More drastic measures may be necessary to secure DNA from the talk-show host Jerry Springer, who has so far ignored her three e-mail messages. Robards, a 55-year-old mother of two in Sparks, Nev., has not entirely dismissed posing as a cross-dresser to get on his show.

There is, after all, only so much time. DNA may be the essence of life, but it is the fear of impending death that drives the current genetic genealogy frenzy. "If you don't catch the people before they die," Robards said, "you're out of luck."

Not necessarily. Susan Meates, a retired business executive, has discovered dozens of cousins because of her campaign to salvage her brother's DNA in the hours after his death in a car crash.

Meates prevailed on her brother's former wife to retrieve his clothes from the funeral home and put them in her refrigerator. From North Carolina, she instructed the medical examiner in Maryland to save blood from the autopsy and persuaded the mortician to take a cheek swab.

Some funeral homes now offer post-mortem DNA collection. But Linda Jonas saw no need for professional help when she tugged several hairs from her grandmother's head as she lay in her casket.

She made sure to get the root.

"Obviously, it's not going to hurt her," said Jonas, a family historian in McLean, Va. "I had a little Ziploc."

Genetic testing companies encourage the use of cheek cells whenever possible, but that does not stop customers from dispatching DNA in a multitude of forms. For a premium, Family Tree DNA, a provider of the tests, has extracted genetic material from toothbrushes, hearing aids, nail clippings and postage stamps. (Hair remains tricky).

The talismans come mostly from people trying to glean genealogical information on dead relatives. But they could also be purloined from the living, as the police do with suspects. The law views such DNA as "abandoned."

"If you won't give me your DNA but I run after your cigarette butt and I don't contaminate it, can we get your DNA?" said Bennett Greenspan, president of Family Tree, which nearly doubled its kit sales last year. "The answer is yes."

But that does not mean genetic genealogy companies want to encourage the practice.

Greenspan invited a bioethicist to speak at the company's third annual genetic genealogy conference in Houston last fall. "Don't do anything you wouldn't do in broad daylight," the speaker told the audience.

The message did not resonate, according to several attendees.

"We're all like, 'I'd pick up the cup in broad daylight,' " one recalled.

For now, genetic genealogists are striking their own ethical balance.