GEDmatch

Last updated

GEDmatch
GEDmatch logo 12pct.png
GEDmatch-screenshot.png
Available inEnglish
Owner Qiagen
Founder(s) Curtis Rogers and John Olson
URL gedmatch.com
RegistrationRequired
Users 1.45 million DNA profiles (in Fall 2020)

GEDmatch is an online service to compare autosomal DNA data files from different testing companies. It is owned by Qiagen.

Contents

The website gained significant media coverage in April 2018 after it was used by law enforcement to identify a suspect in the Golden State Killer case in California. Other law-enforcement agencies started using GEDmatch for violent crimes, making it "the de facto DNA and genealogy database for all of law enforcement", according to The Atlantic 's Sarah Zhang. [1]

In May 2019, GEDmatch tightened its rules on privacy by requiring users to "opt in" to sharing their data with law enforcement. In December 2019, GEDmatch was acquired by Verogen, Inc., a sequencing company dedicated to forensic science. [2] A new version of the existing site known as GEDmatch Pro, which went live in December 2020, focuses on solving crimes using the more than 1.2 million DNA profiles hosted on GEDMatch's platform. In 2023, GEDmatch was acquired by Qiagen. [3]

History

GEDmatch was founded in 2010 by Curtis Rogers, a retired businessman, and John Olson, a transportation engineer, [4] in Lake Worth, Florida, [5] with its main purpose being to help "amateur and professional researchers and genealogists", including adoptees searching for birth parents. [6] [7]

GEDmatch users may upload their autosomal DNA test data [8] from commercial DNA companies to identify potential relatives who had also uploaded their DNA data. [9] Names of participants may be hidden by the use of aliases, but each account must have an email address attached to it. [10] Users may share the ancestry of each DNA participant by uploading a GEDCOM file containing that person's ancestry, or by linking to the assigned DNA kit number from that person's profile at WikiTree, a free, shared global family tree. Tools available on the GEDmatch site include the ability to sort results by the closest matches to a user's autosomal DNA, determining whether one's matches also match to each other, using a genetic-distance calculator, estimating the number of generations to the most recent common ancestor, determining whether one's parents are related, and using various ethnicity calculators. [10] These tools do not disclose raw genetic data to other users. [11]

Tier 1 premium membership includes triangulation, [12] matching segment search and a custom comparison system. [10] By May 2018, the GEDmatch database had 929,000 genetic profiles, with 7,300 users who paid $10 a month for Tier 1 premium membership, [13] which was used to pay for the $200,000/year server costs. [14] In 2018, the website was still being run by Rogers and Olsen with five volunteers; [15] it had no full-time staff. [14] Rogers said in 2018 that the site had already helped 10,000 adoptees find their biological parents. [15]

Access for law enforcement to the user data was given without informed consent; negative user reactions led to the implementation of an opt-in system for law-enforcement matching. For new uploads, "opt in" is the default selection actively recommended for users, [16] shedding doubt on whether this could be truly "opt-in", which requires action in order to signal one's interest in what is being offered or proposed. Moreover, what is being opted into is not explicitly stated.

In September 2019, the U.S Department of Justice released interim guidelines governing when federal investigators or federally funded investigations [17] could use genetic genealogy to track down suspects in serious crimes. This first-ever policy covering how these databases should be used in law-enforcement attempts to balance public safety and privacy concerns. The policy said that “forensic genetic genealogy” should generally be used only for violent crimes such as murder and rape, as well as to identify human remains. (The policy permitted broader use if the ancestry database's policy allowed such searches.) Investigators should first exhaust traditional crime-solving methods, including searching their own criminal DNA databases.

Under the new policy, investigators could not quietly upload a fake profile to a genealogy website, as some had done in hopes of finding a suspect's distant relatives, without first identifying themselves. And the site itself must have informed its users that law-enforcement agencies may search their data.

