About Us

DNA Attorney ServicesSince 2007, DNA Attorney Services has been providing service of process to Philadelphia and surrounding areas along with customers throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware with fast, affordable and reliable legal support services. Well known and highly respected in the industry thousands of customers know they can rely on DNA’s proven track record of reliable service and professional expertise.

We care about your business reputationWe understand the impact our services can have on your business, your clients  and your practice.  DNA Attorney Services hires only professional, reliable personnel who are highly trained in both the laws and practices as well as proper etiquette and professional service techniques. Everything we do for your business must meet the highest standards and be done right!

DNA Attorney Services Beginnings
DNA Attorney Services was established by Robert Wagner in 2007. Robert, a United States Marine Corps and Iraq Enduring Freedom Veteran, and an Elected State Constable of Pennsylvania, has comprised a system to provide and expedite your legal services across our great country.

While on duty and during his tenure of being an elected official, Robert has surrounded himself with great people of the same caliber, and in turn with great resources. He felt these same resources would be beneficial for the immediate public, and also attorneys, to comprise what is now known today as DNA Attorney Services.

New 23andMe Ancestry Painting

If you have tested with 23andMe, this is something you have to explore! As DNA testing outgrows its infancy, we are learning so much more about our origins. One of my favorite bloggers tells the story of the latest advances best: http://www.legalgenealogist.com/ under the heading "Admixture Advances."

It' isn't too late to order your own tests to see what you can discover.

Good news from FTDNA....

f you have tested with a different DNA company, you very likely now have the opportunity to transfer your results to Family Tree DNA at little or no cost, depending on the company you tested with initially.

Why would you want to do that?

Because FTDNA has the largest database, is highly regarded in the field, is entirely dedicated to genetic genealogy and offers an ever-increasing array of testing opportunities to learn more about your own genetic makeup and to increase the opportunities to extend your genealogy. In addition, a huge number of surname, geographic and haplogroup projects are actively managed at FTDNA, and you will have the opportunity to participate in those.

Breakthrough in DNA Studies

The New York Times' lead story today is about the incredible advances just announced in the study of human disease and traits. The story can be found here. Another excellent story is in Discover magazine. The discovery of "switches" in what was once considered "junk DNA" that control how cells, organs and other tissues behave may finally lead to understanding the complexities of cancer, depression, high blood pressure and many other health issues that are difficult to predict and treat.

Oetzi the Iceman's nuclear genome gives new insights

New clues have emerged in what could be described as the world's oldest murder case: that of Oetzi the "Iceman", whose 5,300-year-old body was discovered frozen in the Italian Alps in 1991. See theBBC news article.

The research team gathered information about Ötzi’s ancestry.His Y chromosome possesses mutations most commonly found among men from Sardinia and Corsica, and his nuclear genome puts his closest present-day relatives in the same area. Perhaps Ötzi’s kind once lived across Europe, before dying out or interbreeding with other groups everywhere except on those islands. 

The full article published in Nature.com can be purchased here.

Scotland's DNA: Who do you think you are? - Part 4

The Scotman newpaper continue their series of articles based on Alastair Moffat's radio programme, The Scots: A Genetic Journey.

The latest article can be found here Scotland's DNA: Who do you think you are? - Part 4 

Here is a snapshot of particular interest to me personally. It concerns the MacLeods and a new marker called S68 (also known as L165). This was discovered by Dr Jim Wilson and is bringing fresh insight into the origins of Clan MacLeod.

Clan MacLeod is a fascinating case study. From a sample of the DNA of 45 Macleod Y chromosomes almost half, 47 per cent, clearly show social selection at work in that they descend from one individual. If this statistic is projected amongst the total number of MacLeods, it means that almost 10,000 men alive today are descended from this man. Among the remaining 53 per cent, researchers have found only nine other lineages present, showing that MacLeod men married women who were unfailingly faithful to them.

Nevertheless, the MacLeods do not carry the M17 marker group. Theirs is a recently discovered sub-group labelled S68. It is found in Lewis, Harris and Skye, core Macleod territory, but also in Orkney, Shetland and Norway, with a few examples in Sweden. Despite extensive screening, S68 is very specifically located, showing up only once in the east of Scotland and once in England. This is a classic pattern for a Viking marker in Britain, but one much rarer than M17. MacLeods determinedly claim descent from a common name father, a Norse aristocrat called Ljot, a relative of Olaf, King of Man. They are probably right to continue to claim that – science for once supporting tradition.

Follow this link for analysis of the results from the MacLeod DNA Project and other pages which highlight the deep ancestral relationship to several other surnames.

