as one tool out of many at their disposal.

Let me know what you think below!

Happy Researching!
- Patricia Gray

Obituaries in Your Research

As genealogists, we are just as interested in mundane details about an individual’s life as larger ones. Getting birth, marriage, death, and divorce information about someone is essential in building out a biography, while the minor details, like hobbies, occupations, and achievements, help flesh out a story and bring it to life.

Obituaries are most commonly found for ancestors deceased within the last 120 years and are a great way to help fill in these peripheral details about a person’s life.

What Can Obituaries Do For You?

Obituaries are something of open-ended questions for researchers. We aren’t certain there was an obituary published unless we have first-hand knowledge of it. If our searches turn up empty, are we not finding it because it does not exist or because we are not searching the right location? Also, we do not know what information is included or if it will be accurate. Despite these challenges, obituaries provide a wonderful glimpse into an ancestor’s life.

Some things an obituary may provide you with include:

Birth, death, and burial dates and locations
Marriage dates and spouse names
Children and grandchildren names
Names of siblings and respective spouses
Occupation, Hobbies, Religion

Where Can You Find Obituaries?

Obituaries can usually be found printed or online in newspapers, or online from funeral homes local to the deceased’s last place of residence. A person who dies in Sioux City probably won’t have an obituary in New York City, for example.

Newspapers often have a recent archive available online. A quick search of the newspaper’s website will help locate the archive. Sometimes these will cost money to view articles or gain access to the archive.

If the newspaper does not keep an archive, or the date of the possible obituary is outside the range of the online archive, searching repository sites like the Library of Congress, Google Newspaper, FultonSearch, and SmallTownPapers can help track down a local newspaper.

Another possibility is a local library. Infrequently, local libraries will have an index of obituaries or may have access to local papers via their online resources. Even if you are not a member, contacting the library for assistance will usually pay off if they have a holding that might be of use for your research.

Modern Obituaries

Modern burial packages often include an online obituary hosted by the funeral home’s website. This move towards online obituaries was fueled by the overall decline of newspapers and brings with it a variety of challenges.

Because these obituaries are online, we can no longer access an archive at a college or library to get that old newspaper that has grandma’s obituary. Some funeral homes host obituaries for a predetermined amount of time before they either disappear or end up behind a paywall.

Obituaries offer genealogists and family historians a wealth of information. Sometimes difficult to find, the payoff is typically worth the effort it takes to find them. For assistance in finding more obituaries, I have a list of free newspaper resources over on the Genealogy Resources section of this site.

Happy Researching,

- Patricia Gray

Free Surname Chart with Soundex

Have you ever had an ancestor that seemed to have a different spelling with each census and vital record they filled out? There are a few basic search tips for dealing with surnames like this, including using the ‘Sounds like’, ‘Similar’, and ‘Soundex’ options on Ancestry. These let you search for names that are pretty close to the term that you entered, a more comprehensive way to search a database than just with a single keyword.

Soundex is a particularly helpful tool when researching names that tend to be frequently misspelled. In short, a Soundex code consists of a letter and three numbers, assigned to a word based on a Soundex coding guide.

The last name Rybczak, for instance, would be R-122 and Ashcraft would be A-261. There are various tools available to help with these conversions, but it’s nice to know the how behind the method.

The last name Wajdak, one I research often, has a soundex code of W232. Wojtak, Wojdak, and Wojtach are also found under this code, so searching W232 searches all these names at once, as well as the dozens of others that fall under this code.

Knowing the Soundex code of a name you frequently search will not be the end of your searching woes, I assure you! But it is one more tool in your genealogy toolbox that you can use to help find what you are searching for.

To help my research on names I find frequently misspelled, I started keeping a list of surname variants I came across and where they appeared. This not only lets me keep track of possibilities to use in future database queries, but also helps me analyze differences in surnames over time.

After a few requests, I published the fillable chart I personally use but wanted to add something to it. The second page contains a mini-lesson on Soundex along with some outbound links that take you directly to a Soundex converter. There’s room on the chart for numerous spelling variations of a surname along with the sources where you found various spellings.

To get access to the free, interactive/fillable PDF, you need to make a quick account over at my MemberVIP page and then you’ll get instant access to my Fillable Surname Chart with Soundex.

Happy Researching!

- Patricia Gray

Single-Tasking for Genealogy

Have you ever sat down to research a family tree only to have this happen?

Multi-tasking is known for leaving overly-exhausted people and half-done tasks behind. Juggling multiple tasks at one time is only sustainable in short bursts, if at all. More often than not, quality is impacted for the sake of quantity.

Today is Single Tasking Day - a day that celebrates and encourages completing one task at a time, flying in the face of all those compliments you got for being able to multitask so well.

Single-tasking is not only engaging in a single task at a time but also breaking down that task into smaller parts as needed. This allows you to pay greater attention to what you are doing, completing the task with more quality and accuracy.

Implementing this can be difficult with limited time and a strong desire to complete a task. This situation can lead back to multitasking in an effort to just finish something.

So how to stay on track while researching?

Write It Down

I like to start by jotting down what I want to research. This is the main goal that I keep in front of me while I’m researching. I usually write this on scrap paper to keep on my desk so it isn’t lost in a sea of open tabs. I don’t worry about how long it will take or if I can finish it in one sit-down.

Before I begin any session of family history research, I pull up my database and documents and do a quick search to see if I have any previous research on this subject.

After I have my research topic and some notes about what I might already know, I begin my research. This process usually brings out some additional questions. For instance, my main research topic might be ‘John Planchard’s early life’ and I know from my previous notes that he is buried in a National Cemetery. This means he served in the military or died as a dependent of someone in the military. So now I know to look for possible military enlistment, a subtask I can add to my list. I may not be able to immediately switch gears to this subject, but I don’t want to forget it for later research.

Use a Research Log

Research logs are AH-mazing! tools. If you are not using one, start as soon as you can!

The research log I use is as easy as it can be - I use a single Google Doc for everything. I have had it for years. If I do something related to genealogy, it will probably get recorded in my research log. Make a backup of my files? It goes in the log, this way I know the last time I backed things up. Email a library? Goes in the research log. Get an email or Ancestry message? It gets copied and pasted into the document. This allows me one place to search.

I have also known people who successfully use paper notebooks. These, however, have the downside of not being as easily searchable as something on the computer. It is also easy to forget these at home. Google docs can usually be signed into from wherever you happen to be, either on your phone or a library computer.

Write A Summary

As your research session comes to an end, try to carve out a five-minute block of time where you can summarize your research and record it in your research log. It does not need to be fully complete documentation and sources do not need to be included unless you want them to be. This can be something like, ‘Researched John Planchard’s early life. Located birth & military records, index only, no originals. Found mother’s name: Mary Stevens on birth index.’

This is just a summary to help jog your memory later on when you come back to researching this topic again. This helps reduce the amount of duplicated research tasks. Summaries are only as good as your notes, so be sure to include full names so you know which John and Mary you were researching the next time you look.

Single-tasking can be more stressful than multitasking, especially at first. Our society is so accustomed to being BUSY that the very idea of not doing more than one thing at a time can seem difficult or inefficient.

Single-tasking your genealogy sessions will make them more productive and result in research that is better documented and more thoroughly examined.

Gray's Genealogy