The policy also barred federal investigators from using a suspect's DNA profile to look for genes related to disease risks or psychological traits. Another provision attempted to limit situations in which federal investigators secretly take a DNA sample from a suspect's relative—from a discarded cup or tissue, for example—to help hone in on a suspect. The policy said that the person must give their informed consent unless federal investigators have obtained a search warrant. [18] These guidelines applied to federal investigators and federally funded investigations but did not apply to state or local law-enforcement agencies – the vast majority of investigations. [17]

In November 2019, a Florida judge approved a police request for a warrant to search the database of GEDmatch. [19]

As of December 9, 2019, GEDmatch was acquired by Verogen, Inc., a sequencing company solely dedicated to forensic science. For the 1.2 million DNA profiles, a new version of the existing site will focus on solving crimes. How much GEDmatch continues to serve genetic genealogical research has been heavily discussed since then. [20] BuzzFeed News reported that Verogen hopes to monetize the site by charging for access to the database and tools for DNA analysis. [21] Founder Curtis Rogers, in a website statement, announced that "basic tools will remain free", he will remain involved in all aspects of the business, and Verogen will commit to the vision of a consumer genealogy site and take care of infrastructure and security/privacy. At the same time, Rogers claimed that "genealogy has made our communities safer by putting violent criminals behind bars". [22] As of September 2020, there were about 1.45 million users on the site, and by October, the site had led to an estimated 150 arrests in cold cases. [23]

Usage by law enforcement

In December 2018, police forces in the United States said that, with the help of GEDmatch and genetic genealogy, they had been able to find suspects in a total of 28 cold cases of murder and rape that year. [24] [25] Also in December 2018, Family Tree DNA allowed law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, to upload DNA profiles from crime scenes to help solve cold crimes. As of that time, GEDmatch was not the only site that could be used by law enforcement officials to solve crimes using genetic genealogy. [26]

White people are overrepresented on GEDmatch and are believed to be underrepresented in CODIS, the FBI's collection of DNA samples pulled from crime scenes, arrestees, and criminal suspects. Thus, GEDmatch may be especially effective in facilitating the arrests of white suspects who might otherwise have eluded law enforcement. [27] On May 18, 2019, GEDmatch revised its privacy statement to users regarding the collection and use of genetic information, including the circumstances in which it may cooperate with law-enforcement use of its database. As of September 2020, GEDmatch has been credited for helping facilitate nearly 120 cold-case arrests and for helping in 11 "Jane and John Doe" identifications across the United States. [28] [29]

General cases solved or suspects identified using GEDmatch

Parabon Nanolabs

In cooperation with American law enforcement organizations, Parabon NanoLabs started uploading DNA evidence from crime scenes to GEDmatch in an attempt to identify perpetrators. In November 2018, Parabon was reported to be working on 200 such cases. [44] [45] In May 2019, they said they were solving cold cases at the rate of about one per week. [46]

DNA Doe Project

Two genealogical researchers, Dr. Colleen M. Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press, started the DNA Doe Project in 2017 to identify unknown bodies using GEDmatch. They use volunteers to construct the sometimes very large family trees resulting from genetic data, in order to identify missing persons. Their successes include the following:

Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Genetic Genealogy Program

In 2018, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement set up a Genetic Genealogy Program to use GEDmatch to solve cold cases. They reported in 2019 that they had solved four cases. [57] [58] By the end of 2020, the program had led to 10 arrests/identifications and closed several more cases.

Data policy

In April 2018, GEDmatch's privacy statement said that it "exists to provide DNA and genealogy tools for comparison and research purposes". The statement said that this, "by its very nature, requires the sharing of information. Because of that, users participating in this site should expect that their information will be shared with other users". [7]

After the arrest of the suspect in the Golden State Killer Case, co-founder Curtis Rogers said he spent weeks trying to figure out the ethics of the situation and legal options to pursue. He concluded that they did not have the resources to require police to obtain court orders to use the website. [59] Rogers said: "It has always been GEDmatch's policy to inform users that the database could be used for other uses, as set forth in the Site Policy", and that "While the database was created for genealogical research, it is important that GEDmatch participants understand the possible uses of their DNA, including identification of relatives that have committed crimes or were victims of crimes." [60] In late May 2018, GEDmatch updated its policy to say law enforcement could use the database to identify perpetrators of a "violent crime", meaning "homicide or sexual assault", or to identify the remains of a deceased individual. [61] The number of people uploading their DNA increased from 1,500 per day to 5,000 per day after the DeAngelo case went public. By November 2018, there were 1.2 million GEDmatch website users. [15]

In May 2019, GEDmatch was used to help with the arrest of a teenager who was charged with violent assault. This was the first and so far the last time GEDmatch had been used by Law Enforcement (and Parabon) for a case that did not involve homicide, rape, or kidnapping. [62]

