in the late 1960s, while in sydney, australia, she met j. craig venter, an american soldier on leave from the vietnam war. they reunited while she was on a three-month hiking tour of europe, and they were married in geneva in 1968. they separated in 1980, and have one child. later in his career, venter became involved in the human genome project, sequencing the first copy of the human genome. in the course of her research into her own family tree, rae-venter identified a great uncle who worked as a police officer in london during the time jack the ripper was active.