A new project specifically looking at S68/L165 can be found at R-L165 (S68) Project This marker has also been found in a group of MacDonalds from the Northern Highlands and a group of Bealls (Bells) from Fife. Testing is currently being carried out on a Buie from Jura and a MacNeil.

The MacNeil's of Barra (Group b. orange coloured ) are genetically related by STR matches with the group of MacDonald's mentioned above and who are positive for this marker. Testing is required to confim that these MacNeils also carry this marker, but STR results do suggest that they will also be positive.

Family Tree DNA announce launch of new Y-DNA 111 marker test

This test is primarily for those who have close matches at 67 markers and are seeking to tighten the calculation to Most Recent Common Ancestor by testing an additional 44 markers.

The new test is available as an upgrade for customers with existing Y-DNA67 results and also as a standalone test for individuals looking to prove a close relationship on the direct paternal line: 
Y Refine 67 to 111 (Upgrade)    $101
Y-DNA111    $339

Order via your Family Tree DNA homepage > Order Test & Upgrades > Order Standard Tests or if you are a new customer via this link order FTDNA test

The additional markers being tested are listed on this page - Family Tree DNA STR markers 

The Gene Code - new series from the BBC

A new series is currently showing on BBC 4 on Monday evenings (also available on BBC iPlayer, but not accessible outside the UK).

Programme 1 - The Book of Life
Dr Adam Rutherford takes the viewer on a rollercoaster ride as he explores the consequences of one of the biggest scientific projects of all time - the decoding of the entire human genome in 2000. Adam discovers that every human carries the entire story of life on earth hidden in his or her DNA and sees how we are all linked directly to the origins of life and to the first creatures with backbones. He also investigates the implications of the fact that for much of its existence, the human race was an endangered species.

Programme 2 - Unlocking the Code
How we are coming to understand the very process by which our DNA makes each of us unique.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010j64w 

SNPs - the latest results: St Clair DNA Study

Many folk are well aware of how 37 or 67 Y-DNA marker tests can be used to identify matches within a genealogical time frame, but there is an increasing and welcome interest in 'deep ancestry'.

The history of the human Y-DNA tree is defined at each branch by an SNP (a single-nucleotide polymorphism), a change to a single nucleotide in a DNA sequence. These events are rare but when they do happen, every descendant of the individual in which the event occurred will carry the mutation to the next generation.

Steve St Clair has posted a very helpful video of recent developments in his project which can be viewed here St. Clair DNA Study

I would also recommend a visit to the St. Clair DNA Study website where there are interviews with Bennett Greenspan, Terry Barton and  Richard White

DNA reveals body parts from South Uist mummies belonged to different individuals

DNA tests on British prehistoric mummies revealed they were made of body parts from several different people, arranged to look like one person. The four bodies discovered in 2001 at Cladh Hallan, South Uist, in Scotland's Outer Hebrides were the first evidence in Britain of deliberate mummification.

Archaeologists found the mummies in the foundations of a row of unusual Bronze Age terraced roundhouses. But after being radiocarbon dated, all were found to have died between 300 and 500 years before the houses were built, meaning they had been kept above ground for some time by their descendants.

The results of the DNA work on the Cladh Hallan mummies will feature on the latest series of Digging For Britain on BBC Two in September.

Digging for Britain - Cladh Hallan ancient DNA evidence

Dr Alice Roberts travels back to the Ages of Bronze and Iron where she examines the two Hebridean Bronze Age skeletons known as the Cladh Hallan mummies. Not only do they appear to have been mummified, new analysis has revealed they are made up of a jigsaw of different people. 

Analysis reveals that the two mummies are made up of three people belonging to mitochondrial haplogroups U or U5, T1 (not U, U5) and H (not U, U5 or T1). 

A short video is available on YouTube Cracking the puzzle of the Cladh Hallan Bodies. The full programme can be viewed on BBC iPlayer at Digging for Britain - Series 2 - 3. Age of Bronze and Iron. 

 

It can also be downloaded to your computer to view (which will expires after 30 days). I am not sure if either of these features are available outside the United Kingdom.

 

The Scottish DNA Project mtDNA results for members can be viewed here

DNA and Social Networking: A Guide to Genealogy in the Twenty-First Century

Debbie Kennett's excellent new book about genetic genealogy and the networking revolution has now been published. Debbie is to be commended in articulating in a very skilful manner what can potentially be a challenging field for the family historian.

Debbie is an active member of the Guild of One-Name Studies and runs several vibrant DNA projects such as the Cruwys surname projectand the geographical DNA project for Devon.

