Coast To Coast Genetic Genealogy Services, LLC

How to Become an Investigative Genetic Genealogist

Posted 2 years ago by CCGG Admin

 

 

Investigative genetic genealogy has been gaining increasing media attention, becoming well-known in both the true crime and genealogy communities. Those who have heard about identifications and arrests resulting from leads provided by IGG providers may wonder: what does it take to become an investigative genetic genealogist (IGG)? Most current IGG practitioners entered the field after years of experience with genetic genealogy—solving their own DNA mysteries and helping others.

While each IGG practitioner may use slightly different techniques for human identification, our team has identified a set of core skills that are crucial for any IGG case.

The following list of educational resources highlights the key skills we believe are essential and offers guidance for new IGG practitioners to build their knowledge. This is not an exhaustive guide but rather a starting point. Investigative genetic genealogy is a complex field, and this information merely scratches the surface.

 

If you have no experience and are brand new to genealogy, start by building your own family tree and taking an AncestryDNA test. Strong research skills are crucial, as much of the work involves tree building and evaluating genetic matches and their relationships. Being able to create accurate, well-sourced family trees and estimate relationships based on shared DNA is extremely important.

For novice and intermediate researchers, these three books are excellent resources for understanding and working with DNA:

Once you receive your AncestryDNA results, start working with your matches. Who are they? If you don’t know, how can you identify them? How are you related, and who are your most recent common ancestors (MRCAs)?

Though Ancestry now sorts parental sides automatically, we still recommend manually sorting your matches using the Leeds method to better understand the basics of parental sorting and create genetic clusters. While the auto-sorting feature can be helpful, its accuracy isn’t always guaranteed, and as an IGG practitioner, you’ll need to rely on manual sorting and segment evaluation.

One of the most important aspects of being an IGG practitioner is the ability to identify genetic matches and build family trees—even when a match doesn’t have one attached to their profile. The following two videos are excellent resources for developing these skills:

If you’re serious about pursuing a career in investigative genetic genealogy, it’s crucial to build a solid research foundation and learn to perform genetic genealogy accurately. Even a single error can lead to wasted hours of research and may prevent you from ever identifying the individual or perpetrator you’re seeking.

 

If you have some experience doing genealogy and feel comfortable working with DNA:

Only GEDmatchPro and FamilyTreeDNA allow law enforcement to upload DNA data from unidentified human remains (John and Jane Does) and crime scenes.

To familiarize yourself with the tools available to IGG practitioners, you should upload your own kit to the consumer versions of these databases—GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA. Combined, these two platforms have approximately 3 million testers, compared to Ancestry’s over 20 million. As a result, IGG practitioners often work with fewer and more distant matches than genealogists using larger databases. Additionally, while DNA from unidentified human remains is matched against all publicly available kits (similar to your own results), crime scene DNA is only matched to individuals who have opted in for law enforcement matching. This significantly reduces the pool of matches, and often the closest match for a suspect kit is in the 3rd to 4th cousin range or even more distant.

 

Suggested Tools & Subscriptions:

 

Basic Skills:
  • Identify matches and construct family trees of genetic matches using only GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA.
  • Use DNA evaluation tools at GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA effectively (a Tier 1 subscription at GEDmatch is highly recommended). Commonly used tools for IGG practitioners include the 1:many tool, 1:1 tools, User Lookup, People who match both of 1 or 2 kits, Admixture/Population tools, Multiple Kit Analysis, Triangulation, and Segment Search.
  • Estimate relationships using centimorgans (cMs) shared between DNA matches
  • Sort and evaluate matches using Chromosome Maps on DNAPainter.
  • Understand autosomal DNA, X-DNA, Y-DNA, and mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA), including the strengths and limitations of each. You can refer to our previous post for more information on this topic.
  • Recognize how endogamy presents in DNA matches (e.g., segment size and clusters) and how it impacts your research and relationship evaluation.

 

Education

 

IGG Certificate Programs and Certification

Check back for future posts as we dive deeper into specific topics. If there’s a particular topic you’d like us to cover, please let us know!

 

  • (Last updated 9/28/2024)