Why AncestryDNA?

What makes AncestryDNA so innovative is how it fuses DNA technology and family history in a way that’s never been done before. It works like this:

First, we look at over 700,000 genetic markers for each individual to create your unique personal genetic blend.

We analyze your DNA to find genetic signatures that connect you to the lands of your ancestors from hundreds, even thousands of years ago. The genetic signatures come from a set of well-established science as well as new DNA patterns that have been discovered by the AncestryDNA population geneticists.

Then, we compare your DNA to the over 120,000 other AncestryDNA customers to see who you might be related to. Here’s where things get even more interesting. When enough of your DNA matches someone else, that means you’re related. Systematically, your family tree is compared with your newfound relative’s family tree to surface shared ancestors, names and locations so you’ll not only know that you are related, but how you’re related.

All this innovative technology adds up to some pretty cool new ways to look back into your family’s story. And with more people taking the AncestryDNA test, new innovative features for discovering family history are made possible.

Some of the AncestryDNA team members

About the awards

The 11th annual Utah Innovation Awards program was presented by Stoel Rives LLP and the Utah Technology Council to recognize innovations and the Utah companies that created them.

A committee of approximately 60 professionals from private industry, government and higher education evaluated and voted on program finalists and winners. The more than 100 nominations were put through a rigorous evaluation process during which committee members evaluated each innovation against a wide range of criteria addressing elements such as novelty, market need, market disruption and potential/current economic impact.

Get an AncestryDNA test today for only $99.

Did you know that AncestryDNA is our newest, most powerful DNA test that’s available to both men and women? So anyone can take the test. And it covers all lineages in the family tree going back for generations. Since you inherit half of your DNA from your mom, it covers her entire side of your family including your mother’s mom, her mom, your great-great aunt and even your great-grandma’s sister. You get the picture. Of course, the test covers her dad’s side of the family too, but this weekend, it’s all about Moms.

What you get when you take the AncestryDNA test

Your ethnicity going back 500-2,000 years. You’ll discover the ethnicities that make you who you are and explore them on an interactive map. These results include your mother’s side of the family.

Meet a 2nd cousin for the first time. You’ll receive a list of DNA matches—people who you are matched to that could be your 3rd, 4th or even 2nd cousin!

Break through brick walls. When you find a new relative (our AncestryDNA customers have found over 1 million already) it can plow through roadblocks in your family tree and help fill in those empty branches.

Continuous updates, included. Once you take the test, you’ll continually get updates and receive new matches. The discoveries don’t just happen the day you get your results. They’re ongoing.

Test Mom, too, and see how much more powerful your experience becomes

Find out just how much you’re really like your Mother. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of your ethnicity when you compare your results to your mom’s and hone in on the overlapping ethnicities. Since you don’t inherit exactly 50% of your mother’s ethnicity, you can see just how much of that fiery Irish free-spiritedness was passed down to you.

Expand on your mother’s side of the family tree. Compare your matches to your mom’s list and find the ones you share. Those new cousins are from your mother’s side of the family, now you have a focused place to research, so starting add them to your tree!

Go back even further with an older living ancestor. When your mom takes the DNA test, you can go back another generation and gather even more information about that side of the family. While you’re at it, why not test Grandma?

Easily view multiple results in your account. The AncestryDNA interface and easy-to-use site and tools allow you to manage and access more than one DNA test result in your profile to help power your search even more.

If you weren’t able to pull this off in time for Mother’s Day, why wait until next year? Sharing amazing discoveries like these with your mom really doesn’t require a special holiday. Take your mother on a journey you both won’t forget and try AncestryDNA for only $99. What better reason to order two? Order AncestryDNA now.

Happy DNA Day! Once a year, the scientific community takes time out to recognize some amazing achievements in DNA science. Two keystone events are the discovery of the DNA double helix structure in 1953 by Francis Crick and James Watson and the declaration 50 years later, in 2003, that the Human Genome Project was complete…well, close to complete. Only a few small gaps still remain in sequencing and mapping the entire human genome.

We have some additional reasons to celebrate on DNA Day 2013. Our science team has been hard at work on some breakthroughs of their own that we hope to share later this year. They include an update to the DNA ethnicity predictions available to all AncestryDNA customers, even those who have already taken the test.

