Determining family connections of individuals in a database

Abstract

Determining relative connections between individuals includes: obtaining identification information of a first individual and identification information of a second individual; determining, based at least in part on a relative connections graph, a relative connections path connecting the first individual, the second individual, and at least one additional individual; and outputting information pertaining to the relative connections path.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of presenting, to a user of a personal genomic services platform, information related to relative connections between a first focal individual and a second focal individual, the method comprising:
 forming, using one or more computer processors, a relative connections data structure that connects a first focal individual to a second focal individual through a first intermediate individual,   wherein each direct connection between two individuals in the relative connections data structure indicates that, as far as the personal genomic services platform has determined, the two individuals share a common ancestor within a first threshold number of generations, and   wherein, as far as the personal genomic services platform has determined, the first intermediate individual shares a common ancestor within a second threshold number of generations with the second focal individual; and   displaying, to the user, information pertaining to the relative connections data structure,   wherein the information displayed to the user comprises information related to the relative connections between the first focal individual and the second focal individual, and   wherein displaying the information pertaining to the relative connections data structure to the user comprises applying a restriction to how the first intermediate individual is displayed.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the restriction comprises an exclusion of a relative connection between the first focal individual and the second focal individual that includes a respective intermediate individual. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the restriction comprises an exclusion of a name associated with a respective intermediate individual. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the restriction comprises an exclusion of metadata associated with a respective intermediate individual. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the second focal individual is identified by the personal genomic services platform as a celebrity. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising, to identify the second focal individual as the celebrity:
 receiving, as the second focal individual joins the personal genomic services platform, a manual identification of a celebrity status of the second focal individual; and   marking personal data corresponding to the second focal individual to indicate the celebrity status.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising comparing a name and occupation of the second focal individual to a database of celebrities to identify the second focal individual as the celebrity. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the relative connections data structure connects the first focal individual to the second focal individual through a second intermediate individual,   wherein, as far as the personal genomic services platform has determined, the second intermediate individual does not share a common ancestor within the second threshold number of generations with the second focal individual, and   wherein displaying the information pertaining to the relative connections data structure to the user comprises not applying the restriction to how the second intermediate individual is displayed.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving, from the user, an invocation of pathfinding on the personal genomic services platform, wherein the user corresponds to the first focal individual, and wherein the invocation comprises the user searching for second focal individual by name. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising obtaining, from a database, genotype data of the first focal individual, the second focal individual, and the first intermediate individual, wherein the relative connections data structure is formed at least in part based on the genotype data obtained from the database. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each direct connection between two individuals in the relative connections data structure indicates that the two individuals share a common ancestor within the first threshold number of generations as determined based on one or more Identical by Descent (IBD) regions shared between the two individuals. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information displayed to the user comprises age information, surname information, residence information, or ancestry information associated with at the first intermediate individual. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the information displayed to the user comprises information for which the first intermediate individual has provided authorization to display. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the information displayed to the user comprises ancestry information associated with the first intermediate individual, and wherein the ancestry information was inferred by the personal genomic services platform. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein displaying information pertaining to the relative connections data structure comprises displaying geographical locations associated with the first intermediate individual on a map. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein displaying information pertaining to the relative connections data structure comprises displaying surname information in a histogram. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising obtaining, from a database, relative relationships reported by users of the personal genomic services platform, wherein the relative connections data structure is formed at least in part based on the relative relationships reported by users. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 ,
 further comprising determining, based on the relative connections data structure, a shortest genetic connection between the first focal individual and the second focal individual,   wherein each direct connection between two individuals in the relative connections data structure is assigned a weight based on the number of generations between the common ancestor and each of the two individuals,   wherein the shortest genetic connection between the first focal individual and the second focal individual is determined using the weights associated with each direct connection between the first focal individual and the second focal individual, and   wherein the shortest genetic connection between the first focal individual and the second focal individual is determined using a least weighted sum of connections.   
     
     
         19 . A system for presenting, to a user of a personal genomic services platform, information related to relative connections between a first focal individual and a second focal individual, the system comprising:
 one or more processors configured to:
 form a relative connections data structure that connects a first focal individual to a second focal individual through a first intermediate individual, 
 wherein each direct connection between two individuals in the relative connections data structure indicates that, as far as the personal genomic services platform has determined, the two individuals share a common ancestor within a first threshold number of generations, and 
 wherein, as far as the personal genomic services platform has determined, the first intermediate individual shares a common ancestor within a second threshold number of generations with the second focal individual; and 
 display, to the user, information pertaining to the relative connections data structure, 
 wherein the information displayed to the user comprises information related to the relative connections between the first focal individual and the second focal individual, and 
 wherein displaying the information pertaining to the relative connections data structure to the user comprises applying a restriction to how the first intermediate individual is displayed. 
   
     
     
         20 . A computer program product for presenting, to a user of a personal genomic services platform, information related to relative connections between a first focal individual and a second focal individual, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:
 forming, using one or more computer processors, a relative connections data structure that connects a first focal individual to a second focal individual through a first intermediate individual,   wherein each direct connection between two individuals in the relative connections data structure indicates that, as far as the personal genomic services platform has determined, the two individuals share a common ancestor within a first threshold number of generations, and   wherein, as far as the personal genomic services platform has determined, the first intermediate individual shares a common ancestor within a second threshold number of generations with the second focal individual; and   displaying, to the user, information pertaining to the relative connections data structure,   wherein the information displayed to the user comprises information related to the relative connections between the first focal individual and the second focal individual, and   wherein displaying the information pertaining to the relative connections data structure to the user comprises applying a restriction to how the first intermediate individual is displayed.