I have gotten several questions regarding the DNA project and personal
implications so I am going to answer these questions here for everyone to
see and hopefully clear this up with one message.
First of all the DNA being studied is NOT all the DNA in a person's makeup.
They are ONLY focusing on the DNA that reflects information passed from
generation to generation that allows them to identify the markers passed
from parent to child. The objective is to identify the specific DNA
markers that are from a given individual in a family tree and which can be
used to identify that individual as an ancestor of another. They are NOT
studying DNA information related to disease, tendency toward disease and
the like.
Security: A lot of people are concerned as to how these samples will be
handled. The samples are coded so that no one other than the person
running the project can even associate a given sample with a contributor.
The data that ends up in their data base will be related to the code. It
will only contain the relevant DNA information. The rest never enters the
picture. There is a limited sample being taken and extraction must be done
within two weeks. So the samples are in no danger of being shared anywhere.
Furthermore, the agreement you will sign when you contribute will clearly
state that the project will not provide either the samples or DNA analysis
to ANYONE including Insurance Companies, Government Agencies or any other
entity or individual without the express written permission of the subject.
If they ever did, the LDS Church has VERY deep pockets and they would be a
target. I think we can rely on them not allowing any information to get
out that is sensitive.
Who owns the information? Clearly the DNA research will belong to the
project, but it would not have anything that would connect it to living
persons. The results will also be provided to the participants. I do not
know the exact form this will take at this juncture. Again in the main
project, to which I encourage everyone to contribute in addition to the
Wells project, the results will not be available for about 6 years. In the
Wells project we hope to have results much sooner although this too will
take time. It would appear that in some way they will make the DNA
analysis for deceased persons available for research purposes. It is not
clear to me just yet how this will work. There are some issues I am still
planning to clarify with the project on this issue.
Information, the database, DNA samples and analysis will NOT be sold to any
institution, insurance company or any other entity.
If you are planning to participate and encourage some of your relatives to
participate, please do NOT do so without coordinating with me if you want
to be in the Wells special study.
You will need to take with you two copies of the 4 generation chart as
shown on the Molecular Genealogy site. This is NOT all that we will need
for the study. I will be asking each participant for a full current GEDCOM
file or worst case family group sheets so we can chart as many of the
families as possible and provide the pedigree trees for them to work with.
I will also be asking everyone for mailing addresses so I can better
coordinate the participation at the collections. I will also be looking
for volunteers in the various areas to help set up the collections and
contact other researchers in their areas.
I am not certain of this next one yet, but I may ask those of you who are
willing to do so, to contact Wells in your area to try to hunt down as many
others we can interest in this project as we can find. The greater the
database we achieve, the closer to success we will come.
What the Wells Family Research Association, which is YOU even if you are
not a member, hopes to achieve with this project is a broad Wells DNA
mapping that can be used to assist current researchers as well as those to
come later in finding where their Wells belong in this complex Wells
research. There will still be "orphans" when we get as far as we can go.
Some surprises will certainly be encountered such as families we never
dreamed were related will be found to be so, some we were sure were related
will be found not to be so, some connections to England will be found. some
will be disproven, and in some cases researchers will find their ancestor
was not connected either to the family they thougth or even to a Wells at
all. We do not know at this starting point where it will all lead. We are
going where no researcher has gone before. Get on the train. It should be
a fun ride.
If there are any other major questions, please pose them to me.
Orin R. Wells
Wells Family Research Association
P. O. Box 5427
Kent, Washington 98064-5427
<ORWells(a)bigfoot.com>
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wellsfam/wfrahome.html
Subscribe to the "Wells-L" list on RootsWeb