If you have been following along with our progress in our 1921 Tulsa Identification Project, you know that a large component of this process is Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG). For several months now, members of our team have been reaching out to a variety of community organizations in the North Tulsa and Greenwood District to create connections into the community. Our goal in building these relationships is to create spaces where members of the community can ask questions about the project and learn how they can be involved in the effort.
Before our Investigative Genetic Genealogy team can begin the work of identifying the remains from the 1921 Graves Investigation conducted by the City of Tulsa, there is a lot of historical genealogy work that must be conducted. To that end, we have been asking for help from anyone with information regarding stories, records, and more. Our team is especially interested in those that had family members in Tulsa in 1921. Individuals interested in sharing information can fill out our interest form here.
We also recognize that asking the general public to share their family histories, and DNA information, is a complicated question. Choosing to share your information is a very personal decision. We fully believe in informed consent when it comes to your DNA and privacy considerations that you may have. To help educate the community about how our project will use information submitted by the public we have created several resources. All of these resources are available on our main project page as well as our Understanding Genetic Genealogy page.
One recently created resource is this video about the genealogical process co-produced with the City of Tulsa:
For those who are interested in learning the different ways that you can participate in the project (which includes multiple levels of privacy options) we have created a DNA comparison pathway chart that shows how information will be used.
Another resource that we have created is our Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) Statement. This document is a detailed glimpse into our process, how IGG is being used in our project, and how interested individuals can learn more about how DNA is and can be used in the identification of unidentified human remains. All of this and more (including photos of some our amazing volunteer Investigative Genetic Genealogy Team!) can be found on our specific Understanding Genetic Genealogy page.
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