Resolving a 150-year-old paternity case in Mormon history using DTC autosomal DNA testing of distant relatives

Highlights•We propose the resolution of a 150-year old alleged paternity using autosomal DNA data collected from 56 living descendants. •This study deals with the posterity of Joseph Smith Jr., founder of Mormonism, and with the practice of plural marriage. •This is a rare case of a possible polyand...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forensic science international : genetics 2019-09, Vol.42, p.1-7
Main Authors: Perego, Ugo A, Bodner, Martin, Raveane, Alessandro, Woodward, Scott R, Montinaro, Francesco, Parson, Walther, Achilli, Alessandro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alleged paternity
Autosomal SNPs
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - history
Direct-To-Consumer Screening and Testing
DNA Fingerprinting
DNA testing
DNA, Mitochondrial - genetics
Famous Persons
Female
Genotype
History, 19th Century
Humans
Joseph Smith Jr
Latter-day Saint (Mormon) movement
Likelihood Functions
Male
Marriage
Mitochondrial DNA
Paternity
Pathology
Pedigree
Polygamy
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
United States
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Summary:Highlights•We propose the resolution of a 150-year old alleged paternity using autosomal DNA data collected from 56 living descendants. •This study deals with the posterity of Joseph Smith Jr., founder of Mormonism, and with the practice of plural marriage. •This is a rare case of a possible polyandric relationship, where one woman is married to more than one man at the same time. •We have determined portions of the genetic profile of Joseph Smith by genotyping the autosomal genome of his living posterity. •We have also sequenced the entire mitochondrial DNA from a descendant of Katherine Smith, one of Joseph Smith Jr’s sisters.
ISSN:1872-4973
1878-0326
DOI:10.1016/j.fsigen.2019.05.007