Speaker: Bradley Marchant
This lecture will discuss the evolution of genealogy as a past time into the powerful tool it is today in law enforcement. Bradley will examine the early history of genetic genealogy and discuss some of the earliest cases, as well as showing an example of a case in Indiana which led to a conviction. He will also discuss the processes behind forensic investigative genetic genealogy, as well as the future for this scientific advancement.
About the Speaker: Bradley Marchant is a Forensic Scientist for Indiana State Police. He graduated with a degree in Family History-Genealogy from Brigham Young University. Bradley worked as a Scandinavian research consultant at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and was a metadata specialist for FamilySearch where he was in charge of organizing genealogical data for online publications of images. He was a cataloguer for the Family History Library Catalog in charge of multiple languages and worked as a genealogist researcher at Ancestry ProGenealogists.
Program: Live and Zoom: Introduction to Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy
Speakers: Bradley Marchant, Forensic Scientist, Indiana State Police
Introduced By: Karen Bumb
Attendance: NESC: 96; Zoom: 43
Guest(s): James Brown, Yana Bzenko, Dennis Lawton, Mary Pitts, Pam and Ron Smith
Scribe: Alan Schmidt
Editor: Carl Warner
View a Zoom recording of this talk at:
Today's Program 02132025
Speaker Bradley Marchant is a Forensic Scientist who started in July of 2024 for the Indiana State Police. He graduated with a Family History and Genealogy degree from Brigham Young University. Bradley worked as a Scandinavian research consultant at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and as a metadata specialist for FamilySearch, where he organized genealogical data for online image publications. He was a cataloguer for the Family History Library Catalog in charge of multiple languages and worked as a genealogist researcher at Ancestry ProGenealogists. His genealogy interest began at age sixteen thinking about developing a family tree from old documents found at a flea market.
His lecture discussed the evolution of genealogy from a pastime into the powerful tool it is today in law enforcement. Bradley examined the early history of genetic genealogy, discussed some of the earliest cases, and showed an example of a case in Indiana that led to a conviction. He discussed the processes behind forensic investigative genetic genealogy and the future of this scientific advancement.
Genealogy is the making of a pedigree with tracing of descent from a common ancestor. Early genealogy was used to trace biblical or royal lineage. The largest genealogy was kept for the Chinese philosopher Confucius and contains over 2 million of his descendants dating back 2,500 years. Colonial families kept names in bibles and sampler lists. The Genealogical Society of Utah was established in 1894 and led to the Family History Library. The movie Roots created interest from 1976 to 1977. In 2007, on-line genealogies with DNA kits were developed. DNA testing began in the 1980’s with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-DNA testing. This was very limited in its usage in crime solving, although it did provide some leads. In the early 2000’s, consumer based genealogy tests were released. New companies are still emerging but there are only a handful which provide DNA matches (meaning they give you potential relatives based on your DNA.) In 2012, AncestryDNA kits were released. In 2017, people began looking at DNA for their health as companies began sorting out which characteristics were most common for people’s potential health risks; that started with 23 and Me.
Forensic science is the application of science to those criminal and civil laws that are enforced by police agencies in a criminal justice system. In 2018, the Golden State Killer was determined through FIGG (Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy) to be a former police officer. Touch DNA that is left behind at the crime scene can solve crimes. Serology is the identification of the type of liquid such as blood, semen, or saliva. Swabs can be used to extract DNA that can be copied for further investigation. Short Transfer Repeats (STR) can be uploaded to the database to search for DNA profile matches. CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) provides more leads than FIGG. People with missing relatives should get their DNA into CODIS to help with identifications. SNP is a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism genetic variation that helps DNA identification and can relate to health aspects. Closeness of relationships or genetic linkage can be measured by the amount of shared DNA in centimorgans (cM). When building family trees, investigators choose the closest relatives who are connected to each other and the person of interest (either a John Doe or a criminal suspect) and look for ways they are related to each other, then trace those shared common ancestors down to the present.
There are cases to be solved through genealogy that are 50, to 60, to 70 years old. In the country, 2,000 cases have been solved in the last 6 to 8 years. There are 2,000 unsolved cases countrywide that could have leads from DNA matches. People opting in with DNA matches for law enforcement use would help. 367 unidentified remains have been solved with DNA matches as of February 2024. Over 650 cold cases have been solved with DNA as of December 2023. The murder of April Tinsley, age 8, on April 8, 1988, in Fort Wayne, Indiana was solved using DNA and genealogy information culminating in the arrest of John D. Miller on July 15, 2018.
Bradley Marchant
A starting point for further learning :More reading on 23 and me
