Industry | Genealogical DNA testing |
---|---|
Founded | 2000 |
Founder | Bennett Greenspan, Max Blankfeld, and Jim Warren [1] |
Headquarters | Houston, Texas |
Area served | International |
Parent | MYDNA Inc. |
Website | www |
FamilyTreeDNA is a division of Gene by Gene, a commercial genetic testing company based in Houston, Texas. FamilyTreeDNA offers analysis of autosomal DNA, Y-DNA, and mitochondrial DNA to individuals for genealogical purpose. With a database of more than two million records, it is the most popular company worldwide for Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA, and the fourth most popular for autosomal DNA. In Europe, it is the most common also for autosomal DNA. [2] [3] FamilyTreeDNA as a division of Gene by Gene were acquired by MYDNA, Inc., an Australian company, in January 2021. [4]
FamilyTreeDNA was founded based on an idea conceived by Bennett Greenspan, a lifelong entrepreneur and genealogy enthusiast. In 1999, Greenspan had entered semi-retirement and was working on his family history. He began work on his mother's Nitz lineage. [5] [6] [7] When faced with a roadblock in his work, he remembered two cases of genetics being used to prove ancestry that had recently been covered by the media. These were a study by University of Arizona researchers showing that many Cohen men from both Ashkenazic and Sephardic groups share the same Y-chromosome [8] and a study that showed that male descendants of a paternal uncle of US President Thomas Jefferson (who presumably shared his Y-chromosome) and male-line descendants of his freed slave Sally Hemings shared the same Y-chromosome and a recent common ancestry. [9]
Greenspan had both Nitz cousins in California and had discovered someone in Argentina with the same ancestral surname and the same ancestral location in Eastern Europe. Wishing to use the same method of DNA comparison for his own genealogy, he contacted Dr. Michael Hammer at the University of Arizona. Greenspan discovered that academic labs did not offer testing directly to the public and that in general direct to consumer testing for genealogy was not commercially available either. Their conversation inspired him to start a company dedicated to using genetics to help solve genealogy mysteries. [7] [10] [11]
It was early 2000 when Greenspan with his business partners Max Blankfeld and Jim Warren officially launched FamilyTreeDNA. [1] Initially, the Arizona Research Labs at the University of Arizona performed all testing for FamilyTreeDNA. FamilyTreeDNA includes among its scientific staff, Dr. Michael Hammer (PhD), one of a team of scientists that first published on the Cohen Modal Haplotype in 1997 in the journal Nature. [8]
FamilyTreeDNA began with a proof in concept group of twenty-four tests that returned results in January. The company began by offering 12 STR marker Y-chromosome tests much like those used in many scientific publications of the time in March 2000. FamilyTreeDNA became widely known for its Y-chromosome STR testing for the Cohen Modal Haplotype. [12]
They added an interface by which genealogists could run surname research studies. The first person to create such a project through the FamilyTreeDNA site was Doug Mumma, who founded the Mumma project. [12] Such projects can also focus on specific regions and niche populations.
The first tests offered by FamilyTreeDNA were Y-chromosome STR and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) tests like those used by published academic studies at the time. [13]
FamilyTreeDNA's initial Y-chromosome tests were described as 11 marker tests. They eventually began to call this a 12 STR marker test as one of the STRS (DYS385) almost always had two copies. This they billed as a method to affirm or disprove a genealogical connection on the direct paternal line.[ citation needed ]
FamilyTreeDNA's first mtDNA tests were for HVR1 (hypervariable region 1) of the mtDNA.[ citation needed ] Eventually, they added a Plus test that tested for both HVR1 and HVR2.[ citation needed ]
In the early days, they did not confirm haplogroups for either mtDNA or Y-DNA.[ citation needed ]
In 2006, FamilyTreeDNA bought out the assets of DNA-Fingerprint, which was a German paternity testing company that offered à la carte testing to the genetic genealogy testing community. With this buyout, Thomas and Astrid Krahn, who had owned DNA-Fingerprint, moved to Houston, Texas, and helped open the Genomics Research Center.[ citation needed ]
The Genomics Research Center initially did testing for many of the same products that had been sold by DNA-Fingerprint. They began to offer individual and panels of Y-chromosome SNP tests using Sanger testing methods. They also offered the mtDNA full genome test and upgrades to it using the Sanger testing method.[ citation needed ]
Soon came the launch of the Walk Through the Y (WTY) test. The WTY test offered the most adventurous of citizen scientists the chance to seek the discovery of new Y-chromosome SNPs. [14]
Meanwhile, most testing continued to be done at the University of Arizona lab. The demand for additional test types led Greenspan and Blankfeld to move all testing to their own testing lab in Houston, Texas under the Genealogy by Genetics, Ltd. parent company. [1]
Between 2007 and 2010, FamilyTreeDNA forged several new partnerships that allowed them to access additional international markets.
