DNA links Utahn to high king of Ireland

SALT LAKE CITY — As a direct descendant of Irish royalty, Garry Bryant is so intrigued with High King Brian Boru, he carved a large likeness of his ancestor so the two of them can bond a bit.

The carving hangs on the living room wall in his Farmington home, watching over his family history research, the phone conversations with far-flung relatives with whom he's connected and his study of a region in western Ireland where his ancestors' family clan lived.

His ongoing interest in kin was piqued several years ago at the National Genealogical Society's annual Family History Conference, held in Salt Lake City. This year's event opened Wednesday at the Salt Palace and runs through Saturday. For information, go to www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/conference_info.

After years of trying to connect his extended family heritage through written records, a mere blood test has now linked Bryant through DNA to the Irish king, born more than 1,000 years ago.

The ability to tie Bryant — whose family surname was originally O'Brien — to others also descended from the Irish high king has "confirmed some family legends and dismissed others," he said, giving him a new window into the diversity of a bloodline that now boasts descendants in South Africa, France, New Zealand, Australia and New Netherlands.

At the family history conference in 2002, Bryant provided a sample of his blood and his family pedigree to representatives of the Salt Lake-based Sorenson Molecular Genealogical Foundation. Founded by the late medical devices pioneer James Sorenson, the local foundation has been gathering DNA for more than a decade and now has samples from 170 countries and a wide variety of cultures in its database.

The foundation can now link some people via DNA to ancestors who lived centuries ago, based on the fact that royal lines in many nations are often in possession of the most well-documented family histories available. Based on his blood test, Bryant got a call in 2007 from Kevin O'Brien, a New York man who had also provided his DNA to the SMGF.

As the two shared information about the 37 genetic markers that come through the male's Y chromosome, they found they are identical — meaning the two descend from a common ancestor.

Scott Woodward, executive director of SMGF, told the Deseret News this week that the company's database now includes DNA and family pedigrees from more than 100,000 people worldwide. Researchers are making the information available to the public at www.genetree.com.