From Dr. Kemi Price

People have asked how I got started doing genetic genealogy. I taught myself in 2012 when I decided to try to identify the father of an illegitimate person in my family tree who was born in 1871. (I was able to narrow down the list of potential fathers to two brothers in a local family.)

Once I experienced the rush that came with solving these puzzles, I was hooked. I spent the next several years helping friends and neighbors who were looking to fill gaps in their respective family trees.

During the summer of 2019, a family friend asked me to help him identify his paternal grandfather. He uploaded his DNA profile from 23 and Me to GEDMATCH to increase the number of genetic matches to facilitate the search. Because my email address was listed as a contact for the profile on GEDMATCH, I was contacted by an investigator in New Mexico. Our family friend was a distant cousin match to an unknown perpetrator in a NM cold case. The family friend was open to help, and spoke with the investigator. I responded to the initial email, then received a telephone call during which I was asked a LOT of questions about my experience with genetic genealogy. The next thing I knew, I was working on a cold case!

Three months later a suspect was identified. Investigators followed the suspect and retrieved a discarded coffee cup. That DNA was sent to the lab for comparison to the unknown perpetrator. The day after Christmas 2019 I received a text "Merry Christmas, we have a match!" I had the privilege of helping to solve the first cold case using genetic genealogy in the state of New Mexico.

I am not able to discuss any open cases I may be working on with law enforcement.

That is my genetic genealogy profile in a nutshell. I've been doing these searches for 10 years, having helped well over a hundred individuals. I learn something new with every search I make.

Thank you!