Starting the Journey with Artifact DNA

by Michelle Cohen

My fascination with DNA began when I took my first DNA test as a participant in the National Geographic Human Genome Project in 2005, learning about my deep ancestry. When consumer tests to help locate family became widely available, I took those, too. 

Soon, news outlets began to report on using artifacts to retrieve the DNA of people who were long since deceased, I was immediately curious. Initial pricing was very high – close to $1,000, and there were no guarantees that items would produce the desired results. (There still aren’t.) All the companies were also located outside the US, so it also meant paying for international shipping.

But, as I wrote in an earlier eNews, there are now some US-based companies offering an artifact DNA service and prices have come down slightly. I decided that perhaps trying out one of them would be my genealogy gift to myself for 2021.

My first step was to find an artifact to use. The most commonly submitted artifact is a stamped envelope, hopefully licked by the person who sent the letter. I don’t have any of those, but I do have postcards from family and friends all over the world. I have collected and saved them since I was a little girl. Now, to find one from my grandparents….

I had a particular postcard in mind. I can still picture it – it was an unusual size – a postcard with a drawing of little girls in hula skirts, that my grandmother had sent me from Hawaii. My parents always loved that one, particularly because my grandmother addressed the card to me at my home “in the USA”. Hawaii felt so exotic to her, it couldn’t possibly be part of America.

So I searched. And searched. The problem was, its odd size meant it was not in my scrapbooks that tidily held the standard-sized cards. Eventually I had to give up, because I had obviously put it in such a safe place, I had hidden it from myself!

Recently, though, I found another one from a time when she and my grandfather visited Florida. So I took a picture of it, as required by the testing company, and sent off an inquiry.

Within 24 hours, they had responded to me and explained a few things about the process. First, I should only be handling the artifact with gloves, so I don’t leave my own DNA on it. (Oops! Well, I can do that from now on.) Second, the conditions in which the item was stored – levels of humidity, etc. – can have a serious impact on the quality of available DNA. This was not great news for me. These postcard albums have traveled with me to residences in two different countries and five states so far.

The third part (also explained on their website) was that, due to the pandemic, the partner labs who can support artifact testing are currently not able to provide timing or pricing for the sequencing work. So while I can submit my item now, and pay for the initial determination of whether it has enough DNA, there is no time frame yet for the second step. As a result, I have decided to wait to get started. I’ll keep you posted.