Biostatistical evaluation of blood group, HLA and DNA findings in Jeffreys' immigrant test-case using special kinship and DNA algorithms

Summary In the immigration case cited by Jeffreys et al. (1985), the biostatistical evaluation of blood group findings in 16 systems and of HLA-A,B findings for the mother and child, using a special kinship algorithm developed by Ihm and Hummel (1975), produced a probability of maternity of the Ghanaian-born putative mother of W = 6%; the probability of maternity for her sister was W = 94%. Using the DNA multilocus probes 33.15 and 33.6 and the bandsharing technique, the authors analysed band patterns from the putative mother and child as well as another 3 children of the same woman. It was concluded that the putative mother was the mother of all 4 children. An evaluation of the band patterns using the multi-di-allelism model and the kinship algorithm in accordance with the Essen-Möller principle produced: W = 99.99999999999999991%, or, if the “-----” constellations were not considered, W = 99.99998%.