AncestryDNA is growing fast

As part of our DNA celebrations, we’d like to share some exciting accomplishments AncestryDNA has made with the support of our members in the past year.

• AncestryDNA has grown its database to more than 120,000 DNA samples since the product’s BETA launch in May 2012.
• 7.7 million ancestors are now available to discover through family trees linked to DNA results.
• More than 3.3 million fourth-cousin DNA matches have been surfaced to customers, meaning they potentially share an ancestor in the mid-1800s.
• Over 1 million people have been connected to each other by AncestryDNA, along with a shared ancestor identified from Ancestry.com family trees. This represents the perfect culmination of DNA science and family history research.

How you can celebrate DNA Day.

Take the AncestryDNA test. Start exploring your family story in your own DNA.

Learn more about AncestryDNA and order your kit today. 

Learn how DNA and family history come together. Check out this recent blog post that discusses how DNA works and some of the challenges we are constantly working on to advance the science.

See what others have discovered using AncestryDNA.

Watch how Katie Couric and AncestryDNA bring an adopted son and mother together after 41 years for a heartfelt reunion.

Learn about powerful discoveries from AncestryDNA customer Renee who confirms some old family stories—and discovers a few new ones.

Show your friends how science savvy you are by sharing this post, inviting them to learn more about DNA Day.

Chris Burton was simply hoping to discover his ancestors’ homelands when he took his AncestryDNA test. But when his test results came in, Chris, who was adopted at birth, learned he had a close family connection, possibly a first cousin. Would that link him to his birth family?

Watch the whole story unfold as Chris sits down with Katie Couric on Katie!

This is just one example of the power of making new family connections. See what you can discover about yourself with AncestryDNA. Now $99. Get your AncestryDNA test today.

Chris and his Mom talk about the past and our own Ken Chahine describes the kinds of connections that have already been made through AncestryDNA.

Communicating with matches is even easier. Now when you correspond with a DNA match, there’s a direct link in the email message that lets you quickly locate that match in the future. No more paging through your match list. Just click the link, and it will take you directly to the details for that match.

DNA results on-the-go. We’ve updated our web pages to work seamlessly on your smart phone and tablet. It’s called “responsive design,” and it’s all the rage in the tech world. It means your DNA results will look and fit better when you view them on the smaller screens of a tablet, iPhone, or other handheld device. No app download required; just access your DNA results through your web browser on your smart phone or tablet as usual.

Raw DNA data download. Some of our expert genetic genealogists have requested the ability to download their raw DNA data. It’s the genetic code that’s comprised of over 700,000 A’s, C’s, T’s and G’s that are the basis for your DNA results. And now you have the option to download your raw data by logging into your account, going to your DNA results page and clicking the “manage test settings” link. If you’re not familiar with raw DNA data, be sure to review the “Raw DNA Data” section in our Frequently Asked Questions. It’s highly sensitive and private data that you’ll want to be sure to protect once you’ve downloaded it.

That sums up the latest. But it doesn’t mean we’re done making the DNA experience even better. We continue to listen to feedback from our DNA users and have a growing to-do list: from more powerful tools to search and manage your rapidly growing list of DNA matches to more education on how to use your DNA results. So expect more exciting updates throughout the year.

If you haven’t taken the AncestryDNA test, there’s no better time than now to get started, especially at the new $99 price. Then all the new features and latest scientific findings will be yours. Find out more here: www.ancestrydna.com

Renee found the AncestryDNA test simple to use. She got her kit in the mail, activated it online and collected her saliva sample. And, shortly after taking the test, Renee got an email informing her that her DNA results were ready. She immediately opened her personalized AncestryDNA results webpage and there, right before her, were her Irish roots. Her genetic ethnicity results included 11% British Isles (which covers Ireland).

Renee’s Genetic Ethnicity Results

But the discoveries didn’t end there. The AncestryDNA test matched her to others in the AncestryDNA database who share the same ancestor in their family trees. Renee said, “The DNA matches really paid off! Matching my DNA to others gave me such a thrill, and a couple of cousins contacted me. It’s amazing!”