The topic of chapters in the first section include: the basic principles of DNA testing; surnames and the paternal line; before surnames - haplogroups and deep ancestry; the maternal line - mitochondrial DNA tests; cousins reunited - autosomal DNA tests and setting up and running a DNA Project.

Section two includes: traditional genealogical networking methods; genealogy social networking websites; general social networking websites; blogs; wikis; multimedia and collaboratives tools. There are also four appendices: DNA websites; Testing companies; DNA Projects and Surname resources.

All in all a thoroughly helpful resource for the newbie to the field as well as the seasoned genealogist.

Sense About Genealogical DNA Testing

There has been some rather negative press coverage about DNA testing in recent weeks resulting from outrageous claims by one British testing company in particular.  Headlines that individuals are related to the Queen of Sheba, castrated Irish slaves, Napoleon or are descendants of Romans have been made without any data being published in peer reviewed journals.

Sense About Science a charitable trust that equips people to make sense of scientific and medical claims responded to these claims by publishing a guide to testing Sense About Genetic Ancestry Testing 

Unfortunately this publication was selectively quoted by the media tarring genealogical DNA testing with the same brush.

In order to bring some balance back into the conversation Debbie Kennett, well known to many within the genetic genealogy community has been given the opportunity to complement the Sense About Science article.  In a blog post on their website she provides further details about DNA testing for genealogical purposes and why it can be used effectively and legitimately as an additional tool in family history research.

DNA Identity Testing - GenCodex™

What is DNA Identity report - GenCodex ?

DNA Identity testing report ( GenCodexTM ), is an individual DNA profile, and it is a permanent means of individual identification. Unlike a name that may be shared, a social security number that can be stolen, or photographs that change over time, your personal DNA identity remains constant from the moment of conception to the end of life. Your GenCodex ( personal DNA identity print ) demonstrates your genetic similarity to family members as well as the genetic uniqueness that distinguishes you from the rest of the world. It can be used as identification for safety and security, estate planning and protection or as a personal keepsake. Your GenCodexTM - your personal DNA identity print - is accessible to no one but you. However, should you or your family need help from a law enforcement agency – such as in search for a missing person due to an abduction, accident, or a natural disaster – your GenCodex is fully compatible with the nationally recognized DNA identity test standards created by the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System. With your GenCodex readily available, precious time is saved that allows law enforcement to quickly compare your DNA identity to any DNA evidence uncovered.

How Can You Obtain DNA Identity report - GenCodex ?
You may purchase a GenCodex Kit. The materials inside the Kit allow you to collect a DNA sample in the privacy of your home. If you prefer, your DNA sample may also be collected at one of Genetica’s DNA sample collection facilities located throughout the United States. Upon the receipt of your DNA sample, and your GenCodex order form along with payment, Genetica performs DNA identity test analyses and mails the GenCodex certificate ( your personal DNA identity print ) to you within 2 days. As with many other DNA tests we also offer 24 hour GenCodex service. See

Prenatal DNA Paternity Test - The GENETICA DNA Test™

Under certain circumstances, you may find it necessary to perform Prenatal DNA testing - DNA test on an unborn child (fetus) for the purpose of establishing biological paternity. The highly accurate GENETICA DNA Test™ for paternity may be performed before birth of the child. The accuracy of a Prenatal DNA test is not affected by the age of the child or fetus tested, provided that the same rigorous testing procedures are used in the analysis.

A Prenatal DNA paternity test - DNA test during pregnancy must be performed by obtaining either a small sample of the placenta (i.e, chorionic villus sampling), or a sample of amniotic fluid that bathes the baby (i.e, amniocentesis). These fetal samples must be collected by the mother's obstetrician, and their collections pose a slight risk to both the mother and the fetus.

In some cases, the mother's obstetrician may decide to perform chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis in order to check the health of the unborn baby. When such samples are collected from the fetus by the obstetrician for medical reasons, Genetica DNA laboratories can also conduct Prenatal DNA paternity testing on the same samples (no additional sampling is needed for Prenatal DNA paternity testing). Just contact Genetica DNA Laboratories, and our staff will work with the mother's obstetrician's office to make arrangements for DNA testing of the fetal samples

Strange but true: One person born with two sets of DNA (a chimera)

