YOUR HEALTH: Home DNA Kits
Email: Mrandall@abc6.com
Twitter: @MRandallABC6
NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE-TV)— Mike Robinson is searching. He has boxes of notes, old documents and black and white photos. But none of it has helped him track down his grandmother’s grave.
“We just can’t find her. And we’ve done so much research. It’s crazy,” he said.
After coming up empty for 25 years, the North Providence man is hoping a DNA test he took can help him finish the family tree.
“I’ve met a bunch of other people. I have distant relatives and cousins and everything that are branching off and they’re helping us try to find her,” Robinson explained.
And this holiday season, that pool of distant cousins, aunts and uncles could get bigger. Kits through companies like ‘Ancestry.com’ or ‘23 and Me’ have become a popular gift. Many of them will soon be swabbing away and mailing the sample in to be analyzed.
“I think that’s one of the main driving things about people. We’re curious,” said David Nelson, Ph.D., of the URI Genomics and DNA Sequencing Center.
Nelson has been watching the trend and reviewing the processes the scientists with those companies use to isolate the cells and analyze your genes.
“They’re very accurate for what they detect. The data are perfectly good,” he tells ABC6.
The tests can easily help you figure out where on a map you’re family is from, but tracking down a single relative may take a bit more detective work. The experts say the more people in the data base the better the odds. Results like the one Robinson’s are hoping for, they say, are not unheard of.
“It took some time before that new person popped up and they were able to answer the question of precisely what happened,” said Rachel Schwartz, an assistant professor of Biological Science at URI, pointing to a recent example. “But certainly more and more people do these tests, right?”
The Robinsons are hoping to connect with that person soon. Gladys’ last surviving son is sick and the family fears they are running out of time.
“We just want to find her to make him happy. We want to visit it—visit the grave for him,” said Robinson.
© WLNE-TV 2018
