North Carolina State University: Leafing Through History: Mining DNA Clues From Centuries-Old Manuscripts. “Since early 2021, an intercollege, interdisciplinary team of NC State researchers has been using modern scientific techniques to mine genetic clues from old manuscripts. In doing so, they are uncovering traces of the past hidden in the books and shaping future scholarship.”
The Guardian: What was Dracula really like? 550-year-old clue to life of Vlad the Impaler emerges. “On a dark and stormy night in May this year, exactly 125 years to the day that Bram Stoker published the definitive vampire novel, two people pored over a document more than 500 years old in a room in Transylvania – signed by Dracula himself. Gleb and Svetlana Zilberstein’s mission? To extract genetic material from the letters written by Vlad Dracula – the historical inspiration for Stoker’s vampiric count – left there by his sweat, fingerprints and saliva.”
KIRO: Genealogy resolves Canada’s ‘Babes in the Wood’ case 70 years after boys’ hatchet murders. “A groundskeeper clearing brush from a Canadian park in 1953 made a horrific discovery: the skeletal remains of two young boys who had been bludgeoned to death with a hatchet. For nearly 70 years, the boys, whose murders became known as the ‘Babes in the Wood’ case, remained unidentified as their brutal deaths slowly became Vancouver’s oldest unsolved homicides. The advent of genetic genealogy has changed that.” I don’t generally index forensic genealogy articles because they’re usually brief and basic. This one is really extensive and has tons of external links.
New York Times: Last Known Slave Ship Is Remarkably Well Preserved, Researchers Say. “As much as two-thirds of the original structure remains, including the hold below the main deck where 110 people were imprisoned during the ship’s final, brutal journey from Benin to Mobile in 1860. The researchers said it was possible that DNA could be extracted from the sealed, oxygen-free hull, which is filled with silt. Barrels, casks and bags used to stow provisions for the captives could also be found inside, they said.”
NPR: Detectives Just Used DNA To Solve A 1956 Double Homicide. They May Have Made History. “DNA testing led investigators to a man named Kenneth Gould. Before moving to Missouri in 1967, Gould had lived with his wife and children in the Great Falls area around the time of the murders, according to the Tribune.”
WoodTV: Genealogy sites lack diverse DNA, struggle to ID people of color. “Margaret Press, Co-founder and CEO of DNA Doe Project, told News 8 there are many reasons genealogy databases include fewer DNA samples from people of Latino or Hispanic descent, as well as black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC).”
Baltimore Fishbowl: Limits on law enforcement use of DNA databases under consideration in Maryland; would be first in nation. “A first-in-the-nation bill to limit when law enforcement can search consumer genealogical databases in connection with a crime unanimously passed the Maryland House and is advancing in the Senate. HB240 would ensure that databases storing genetic information of individuals, like GEDmatch, provide notice to their consumers that their DNA could be utilized for this purpose and obtain consent from them.”
TechCrunch: Ancestry says it fought two police requests to search its DNA database. “Consumer genomics company Ancestry has confirmed it fought two U.S. law enforcement requests to access its DNA database in the past six months, but that neither request resulted in turning over customer or DNA data.”
Wired: Cops Are Getting a New Tool For Family-Tree Sleuthing. “It used to be that DNA could solve a case only if it matched the genetic profile of someone in a criminal database or an existing suspect. But the recent rise of genetic genealogy—a technique that makes it possible to identify people through relatives who have added their genetic information to genealogy databases—changed the odds. A skilled genetic genealogist can now turn an unknown DNA profile that strikes out in traditional forensic searches into a suspect’s name nearly half of the time.”
BuzzFeed News: A Security Breach Exposed More Than One Million DNA Profiles On A Major Genealogy Database. “First GEDmatch, the DNA database that helped identify the Golden State Killer, was hacked. Then email addresses from its users were used in a phishing attack on another leading genealogy site.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Gross overreach: Ancestry. com was right to block access to DNA database. “Privacy has become a naive, even passe idea in the minds of many Americans, particularly those raised in a world where social media, smartphones and the Patriot Act are the norm. But the increasing popularity of DNA testing services, in which people pay to have their DNA analyzed and stored by private companies, has set the stage for an important new battleground in the war on privacy.”
EurekAlert: Anonymous no more: combining genetics with genealogy to identify the dead in unmarked graves. “In Quebec, gravestones did not come into common use until the second half of the 19th century, so historical cemeteries contain many unmarked graves. Inspired by colleagues at Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University, a team of researchers in genetics, archaeology and demography from three Quebec universities (Université de Montréal, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi and Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières) conducted a study in which they combined genealogical information from BALSAC (a Quebec database that is the only one of its kind in the world) with genetic information from more than 960 modern Quebecers in order to access the genetic profile of Quebec’s historical population. The results, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, suggest the capabilities that this method may offer in the near future.”
BuzzFeed News: A Court Tried To Force Ancestry.com To Open Up Its DNA Database To Police. The Company Said No.. “Ancestry.com, the largest DNA testing company in the world, was served a search warrant to give police access to its database of some 16 million DNA profiles, but the company did not comply.”
BuzzFeed News: This DNA Testing Firm Said It Wanted To Bring Closure To Families Of Murder Victims. Then It Blocked A Rival From Using Its Database To Solve Crimes.. “Since April 2018, when the method scored its first big success with the Golden State Killer case, dozens of alleged murderers or rapists have been identified by genetic genealogy…. The fact that cops were doing this in databases set up to allow people to research their family histories, initially without users being informed, has led to a tense debate over genetic privacy. The new emails, which BuzzFeed obtained as part of an ongoing FOIA lawsuit against the FBI, highlight another flashpoint: rivalries between companies working with cops to solve highly publicized cases.”
New York Times: Headless Body in Cave Is Identified as 1916 Ax Murder Suspect. “Since 1979, the authorities in Idaho had been trying to identify a torso that had been stuffed in a burlap sack in a cave. Now, they have learned that the torso belongs to [Joseph Henry] Loveless. Given that the bootlegger appears to have died in 1916, his case is almost certainly the oldest to be cracked with forensic genealogy, a rapidly expanding forensic technique that uses individuals’ relatives in genealogy databases to identify human remains and crime scene DNA.”
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