Creation of a national resource with linked genealogy and phenotypic data: the Veterans Genealogy Project

Abstract

Purpose: Creation of a genealogy of the United States and its ancestral populations is under way. When complete, this US genealogy will be record linked to the National Veteran's Health Administration medical data representing more than 8 million US veterans.

Methods: Genealogical data are gathered from public sources, primarily the Internet. Record linking using data from relatives is accomplished to integrate multiple data sources and then to link genealogical data to the veteran's demographic data.

Results: This resource currently includes genealogy for more than 22 million individuals representing the Intermountain West and the East Coast. The demographic data for more than 40,000 veteran patients using Veterans Hospital Administration services in Utah and Massachusetts have already been record linked.

Conclusion: The resource is only in its second year of creation and already represents the largest such combination of genealogy and medical data in the world. The data sources, the creation of the genealogy, record-linking methods and results, proposed genetic analyses, and future directions are discussed.