Website tracks ancestry using DNA
By Chris Nuttall in San Francisco
Published: October 17 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 17 2007 03:00
Social networking will take on a new dimension today with the launch of a website that uses DNA testing to help users find family members through the ages.
Some 15m members of Ancestry.com, a genealogy site linked to MyFamily.com, a social networking service, will be able to swab the inside of their cheeks and send samples for analysis. They will receive an online report showing the DNA haplogroup they belong to, defined by genetic markers.
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Many people in the UK belong to the R1b haplogroup, a race that arrived in Europe from west Asia 40,000 years ago and was one of the first to practise cave art and use stone tools.
Ancestry.com is creating networking groups that will allow haplogroups such as these kings and queens of the Stone Age to share their common interests. Those with a surname such as Washington could also form a group and pool their DNA resources to work out how they are all related.
The DNA test details up to 46 individual genetic markers, which are compared with Ancestry's database of DNA results. The site then shows the closest matches it has found with other members - revealing distant cousins that could not be found using Ancestry's standard databases of births, marriages and deaths records and census results.
"DNA testing in family history is reaching critical mass," says Megan Smolenyak, Ancestry's chief family historian. "For people with common surnames like Smith and Jones, they can use this to help eliminate possibilities and to tell them they are on the right track."
Members will receive e-mail alerts as the DNA database grows and close matches to their own DNA emerge.
The DNA results will be integrated with Ancestry's family-tree interface, which already features uploaded content from members including photos and stories about their antecedents.
"We are combining three major pillars of family history research - DNA, historical records and social networking - to offer users an unmatched revolutionary family history resource," says Tim Sullivan, chief executive of The Generations Network, Ancestry's parent company.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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