Civil libertarians have said the use of websites such as GEDmatch by law enforcement raises legal and privacy concerns. [63] [64] [65] Professor Rori Rohlfs at San Francisco State University noted that, whereas California police had to get a judge's permission to search the CODIS police criminal database for a murder suspect's brother, they had no limitations when uploading a murder suspect's autosomal DNA to GEDmatch to identify relatives. [4] In 2019, Charles E. Sydnor III, a Maryland delegate, sought a bill to prohibit law enforcement from using DNA databases for crime solving, [66] but the bill was not passed. [67] A state representative in Utah introduced a similar bill that would ban genetic genealogy searches by police. [68]

Opt-in policy

In May 2019, GEDmatch began requiring people who had uploaded their DNA to its site to opt in to allow law-enforcement agencies to access their information. This change in privacy policy was expected to limit law enforcement agencies' abilities to identify suspects using genetic genealogy. [69] By May 2020, about 260,000 GEDmatch users had opted in. [70] [71]

Despite GEDmatch's opt-in policy, in fall 2019, it was served with a warrant by law enforcement in Florida, demanding access to all of its DNA profiles, including those of the vast majority of users who had not opted in to allow law-enforcement access (at that time, approximately 185,000 of 1.3 million users had opted in). [72] GEDmatch complied with this warrant. [72] [73]

See also

Related Research Articles

A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or retained material evidence, or fresh activities of a suspect. New technological methods developed after the crime was committed can be used on the surviving evidence for analysis often with conclusive results.

Genetic genealogy is the use of genealogical DNA tests, i.e., DNA profiling and DNA testing, in combination with traditional genealogical methods, to infer genetic relationships between individuals. This application of genetics came to be used by family historians in the 21st century, as DNA tests became affordable. The tests have been promoted by amateur groups, such as surname study groups or regional genealogical groups, as well as research projects such as the Genographic Project.

FamilyTreeDNA Commercial genetic testing company

FamilyTreeDNA is a division of Gene by Gene, a commercial genetic testing company based in Houston, Texas. FamilyTreeDNA offers analysis of autosomal DNA, Y-DNA, and mitochondrial DNA to individuals for genealogical purpose. With a database of more than two million records, it is the most popular company worldwide for Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA, and the fourth most popular for autosomal DNA. In Europe, it is the most common also for autosomal DNA. FamilyTreeDNA as a division of Gene by Gene were acquired by MYDNA, Inc., an Australian company, in January 2021.

MyHeritage is an online genealogy platform with web, mobile, and software products and services, introduced by the Israeli company MyHeritage in 2003. Users of the platform can obtain their family trees, upload and browse through photos, and search through over 19.9 billion historical records, among other features.

Colleen M. Fitzpatrick is an American forensic scientist, genealogist and entrepreneur. She helped identify remains found at the crash site of Northwest Flight 4422, that crashed in Alaska in 1948, and co-founded the DNA Doe Project which identifies previously unidentified bodies and runs Identifinders International, an investigative genetic genealogy consulting firm which helps identify victims and perpetrators of violent crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Marcia King</span> Formerly unidentified murder victim from Arkansas, United States

Marcia Lenore Sossoman King was a 21-year-old Arkansas woman who was murdered in April 1981 and whose body was discovered in Troy, Ohio approximately 48 hours after her murder. Her body remained unidentified for almost 37 years before being identified via DNA analysis and genetic genealogy in April 2018. King was one of the first unidentified decedents to be identified via this method of forensic investigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DNA phenotyping</span> DNA profiling technique

DNA phenotyping is the process of predicting an organism's phenotype using only genetic information collected from genotyping or DNA sequencing. This term, also known as molecular photofitting, is primarily used to refer to the prediction of a person's physical appearance and/or biogeographic ancestry for forensic purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CeCe Moore</span> American genetic genealogist (born 1969)

CeCe Moore is an American genetic genealogist who has been described as the country's foremost such entrepreneur. She has appeared on many TV shows and worked as a genetic genealogy researcher for others such as Finding Your Roots. She has reportedly helped law enforcement agencies in identifying suspects in over 300 cold cases using DNA and genetic genealogy. In May 2020, she began appearing in a prime time ABC television series called The Genetic Detective in which each episode recounts a cold case she helped solve. In addition to her television work, she is known for pioneering the genetic genealogy methodologies used by adoptees and others of unknown origin for identifying biological family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Investigative genetic genealogy</span> Application of genealogy in a legal setting