If you think back to your formaldehyde-scented high school biology class, you may remember learning two things about DNA: first, that it's the "code" for all our genes, and second, that each individual has one and only one set. Otherwise, a person could have two different blood types – which is impossible. Or is it?
As it turns out, high school bio didn't have all the answers. Some people's bodies do indeed contain two sets of DNA.
A person who has more than one set of DNA is a chimera, and the condition is called chimerism. The word comes from the mythical Chimera, a creature in Greek mythology that's part lioness, part goat, and part snake.
The most extreme type of chimerism occurs when a twin dies early on in utero, explains Melissa Parisi, a pediatric researcher with the U.S. National Institutes of Health. In a move that's both bizarre and logical, the surviving twin acquires some of the dead embryo's chromosomes, ending up with two distinct and separate sets of genes.
It seems the stuff of science fiction, or at the very least, high drama – and, in fact, the phenomenon has been featured in television shows like House, All My Children, Law & Order, and Grey's Anatomy.
In real life, the most well-known case is probably that of Lydia Fairchild, who nearly lost custody of her children when DNA testing "proved" she wasn't related to them. Fortunately, doctors eventually determined that she had a second set of DNA that matched.
But you don't have to have had a vanishing twin to be a chimera. Regular fraternal twins can also have the condition. "Twin embryos sometimes 'trade' chromosomes with each other, which makes sense, given their shared blood supply," says Parisi.
And yes, if the twins are boy/girl, the girl could end up with some male chromosomes and the boy with female chromosomes. Does this have visible effects? Sometimes.
"Occasionally, the cell-trading leads to a disorder of sex development, such as a girl having a small amount of testicular tissue," says Parisi. "But while we have a lot of hang-ups about this type of disorder, it's important to remember that it's simply a congenital problem, like a cleft palate or any other."
But that's rare. Most of the time, the chimerism doesn't manifest itself in any easily observed way.
Chimerism doesn't always involve twins. Even mothers and babies "trade" cells during pregnancy, usually in very tiny amounts. "A baby's DNA can end up in the mother's bloodstream, because they are linked together through the placenta," says Parisi.
The reverse is also true: A baby can acquire some of the mother's DNA, in a condition known as microchimerism.
Because chimerism usually doesn't cause problems, it's rarely diagnosed, making it hard for scientists to say how prevalent the phenomenon truly is. It's probably less rare than was once thought. Perhaps many of us are chimeras and just don't know it.

Unraveling the DNA Double Helix

Despite proof that DNA carries genetic information from one generation to the next, the structure of DNA and the mechanism by which genetic information is passed on to the next generation remained the single greatest unanswered question in biology until 1953. It was in that year that James Watson, an American geneticist, and Francis Crick, an English physicist, working at the University of Cambridge in England proposed a double helical structure for DNA. This was the culmination of a brilliant piece of detective work - and a discovery that has proven to be the key to molecular biology and modern biotechnology. Using information derived from a number of other scientists working on various aspects of the chemistry and structure of DNA, Watson and Crick were able to assemble the information like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to produce their model of the structure of DNA.
It had already been established by chemical studies that DNA was a polymer of nucleotide subunits, each nucleotide comprising a sugar (deoxyribose), phosphate and one of four different bases - the purines, adenine (A) and guanine (G) together with the pyrimidines, thymine (T) and cytosine (C). A most important clue was the discovery in the late 1940s by Erwin Chargaff and his colleagues at Columbia University that the four bases may occur in varying proportions in the DNAs of different organisms, but the number of A residues is always equal to the number of T residues; similarly equal numbers of G and C residues are present. These quantitative relationships are important, not only in establishing the three-dimensional structure of DNA, but also in providing clues on how genetic information is encoded in DNA and passed on from one generation to the next.

DNA Carries Genetic Information

Even though Miescher and many others following him suspected that nuclein or nucleic acid might play a key role in cell inheritance, others argued that their lack of chemical diversity compared to, say, proteins ruled out such a possibility. It was not until 1943 that the first direct evidence emerged for DNA as the bearer of genetic information. In that year, Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty, working at the Rockefeller Institute, discovered that DNA taken from a virulent (disease-causing) strain of the bacterium Streptococcus pneumonae permanently transformed a non-virulent (or inactive) form of the organism into a virulent form.
Avery and his colleagues concluded from these experiments that it was the DNA from the virulent strain which carried the genetic message for virulence and that it became permanently incorporated into the DNA of the recipient non-virulent cells. Although the scientific community was slow to adopt the idea that DNA was the carrier of genetic information, a subsequent experiment provided evidence that this was indeed the case. In 1952, Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase showed by means of radioactive isotope tracer experiments that when a bacterial virus (bacteriophage T2) infects its host cell (the bacterium Escherichia coli), it is the DNA of the T2 virus, and not its protein coat, which enters the host cell and provides the genetic information for replication of the virus.
From these very important early experiments, and a wealth of other corroborating evidence, it is now certain that DNA is the carrier of genetic information in all living cells.

