Advances in DNA technology have made things possible that would have boggled the minds of our grandparents. Investigators can solve crimes that would have gone cold in decades past because of improvements in the collection and analysis of DNA evidence.
This technology has also opened doors for those who were never sure where they came from. Sydney Parkhurst of Florida is 24 years old, and always knew that she was adopted. While she was aware that her biological mother gave her up because she was not capable of caring for a child, Parkhurst had no idea who her mother might be, what her name was, or where she came from.
That has all changed thanks to DNA. In 2020, Parkhurst’s half-sister (from the same biological mother) Kayla Hensley contacted her to let her know their biological mother died in 2018. Parkhurst started investigating her past using sites such as Ancestry.com. Such sites collect DNA from willing participants which can then be used to trace family connections.
Parkhurst discovered more than she thought she would find. After sending her DNA to the site, she got a message from what turned out to be her cousin on her biological father’s side. The man, 31-year-old ChanDreas Barkley, put Parkhurst into contact with her biological father, 53-year-old Lenton Mitchell. It was through this connection that Parkhurst discovered she was half-black. Her biological mother, Inga Coleman, was white.
Her father, Mitchell, started communicating with Parkhurst and sent her a message saying he wish they had met years earlier. The father and daughter laid eyes on each other for the first time at a reunion in Cartersville, Georgia, that took place in June. Both said they felt “surreal,” especially Parkhurst, who said she had no idea that she was actually interracial.
That wasn’t a complete shock, though, as she said that when she was growing up in Rhode Island it was obvious that “I didn’t look like anyone else in that community.”
The technique of triangulating who one may be related to by comparing family trees of DNA is called “genetic genealogy.” In recent years police have used to find individuals who are genetically related to wanted criminals, which allows them to track down the perpetrator. A famous recent case using genetic genealogy nabbed the infamous Golden State Killer in California.
Police are also using it to identify murder victims in cold cases.
