Background:
After lo, these many decades, the U.S. Army believes they have located the wreckage of the airplane that was shot down with seven crew members, including my father, aboard.
They are using DNA testing to identify the remains they found.
Now: The Army says that the test won’t work with a sample of my DNA, or my first cousin’s, who is also a male. They say they need a female relative. The only living female relative is a second cousin who has been out of touch for many years and has not been located to-date, so the identification process is at a standstill.
My question: WHAT? I thought paternity could be established with DNA testing. Why won’t a sample from me or my male cousin suffice? Why must a female relative be the source for comparison?
They could be looking for mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from the mother rather than the father. So yours or your first cousin’s wouldn’t be the same as your father’s, since you came from a different maternal line from him.
They are using a mtDNA Test, tracking mitochondrial DNA, which is only passed through the mother to the child. I am baffled as to why they are only doing one type of test.
Any other descendant of your father’s mother will have the same mitochondria as your father.
So, his sisters, and all their children (male and female) will have the same genetic markers.
His MtDNA is also identical to his mother’s siblings, and the descendants of the females among them.
Great Aunt Louise’s daughter’s son has identical MtDNA to your father.
Another example: My MtDNA is identical to that of my four sisters, and all my nieces and nephews, and my grandnieces and grandnephews, other than my Brother’s kids, who have their mother’s MtDNA, and my nephew’s kid, who has his mom’s.
So, look around. The fact is, it’s the same MtDNA as your Great Grandmother, too.
I wasn’t able to find a cite when I posted the first time (which I based off of readings on mtDNA testing on very old bones but never of YDNA testing of very old bones). But I did some more digging and I found this:
If it’s important to you, I’d suggest finding a Genealogist to trace back your maternal ancestor line and then work forward to find living relatives. My mother is one who does DNA testing of veeery distantly related cousins in order to prove bloodlines.
What I don’t understand is why they can’t use **JC’**s DNA for a match. His DNA is 50% the same as his father’s. Wouldn’t that be enough to show at least that the recovered individual is a close relative to **JC? **
I think they are being ridiculously super cautious. After all, the wreckage, the tail number of the plane, the serial numbers of parts such as engines should identify the plane. Somewhere there will be a record as to who was on board and the DNA identity of some should establish the identity of all.
After 60+ years (I assume in a warm climate?) the DNA is likely to be very degraded. As kimera mentioned, mtDNA, in part because there are many copies per cell, is more likely to be analyzable from degraded samples than nuclear DNA. His mtDNA comes only from his mother; he has none from his father. There may not be enough nuclear DNA, which he gets 50% from his father, for analysis.
More on relative degradation of mtDNA and nuclear DNA here.
Thank you kimera! That solves the mystery of why they need to use the mtDNA method. Bones that have been on a jungle mountainside for 60+ years would certainly be degraded material.
The Army has a genealogy service on retainer. That’s how they found me (no easy task) and they are the ones that have identified my second cousin as the only possible surviving donor to use for verification.
The only thing they have found that’s identifiable is the tail gunner’s dog-tags. They do have a list of who was on the plane, but they want to identify the different lots of remains so each family can get the proper one.
I don’t know why serial numbers of engines, etc. aren’t available. This wreckage is on a mountainside, in a very remote and inaccessible area of New Guinea. Maybe logistics has something to do with it.
Maybe I’m just a cold-hearted sonofabitch, but I’ve spent my entire life knowing that my father’s remains were lost somewhere in New Guinea. I really don’t see the need to expend all this effort and expense 63 years later.
If my grandparents were still alive it would have been very important to them. For my part, I’m thinkin’ the Army should have just let old bones rest.
A brother should work perfectly well, too. For mtDNA testing, you don’t actually need a female for the comparison sample; you just need someone who’s related through the female line. So: Your father and your uncle both got their mtDNA from their mother, so both should have the same mtDNA.