Renee was able to connect with quite a few of her DNA matches that led her to direct relatives through her mother. Among the many benefits of the new AncestryDNA test is that, not only can women take it, but the test includes links to your past on both your paternal and maternal lines. One DNA match also helped confirm a relation through her great-grandmother to the McCoy clan in Virginia. Now that’s an interesting bit of history to add to the family tree.Renee says, “I would recommend the AncestryDNA test to a lot of people. My friends took the test and we’ll all be sharing the results. I keep getting new, exciting DNA matches that can lead to my next big discovery on Ancestry.com.”

Get started on your own AncestryDNA discovery today. Visit us at www.AncestryDNA.com and check out our special pricing on AncestryDNA for our subscribers or with a new subscription.

When you investigate your Shared Ancestor Hint, a simple chart lets you quickly confirm this connection in your family tree and see exactly how you are related. Could finding a long-lost cousin be any easier?

And now you also have the option to filter your DNA matches by hints, so you can quickly locate and review all of the shaky leaf icons in your long list of matches. Just set your filter from the dropdown to ‘Has a Hint’, as shown below.

So, how does the Shared Ancestor Hint work? Let’s take a closer look at this new hinting feature so you can get a better understanding of all that it has to offer and, ultimately, how it can help you in your next big discovery.

• Keeping it in the family. The Shared Ancestry Hint looks at people that you are directly descended from in your family tree. In other words, ancestors that you share DNA with. So when you see a shaky leaf in your DNA results, it means that we’ve spotted an ancestor that both you and your DNA match have in common, and share DNA with. It wouldn’t make sense to consider others in your tree (such as spouses) that could lead to false shared ancestors.
• It’s dynamic. As you or your DNA matches add to or change the family tree linked to the DNA test, the hinting system is automatically triggered to re-evaluate the possibility for hints on all DNA matches. This exciting feature works around the clock, which for lack of a better name we call “tree edit awareness.” So you can be sure that as new discoveries are happening throughout your tree or your DNA match’s tree, your DNA results will continue to pay off with new information for you.
• Old or new, we’re searching for hints. All DNA matches that you receive, old and new, are assessed for a Shared Ancestor Hint. Even if your match occurred months ago, a hint could appear.
• If it’s private, it’s still useful. While you can’t actually see a private tree or any details about a hint on a private tree, the shaky leaf can still appear to let you know a hint has been found for a DNA match that has a private tree. This allows you to reach out and send a message to that DNA match and share information on your own terms.
• Ten generations covered. The Shared Ancestor Hint looks back up to 10 generations in both your and your DNA match’s family tree. We chose 10 generations for a few reasons. The likelihood of finding matches beyond this point is low, as many well-documented trees, on average, aren’t built out that far back and due to the nature of DNA inheritance, autosomal DNA matching gets less reliable beyond 10 generations. Also, it takes massive amounts of processing power to include more generations (there are over 2,000 possible ancestors in each tree going back 10 generations). If we went back further, it would not be as fast or available in real-time.
• Our standards are high. If the shared ancestor does not pass our specifications for determining this hint, we won’t include it. Our quality assessment runs through a whole list of comparisons to make sure it checks off every one.
• Finding shared ancestors even without a hint. We expect customers to discover shared ancestors that are not revealed by our hinting tools. Look for new features in the future that will enable you to identify “customer-found” shared ancestors, for example, to help you track these discoveries even better.

You’ll soon see that the Shared Ancestor Hint is one of the fastest ways to find new relatives and grow your family tree. AncestryDNA is continually keeping an eye out for common ancestors among your list of DNA matches—all you have to do is keep an eye out for the shaky leaf.

If you’re interested in learning more about the new AncestryDNA, or would like to order a DNA test, you can click here.

Dr. Ken Chahine, Sr. VP of AncestryDNA and one of our top scientists, explains some of the challenges we face when using DNA to predict ethnicity, including the work we do to innovate in this field and deliver the best product possible to our customers. Here’s some perspective on genetic ethnicity from Dr. Chahine.

