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Using a genetic fingerprint, researchers at the University of Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute tracked the founder genetic mutation - a mutation that has been traced from many individuals in the present-day population to a common ancestor - back to the Frys. The Fry mutation has not been found in other places that researchers have looked - not in England, Denmark or Germany - further confirming that the mutation started with the Fry immigrants. (The researchers believe the genetic change either originated with George Fry or his wife, or that it began with a Fry in England, who died before passing it further...
...researchers studied two large families, one in Utah and the other in New York, both carrying the same genetic mutation. It was a true "Aha!" moment, says Neklason, when she linked the two families to a common ancestor. "I tried to connect them years ago anticipating that they would come together in the 1700s," she says. "I was amazed that they went further back, and thrilled with the impact of this finding." There is a 15-generation span between George Fry and his wife and the Fry ancestors today...
Relying on data from the Utah Population Database (UPDB), a genetics goldmine that combines Mormon genealogy records with vital statistics and cancer records, researchers were able to identify many of the Fry descendants. The UPDB has records on 6 million people dating back to those born in the 1700s - the most extensive genealogical resource in the world. "The only place comparable would be Iceland, but they only have some 250,000 people countrywide," says Geraldine Mineau, who oversees the database...
...Utah branch of the Fry family began when a Mormon pioneer couple arrived in the state in the 1840s. Today there are more than 7,000 Fry descendants in Utah, spanning nine generations. The researchers tracked down more than 1,000 of the Utah Frys and identified 220 with the genetic mutation (according to the lineage, the other 6,000 members of the clan are not believed to have inherited the mutation), who accounted for 0.15% of all colorectal cancers reported in the state from 1966 to 1995. Based on that percentage, researchers expected to see eight cases of colon...
...York branch of the family began two generations after the Utah Frys - the founding parents of the East Coast arm having been born just as the Frys' Utah pioneers were settling in the West. So far, researchers have studied some 200 of the Fry family's New York descendants and identified about 50 with the genetic mutation. Family members actually have a very low risk of inheriting the genetic mutation - about 1 in 8,000 - but those who do have it run a 69% risk of developing colon cancer by age 80, if they don't seek proper clinical care...