My partner did a DNA test through Ancestry.com because she wanted to know her ethnicity. She was the subject of a closed adoption. When she got her results back, she got a list of people who opted-in to sharing DNA match status with others. Her matches were good enough that it was very possible to find her biological parents.

There are a lot of techniques to building familial profiles from this list. One is called “Leeds” where you place individuals into groups who they themselves match with. You can then color-code it and get a visual distinction of families. There are other techniques, too: grouping matches by ethnicity, and by ancestor.

Obviously, I didn’t want to do this by hand like everyone else. I sought out existing software but the two solutions required me to login to Ancestry (and not via oauth), and run a client on my computer like it’s 1999.

No thanks.

I wrote some Ruby scripts, it didn’t take long. I joined some Facebook groups which where helpful. I tried to be helpful with what I had learned, so I explained the techniques to others who had posted in the group.

I noticed that not everyone does this on a computer with two monitors, like I have. A lot of people don’t even own a computer these days, contrary to what HN would lead me to believe.

One person was especially... I don’t want to say inept, but desperate. I offered to run my code against their matches after they added my account as a collaborator to their test, allowing me to see their matches without needing to give me their login. I did, they said thank you.

The next day I woke up with 42 messages in my Facebook inbox asking if I could do theirs.

I spent the weekend putting together a shitty website that automated this and sent the link. Everyone was very grateful. I listened to them and built it out a little more. Some seasoned “search angels” (people with a knack for this kind of sleuthing) asked me to build out some other reports. I created them, and asked these people to record some of their workflows so I could see how I could improve their manual processes. A Chrome extension was born to inject some code into Ancestry for better UX.

Little did I know that when I took a DNA test I would learn that my dad isn’t my father. My mom passed away three years ago, and despite us being best friends, she never told me this fact. I have since learned that she mentioned this fact to others, but never disclosed a name (and nobody ever pressed).

I myself am on this wild goose chase now, and my new search angel friends are on it with me, though for the last few months we have been collectively stumped and brickwalled.

What I’m trying to say is that there are problems all around us. We just need to listen for them, and question why things are done the way they are done. If there’s any sort of wiggle room, or gray area as to why, it might be a problem worth solving. It might not be a sexy technical problem worthy of the front page of HN; it might not even have enough bros in the community to boost you on ProductHunt. The case for using a new hot trendy stack might be lost. It might not even be all that profitable.

But if you adjust your expectations, and find something that genuinely interests you instead of someone else, you should get enough satisfaction to make it worthwhile.

My matches, in case anyone is curious: https://sherlockdna.com/ancestry/leeds_reports/99a62d1cb68b7... (sorry mobile users, I haven’t quite figured out the UI here)