Before AncestryDNA, ethnic origins were largely a breakdown of continental ethnicities. Most of us, however, don’t need a genetic test to determine whether we are European, African, or Asian. So, we challenged ourselves to push the boundaries of the science and attempt a more granular ethnic breakdown, especially within Europe.

Below is a map showing the detailed ethnicity coverage of AncestryDNA.

Why are we one of the first to launch a product that breaks down ethnic origins beyond the continental level? Simply put, it is very difficult. Europeans, Africans, and Asians are genetically very distinct. However, it is not as easy to ethnically distinguish between a British, a German and a French person, and it is especially difficult to decipher the ethnicity of an individual with ancestry from all three or some other comparable mixture.

The Language of Genetic Ethnicity

Since the genome was sequenced in 2000, we have made great strides in our understanding of human genetics and inheritance. The truth is, however, that the human genome is still largely a language that we don’t understand. Sure, we’ve deciphered the alphabet that makes up the 3 billion letters of our genome, but we know woefully little about its vocabulary, grammar and syntax.We know, for example, that height is inherited. Yet, using genetics alone still makes it difficult to predict height. Most of the genetic signatures (i.e., alleles) that we have identified as being associated with height contribute only a small percent to one’s ultimate vertical fate. In other words, while we understand how to read the letters of the human genome we don’t always know what it is telling us.

Piecing the Puzzle Together

To continue with the language metaphor, let’s assume I give you three books written in languages that you do not speak. Then I tell you, as a point of reference, what language each one is written in: one in English, one in Arabic, and the third in Chinese. Then imagine I give you another book written in one of those three languages and ask you to tell me which language it is. Using only the letters in the reference books, it would be relatively easy to not only determine which language the book is written in, but even what percent of the book was written in each language, if it contained a mixture of all three. This is because the alphabets of the three languages are distinct and don’t overlap.

Now imagine the same puzzle, but instead of English, Chinese and Arabic, the books are written in English, French and German. In this case, it is clearly more difficult to discern where one language ends and another begins, since all three use mostly the same basic alphabet. We must then rely on three basic strategies to distinguish the languages. First, the frequency of certain letters that appears to be used more or less frequently in French, English and German. Second, the relative position of letters, such as the combination of letters “ch,” “sch,”and “ing.” Third, letters such as “ç”,“ß,” and “ü” which are unique to certain languages. As you can see in the graph below, even though the languages are different, the frequency of the letters used in all three languages is relatively consistent. Therefore, most of the letters are of little use in distinguishing the languages.

Frequency of letter usage across three languages

There is one more important point to make—we don’t have a dictionary! That’s right, there is no genetic dictionary that tells us the frequency of the letters, the relative position of the letters, or even the unique letters that occur in different European populations. AncestryDNA is building this genetic dictionary by analyzing the genetic signatures of people who have a long cultural history in a specific country or region, have spoken a certain language, and practiced a single religion. Once we have the genetic sequences, our team of Ph.D scientists in genetics, bioinformatics, machine learning, and statistics work to find clues that help us distinguish genetic ethnicity and provide our customers their ethnic make-ups.

The European Challenge

The good news is that the genetic ethnicity prediction is working, albeit with some challenges. Central Europeans present the most significant difficulty, especially the French, Germans, and Dutch. With few geographic barriers and extensive human population movement, their genetic signatures are very similar and difficult to distinguish. The British Isles and Scandinavia are more genetically distinct, but their signatures partially overlap with each other, as well as with parts of Central Europe. All of this makes it difficult to assign predicted ethnicities. So, let’s say your German ancestry doesn’t seem to be showing up in your DNA ethnicity results or it seems like you’re getting a bit too much Scandinavian, know that the ethnicity prediction can be updated over time as we make advancements in this area.

This is just one example of why the ethnicity prediction portion of the AncestryDNA test is continually evolving. We are using the largest set of DNA reference samples from around the world and deeper genetic coverage in order to find those unique “letters” that will aid our analysis. In the meantime, we’re excited to have our AncestryDNA customers be a part of the breakthroughs as we continue to improve our prediction algorithms. And as they evolve, we will send you updates as new findings are discovered. The AncestryDNA test could have easily predicted your continental ethnicity as European, Asian, or African, but why settle for results based on the status quo? As Michelangelo is quoted as saying, “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” It’s one of the many benefits of AncestryDNA. So don’t be surprised if your ethnicity results get updated over time. This is a good thing and it just means our science team is working hard to better your experience.

