The concept of the database is that bits and pieces of all our ancestors are "walking around inside us," he said. So a Utahn whose grandparents were born in Ireland may know all their own genes are in Utah in 2004, but they were part of the gene pool in Ireland in 1870 since genetic makeup is passed down parent to child. By building a genetic profile of an area, the researchers believe they can help people determine where their genes have been, providing clues to aid genealogical research.

They've already collected samples from England, Brazil, Ireland, Slovenia, Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria and points in between.

Genetic use in genealogy right now involves a Y chromosome database and a mitochondrial database. Only men have a Y chromosome, passed basically unchanged from father to son, although over enough generations there are variations that can be detected.

So a man can go to a lab that specializes in genetic information and get his Y chromosome profile, then key it in online at the foundation's Web site, www.smgf.org, and compare it to the others that are in the database. Mitochondrial DNA is inherited from your mother. Both databases allow individuals to use their own genetic information to verify relationship to a common ancestor. The databases are free and the hope is they will always remain so.

The big project is collecting autosomal DNA. All three types are keyed to genealogical information. There are 10,000 genetic signatures available on the Web now, linked to almost 400,000 ancestors. That linkage is why the combination of the known genealogy and the genetic sample are so important.

The work is also important because a large percentage of documented genealogies have errors, estimated to be as high as 33 percent, whether because of "wishful thinking or wrong turns," Woodward said. "This allows us to verify genealogies."

"The idea of linking people back together using genes and genealogy is going to make people feel differently about each other," Sorenson said. The project's motto is "peace, compassion and brotherhood."

The paradox of DNA is that only 0.1 percent of it varies. All people have 99.9 percent identical data in their DNA.

Accurate information is a must, which is why they are building the current database using samples only from those who have deep genealogies already compiled. Even then, expert genealogists look at the information, verify what they can and polish the data.