The ground-breaking techniques used in the Fromelles project (which so far has identified 150 out of 250 WWI soldiers found in the mass grave) is just one example of how DNA can help identify people from historical cases. This talk gives an overview of the various ways that DNA can be used to assist identification of historic remains recovered from battlefields and aircraft crash sites. Some of these techniques could theoretically be applied to digging up our ancestors and sampling their DNA (there are a few examples of where this is already happening).

Victoria Moore
Victoria Moore is a specialist DNA scientist who has previously worked with the Public Health Laboratory UK and Chelab Laboratorio Italy before joining LGC in 2001 (where she is currently the Commercial DNA Services Manager). She has worked with a number of archaeological and criminal recovery teams and since 2008 has continued to work in close partnership with Oxford Archaeology and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in the analysis and identification programme of the World War I mass grave discovered at Fromelles Northern France. Victoria has attended commemorations at Fromelles in 2010, 2014 and 2016 on the invitation of the Australian Department of Veteran Affairs

This lecture was presented at Who Do You Think You Are? – Live! 2017. Please note that these videos are copyrighted to the presenter and should only be used for personal study. They are not to be used for any other purpose without the presenter’s express permission. Also, please note that because this is a rapidly advancing field, the content may quickly become outdated.

The DNA Lectures were sponsored by FamilyTreeDNA (www.ftdna.com) and organised by volunteers from ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy, www.isogg.org). ISOGG volunteers also provided free DNA advice and support for members of the public at the conference.

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