title: Creation of a national resource with linked genealogy and phenotypic data: the Veterans Genealogy Project.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors: Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA. lisa.albright@utah.edu
authors: Lisa A
authors: LA
authors: Cannon-Albright
authors: Sue
authors: S
authors: Dintelman
authors: Tim
authors: T
authors: Maness
authors: Steve
authors: S
authors: Backus
authors: Alun
authors: A
authors: Thomas
authors: Laurence J
authors: LJ
authors: Meyer
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D005260:Female; D005789:Genealogy and Heraldry; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts; D010375:Pedigree; D010641:Phenotype; D014481:United States; D014589:Utah; D014728:Veterans