If you’re interested in learning more about the new AncestryDNA, or would like to order a DNA test, you can click here.

Don’t miss a new DNA match—Get the latest with emails updates.

AncestryDNA is always on the look out for new matches. Our database is growing rapidly with new members everyday, which means more DNA matches for you. And our new email notifications will let you know when new matches are added to your list, so you’ll never miss a connection. You choose if and how often you want to receive these emails.

See HOW you’re related to your DNA matches

This groundbreaking feature, only available with AncestryDNA, provides a relationship chart that lets you quickly confirm how a DNA match fits into your family tree. When you and your DNA match have a common ancestor in your family trees, you’ll see exactly how you are related. Also coming soon…just look for the familiar shaky leaf on your DNA results page to lead the way, no more digging into every match to see if there is a hint.

Get updates to your ethnicity results

Our science team is hard at work. A continually growing database and new scientific discoveries mean new findings. Your ethnicity results can update over time, so that you’ll have the latest information available. Always having access to the most up-to-date results, without taking another DNA test, is a big benefit to AncestryDNA. No action required on your part, we’ll do all the work for you.

New research tools to make your search easier

We’re constantly adding more ways for you to quickly and easily navigate your DNA results such as:

Sort and filter your matches by date received, favorites, relationship, and more. Keep notes about your matches. “Favorite” the matches you want to go back to. Remove matches you don’t want to research. And more…

To see all of the latest features and to learn even more about how they can benefit your AncestryDNA experience, just click here.

Earlier in the week, AncestryDNA™ helped kick off a segment of the conference at the Illumina Discovery Symposium. Our very own Dr. Jake Byrnes, one of our Population Geneticists, gave a talk on Using Genetic Analysis to Empower Genealogical Research. In other words, he gave the conference a run-down on how AncestryDNA works including the methodology we use to test ethnicity and matching to a room of genetic experts—without spilling the beans on our trade secrets, of course. The talk was well-received and the attendees excited about the technology behind our product.

Many other leading AncestryDNA scientists contributed to the conference as well, including Dr. Ken Chahine, Sr. VP and General Manager of AncestryDNA; Dr. Catherine Ball, VP Genomics and Bioinformatics; Dr. Dr. Scott Woodward; Dr. Keith Noto; Natalie Myres; Norman Angerhofer; Dr. Mathew Barber; Dr. Yong Wang; and Dr. Ross Curtis. Their input and presentations of abstracts will cover several relevant topics. Here’s a quick overview.

AncestryDNA Abstracts at ASHG 2012

Pushing the boundaries: Using Haplotypes to infer ancestral origins for recently admixed individuals

This research presents new ways to look at people around the world, and continually pushes our thinking on how we determine ethnicity and population boundaries—specifically in challenging regions like Central Europe—with better data, better algorithms and better analysis.

Using Y-chromosomes Haplotypes to improve inferred ancestral origins in European populations

In a nutshell, this abstract illustrates how predictions of geographic ethnicity for European populations using autosomal genotypes can be improved by incorporating Y-chromosome information. In fact, using Y-haplogroup distributions to redraw regional boundaries within Europe improved ethnicity predictions by up to 9%.

Genetic evidence of multiple non-Asian migrations into the new world.

An analysis of the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (SMGF) Y-chromosome and mtDNA databases resulted in evidence for multiple migrations from the Iberian Peninsula into the New World (Mexico, Central and South America); specifically, two groups were identified—Basque males who share ancestry within the last 2000 years and a Jewish group in Mexico, which fled persecution during the Inquisition.

In summary, it was a great week. The AncestryDNA team is excited to be a part of the American Society of Human Genetics and would like to thank all of those who participated in the conference and shared their work in the field—there was a lot of exciting research and information on display. We look forward to continuing to innovate and break new ground for the use of genetics in the exciting world of family history. If you’d like to learn more about ASHG, you can click here.