I4GG Conference

I attended the I4GG Conference last weekend and it was great! As an investigative genetic genealogist, it’s nice to hear the success stories of others and also their struggles, which I experience as well. Some of my takeaways from the conference:

1. Kintelligence is not worth it for cold cases. Qiagen is actively pursuing sales to law enforcement agencies across the country. Having worked on Kintelligence cases myself and hearing the presentation from a law enforcement agency that does its own IGG, Kintelligence is not worth it. Success rates are very low because it is only good at finding second cousin or closer matches. We don’t get those kind of close matches often in IGG. We’re working with more distant matches and we need to know they are legit. The “All Matches” showing up on GEDmatch for Kintelligence cold cases are not legitimate. The presenter in this session showed 65% of “all matches” were false matches using a Kintelligence kit. What a huge waste of time. Law enforcement, don’t buy this system, it’s not helpful for your cold cases. Stick to whole genome sequencing. I know it’s pricier but we know it works for IGG.
2. Loved Dana Leeds’ discussion on “His, Hers & Theirs.” She showed three case studies I found very interesting and can’t wait to see if she presents again on her conclusions once she’s finished.
3. Barbara Rae Venter presented several IGG cases that used an algorithm designed by Dr. Lawrence Wein at Stamford University. She wasn’t able to provide much information on the algorithm, seems they provided information to Dr. Wein and after he did his algorithm he provided them with the next match for tree building. They continued this process until MRCA couples were found and then continued the IGG process. Dr. Wein, will you share this algorithm for use with all the IGG community?
4. So many presentations on IGG leads that resolved cold cases or unidentified human remains. It brings me peace to see people regain their names or justice being served for lives ended to early. I hope it brings some measure of peace to the families whose loved one’s case was resolved through IGG and presented at the conference this year.