Posted on 08/18/2010 11:06:37 AM PDT by Beaten Valve
LOS ANGELES -- An investigation is under way after the skeletal remains of two babies, believed to be at least 70 years old, were found wrapped in historic newspapers in the basement of an apartment building in the Westlake District of Los Angeles.
The grim discovery was made Tuesday evening in the 800 block of Lake Street, near James M. Wood Boulevard.
Workers were clearing out the basement for renovations when they spotted the remains inside a steamer trunk, LAPD Lt. Cory Palka said.
The babies' bodies were wrapped in Los Angeles Times newspapers dated between 1930 and 1934. News headlines at the time were about Depression-era gangster John Dillinger.
Also inside the trunk were photographs, ticket stubs from the closing ceremonies of the 1932 Olympic games and some personal letters to family members.
It's believed the remains may be 70 to 80 years old.
Nah! He looks like the evil leprechaun from those dumb movies!
I think you over estimate the ability of a DNA search.
I think if you have already selected someone it might tell you there is a possibility of a distant relationship. But I do not believe it would pull out identities of cousins or the like.
:-)
I think there’s a good chance of showing a close relationship. Some traits persist for generations. There is a trait common to Cohen men that can be found in a southern African population that claims descent from that tribe thousands of years later.
Basically, I think it might screen candidates, since they have the names from the letters.
Experts disagree over whether or not Madam Speaker should be classified as a live person.
BTW, what kind of missileer are you? I’m a former 15 ECHO. I got upgraded from a 15E20 to a 15E40 without ever having the necessity of taking any training or touching a missile, just staying alive for a year.
On the next PAWN STARS
Michael Savage told a story some years ago about when he was a kid, and his father who owned an antique/junk store came into possession of a steamer trunk of personal belongings that, judging from the contents had probably belonged to a nun. They were going through it to see what could be sold and came across a mysterious bundle at the bottom amongst letters and personal effects. It turned out to be a mummified fetus. Savage conjectured that it may have been an abortion, or a stillbirth, but the experience remained with him all these years later. I guess the upshot is that “stuff happened” even back then.
Traits are not the same as DNA ratios of base pairs of the 46 chromosomes.
As I understand it, if you had someone you already thought was a cousin, DNA testing would show the likelyhood that they were related.
But it is not going to pull those relations out of a larger database. The combinations and possibilities are too immense.
DNA Identification Technology
http://dna-view.com/DNAtechID.htm#kinship
I think I said, since they have letters and correspondence, they could use DNA to screen candidates. I agree, if they had to start cold DNA by itself wouldn’t be much good.
Hey in was story's of 30' LA that invented Film Noir
Depression Era...
A lot of children died
No jobs, No food, No antibiotics
No money to even bury...
I suspect a repeat performance is around the corner
in a country near you...
Unless they are parents, or multiple sibilings, not cousins, aunts, uncles or further generations, there is very little possibility of any match. And that is dependent on people from 80 years ago being placed in a DNA database.
Kinship Analysis
http://massfatality.dna.gov/Chapter12/KinshipAnalysis/
Just as a curiosity, let’s say someone wanted to try and unravel this mystery. Perhaps one can review property records for that location or material that was in and around that trunk such as postmarked letters to the inhabitants and get a name of the people who lived there. Couldn’t they then track down either the people or their relatives to get DNA samples? As far as the people from that era being dead, if one can find heirs who still have their personal effects, can they get DNA samples from locks of hair, brushes, combs?
This was an apartment building.
Owners would likely have been other persons.
Finding the information of who was living inside an apartment in those days would be difficult.
Apartments often wre rented including utilities- instead of separate billing for each apartment.
Would make a great Cold Case episode, tho, would it not?
From what I understand, which isn’t much, parents, children and possibly siblings can be identified. Farther away from that appears to be wishful thinking.
Sad story
Depression days ... I remember young men coming to our door to sell food their mother cooked.
That led us into eating a lot of fried corn-meal mush — it was cheap and tasted great with a little sugar or syrup.
Lesson there is that buying food from needy folks is a good thing to do.
Oh maaaaan! And I was just startin’ to think about dinner! Oh well,,,, I need to “loose” a few pounds anyway!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.