The History of DNA Research

The history of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) research begins with Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biologist who in 1868 carried out the first carefully thought out chemical studies on the nuclei of cells. Using the nuclei of pus cells obtained from discarded surgical bandages, Miescher detected a phosphorus-containing substance that he named nuclein. He showed that nuclein consists of an acidic portion, which we know today as DNA, and a basic protein portion now recognized as histones, a class of proteins responsible for the packaging of DNA. Later he found a similar substance in the heads of salmon sperm cells. Although he separated the nucleic acid fraction and studied its properties, the covalent structure of DNA did not become known with certainty until the late 194Os.

Male DNA found in female brains

Children live on in their mothers’ brains for decades, and not just as memories. Scientists have found pockets of male DNA, presumably from boy fetuses, in the brain tissue of women who died in their 70s.
Not only is male DNA present in women’s brains, it’s common, researchers report online September 26 in PLOS ONE. J. Lee Nelson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and her colleagues found snippets of a male-only gene in the brains of 18 of 26 women who died without neurological disease. The male DNA was spread throughout their brains.
The technique used in the study couldn’t distinguish if the DNA was from intact, functional brain cells, though in a separate test of brain tissue from a different woman, Nelson and colleagues did spot nuclei from male cells in the brain. Earlier studies in mice hinted that these foreign cells can integrate themselves into the brain and start functioning as nerve cells.
So far, cells from fetuses have turned up in women’s blood, livers, lungs, heart and other organs, so finding male DNA in the brain isn’t a complete shock, says geneticist Kirby Johnson of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., who wasn’t involved in the study. “From everything we knew, it’s not really that surprising.”What’s interesting is how the DNA could have gotten there. Male cells from a fetus could have broken through the blood-brain barrier — a wall that protects the fragile brain from pathogens in the blood. But that shouldn’t be possible, Johnson says.
If the male DNA did come from a fetus during pregnancy, then the genetic material stuck around in the brain for decades after that. The average age for these women at the time of their death was 70. “Maybe these are with us for a lifetime,” Nelson says.
Presumably, mothers can also carry a daughter’s genetic material in their brains; the presence of a Y chromosome simply makes it easier to spot male DNA.
Complete medical records, including pregnancy history, weren’t available for the women in the study, which means the researchers couldn’t rule out sources of cellular mingling other than male fetuses. The male DNA could have come from a male twin whose cells ended up moving into his sister’s body during pregnancy, for instance, or they may have come from an organ donation or blood transfusion, or even an older brother who had previously occupied the same uterus as the women.
What’s more, cells from several generations could mingle in a single person. Because cells also flow from mother to fetus, a pregnant woman possesses cells from both her mother and her child, and that child could inherit his grandmother’s cells.
Fetal cells could be beneficial, harmful or innocuous in a mother’s body. In a follow-up experiment, the researchers found that women with Alzheimer’s had less foreign DNA in their brains than women with healthy brains, hinting that these cells might offer protection from the disease. Those results are too preliminary to be conclusive, Nelson says. In tissues outside the brain, there is preliminary evidence that fetal cells may affect risk for cancer and autoimmune diseases. 

Male DNA found in women's brains

Male DNA is commonly found in the brains of women, a study has found.

The cause of the phenomenon is most likely being pregnant with a boy, say scientists.
No one yet knows the medical implications of the discovery. But there is a suggestion that male DNA in the female brain might protect against Alzheimer's disease.
Other kinds of "microchimerism", the harbouring of genetic material and cells swapped between foetus and mother during pregnancy, have been linked to both beneficial and harmful effects.
A study of 59 deceased women aged 32 to 101 found that the brains of those with Alzheimer's were less likely to contain foetal-derived male DNA. The genetic material was also seen in lower concentrations in regions of the brain most affected by the disease.
But the scientists stressed that the small number of women studied and largely unknown pregnancy history means that no firm conclusions can be drawn from these findings.
Study leader Dr William Chan, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, US, said: "Currently, the biological significance of harbouring male DNA and male cells in the human brain requires further investigation."
The researchers detected male microchimerism in 63% of the brain specimens. Male DNA was distributed in multiple brain regions and appeared to persist throughout life. The oldest woman whose brain contained male foetal DNA was 94.
The findings, published in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE, suggest that foetal cells frequently cross from the bloodstream to the brain.
Previous studies have shown that in some conditions, such as breast cancer, cells of male foetal origin may be protective. In others, such as colon cancer, they have been associated with increased risk.
Research has also found a lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease, in women who have given birth to a son at least once.