Investigative genetic genealogy, also known as forensic genetic genealogy, is the emerging practice of utilizing genetic information from direct-to-consumer companies for identifying suspects or victims in criminal cases. As of December 2023, the use of this technology has solved a total of 651 criminal cases, including 318 individual perpetrators who were brought to light. There have also been 464 decedents identified, as well as 4 living Does. The investigative power of genetic genealogy revolves around the use of publicly accessible genealogy databases such as GEDMatch and Family TreeDNA. On GEDMatch, users are able to upload their genetic data from any direct-to-consumer company in an effort to identify relatives that have tested at companies other than their own.

Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. is an American company based in Reston, Virginia, that develops nanopharmaceuticals and provides DNA phenotyping services for law enforcement organizations.

Jay Roland Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg were a Canadian couple from Saanich, British Columbia who were murdered while on a trip to Seattle, Washington in November 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of April Tinsley</span> 1988 kidnapping and murder in Indiana

April Marie Tinsley was an eight-year-old girl from Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States, who was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in 1988. Her killer left several anonymous messages and notes in the Fort Wayne area between 1990 and 2004, openly boasting about April's murder and threatening to kill again.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DNA Doe Project</span> American nonprofit volunteer organization

DNA Doe Project is an American nonprofit volunteer organization formed to identify unidentified deceased persons using forensic genealogy. Volunteers identify victims of automobile accidents, homicide, and unusual circumstances and persons who committed suicide under an alias. The group was founded in 2017 by Colleen M. Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press.

Barbara Rae-Venter is a New Zealand-born American genetic genealogist, biologist, and retired patent attorney best known for her work helping police and investigators identify Joseph James DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer. Born in New Zealand, she earned a doctorate at the University of California at San Diego and later completed law school at the University of Texas at Austin. After retirement from her law career, Rae-Venter started researching her family history as a hobby in an attempt to help a family member find his biological family. As part of this work, she was asked to help identify a woman who had been abducted as a child. Her efforts in this case eventually identified Terry Peder Rasmussen as the suspect in the Bear Brook murders in New Hampshire. In 2019 she was included in the Time 100 list of most influential people and in 2018 was recognized in Nature's 10, a list of "people who mattered" in science by the journal Nature. Barbara authored the book I Know Who You Are: How an amatueur DNA sleuth unmasked the Golden State Killer and changed crime fighting forever in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Mary Silvani</span> American murder case

Mary Edith Silvani, known as "Sheep's Flat Jane Doe" and "Washoe County Jane Doe" while unidentified, was an American woman found shot to death near Lake Tahoe in Washoe County, Nevada in July 1982. She was unidentified for 37 years, the investigation becoming a cold case. The Washoe County Sheriff's Office announced her identity on May 7, 2019. Silvani was identified through DNA analysis and genetic genealogy with assistance from the DNA Doe Project and utilizing the public genealogy database GEDmatch.

The rape and murder of Angie Dodge occurred in Idaho Falls, Idaho on June 13, 1996. The true perpetrator was apprehended in May 2019, nearly 23 years after the crime was committed.

Steven Alexander "Stevie" Crawford was a formerly unidentified toddler whose body was found in a reservoir in Ashland, Oregon, on July 11, 1963. He was identified in 2021 using GEDmatch.

Othram is an American corporation specializing in forensic genetic genealogy to resolve unsolved murders, disappearances, and identification of unidentified decedents or murder victims. The company offers law enforcement agencies tools and programs to infer kinship among individuals, closely and distantly related, through a combination of short tandem repeat and single nucleotide polymorphism testing, as well as forensic genome sequencing of DNA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Shirley Soosay</span> Formerly unidentified decedent (1945-1980)

Shirley Ann Soosay, formerly known as Kern County Jane Doe, is a formerly unidentified decedent found in an almond orchard in Delano, California on 14 July 1980. A member of the Samson Cree Nation, Soosay grew up in Hobbema, in Alberta. For most of her adult life, Soosay lived in Edmonton and then later Vancouver, though she remained in regular contact with her family until 1979, when cards from her stopped coming.

Curtis C. Rogers Jr. is an American genetic genealogist, digital forensics specialist, and executive known for established GEDmatch, a genetic genealogy website.

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