Utah project to link DNA, genealogy

In a move they believe will forever alter the way family history research is done, local geneticists are opening a free DNA-based genealogy database to the public this week.

The Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation is expected to announce on Monday that it has established a Web site — www.smgf.org — that allows anyone who has had a simple DNA test to input information that may link them to their ancestors, both known and unknown.

Scott Woodward, chief scientific officer for the foundation established by Utah billionaire James Sorenson, said the database is the beginning of a project his organization will continue to expand in size and scope over time. The Web site is designed to build one-sided pedigree charts — or family trees — for those looking for their paternal ancestors through genetic testing. To use the database, participants must undergo an inexpensive mouth swab test done by a genetic testing company.

Once that procedure is complete, researchers process the saliva sample through a laboratory and come up with coding sequences that define specific genetic markers people carry through their Y-chromosome DNA — their father's bloodline. Those markers can then be entered into the Web site database, which searches for links with others whose genetic information matches their own.

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To date, the foundation has catalogued information about the DNA of more than 5,500 participants and plans to add as much new information to the database every three months as it is able to collect.

Though the scope of the data currently available is limited mostly to those with West European ancestry — because the vast majority of data already collected has come from Americans of European descent — the database offers the potential of virtually unlimited expansion into family lines from every ethnicity on Earth.

As additional people are tested and offer their genetic information — and their family history records — to the foundation, the larger the database will grow, Woodward said.

While it doesn't circumvent the need for accurate family history data — names, birthdates, marriage and death dates, place of birth and other vital statistics — it supplements such information by providing what many consider to be definitive proof of familial relationships: a genetic "match" meaning people are related "with a high degree of probability," Woodward said. That probability is in the "high 90 percentile."