rae-venter's interest in genealogy began when she met a cousin on a website for sharing family trees who was looking to identify his biological father. she found an online course teaching people how to use genetic testing to find relatives. after she completed the course, she later became one of the teachers. in addition to working on her own family tree, rae-venter has worked as a volunteer search angel for the site, specializing in helping adoptees find their birth families. she has been involved in solving several high-profile murder cases, including bear brook murders in new hampshire and the golden state killer in california. in 2018, after her role in using genetics and genealogy to solve crimes became well known, rae-venter was named to "nature"'s list of "10 people who mattered this year". she was recognized in the 2019 "time" 100 list of most influential people. genetic genealogy rose to prominence based on the efforts of volunteer family history hobbyists such as rae-venter who realized that the techniques used to identify family members could be useful to law enforcement officers. some law enforcement agencies were initially dismissive of the idea.