Grandparentage test

DNA testing can be used to examine the relationship between a child and a possible grandparent. Such tests are often performed when the potential father (or mother if you are trying to determine maternity) is unavailable for paternity testing.

As with sibling tests, DNA profiles will be generated from the samples donated and then compared using statistical analysis to determine the most likely relationship between the child and grandparent(s), if any.

Testing options:

Best option – Child + one parent + both grandparents

Paternity testing using paternal grandparents should ideally include samples from the child’s mother as well as from both paternal grandparents. This will provide the same degree of certainty as if a sample from the alleged father had been tested. The same principles can be applied to prove maternity, by testing the child, father and both maternal grandparents.

Next best option - Child + one parent + one grandparent

If the parent and only one of the grandparents are available, the test will provide a strong indication of whether the child and grandparent are related but it cannot provide a conclusive result.

Last option – Child + one grand parent

It is possible to just compare the DNA profile of a child and an alleged grandparent, although we can strongly recommend that the available parent is always tested. This can provide an indication of existing biological relationship but, because of the patterns of DNA inheritance, it will not always reveal the true nature of the relationship. Such an analysis can only report the most likely relationship based on the DNA profiles generated.

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