iGENEA
The first of FamilyTreeDNA's new partnerships was with the Switzerland-based iGENEA company. It was formed alongside the closing of DNA-Fingerprint and Thomas Krahn's helping open the Genomic Research Center in Houston. Their website is available in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. [15] [16]
African DNA
In late 2007, Henry Louis Gates created African DNA in partnership with FamilyTreeDNA to help promote genetic testing for personal ancestry among African Americans. [17]
DNA Ancestry & Family Origin
DNA Ancestry & Family Origin DNA Ancestry & Family Origin is a genetic genealogy testing partnership between FamilyTreeDNA and Eastern Biotech & Life Sciences. Their website is available in both English and Arabic. [18]
MyHeritage
In November 2008, a dynamic partnership with MyHeritage was launched, allowing users to incorporate DNA testing and advanced family tree technologies into their family history research. MyHeritage is a website offering online, mobile and software platforms for discovering, preserving and sharing family history worldwide. [19]
In January 2021 it was announced that MYDNA, Inc. a Melbourne, Australia, genomics company, had acquired Family Tree DNA and its parent company Gene by Gene. [4] MYDNA, Inc has historically specialized in pharmacogenomics and nutrigenomics. [20] Dr Lior Rauchberger commenced his role as CEO of MYDNA, Inc immediately. While Gene by Gene co-founders Bennett Greenspan and Max Blankfeld joined the MYDNA, Inc Board of Directors.
Services provided by FamilyTreeDNA are made in own laboratory meeting CLIA and CAP standards and they are based on various biotechnology products, including for example sequencing platform NovaSeq by Illumina, Inc. [21]
In May 2010, FamilyTreeDNA launched an autosomal microarray chip based DNA test. They called the new product Family Finder. The initial product used an Affymetrix microarray chip, but FamilyTreeDNA changed to the Illumina OmniExpress chip and retested all customers who had results from the Affymetrix chip for forward compatibility. [22]
Family Finder allows customers to match relatives as distant as about fifth cousins. Family Finder also includes a component called myOrigins. The results of this test provide percentages of a DNA associated with general regions or specific ethnic groups (e.g. Western Europe, Asia, Jewish, Native American, etc.). Notably, unlike other testing companies, they chose to strip out markers for mendelian medical issues, [23] [24] [25] mtDNA results, and Y-DNA SNP results.
The company markets a range of Y-DNA tests. The Y-chromosome is inherited from father to son, so testers can discover relatives with the same patrilineage. In many cultures these relatives will often share the same surname, since surnames are also inherited father to son. These tests cover 37-111 STR markers depending on the test, and vary in price according to the number of markers covered. [22] FTDNA introduced their "Big Y" test in 2013. Big Y tests approximately 15 million locations on the Y chromosome, looking for novel and shared SNPs. [26] By the end of 2021, FTDNA had identified over 50,000 branches in the tree of all Y-DNA results. [27]
FamilyTreeDNA also sells mtDNA testing, offering the choice of either a limited hypervariable region test, or a full sequence test of the entire mitochondrial DNA chromosome. [22]
FamilyTreeDNA staff were instrumental in developing the Geno 2.0 Next Generation product for the second phase of the Genographic Project. [28] Geno 2.0 samples for both public and scientific study were run at the Genomics Research Center in Houston, Texas (operated by FamilyTreeDNA's parent company, Gene by Gene, Ltd.) until 2016, when Geno 2.0 began utilizing Helix for DNA sequencing. [29] [30]
In September 2012, Greenspan and Blankfeld restructured FamilyTreeDNA's parent company, Genealogy by Genetics, Ltd. This included their renaming Genealogy by Genetics, Ltd. as Gene by Gene, Ltd. [31] [32] [33] [34] After restructuring, the business consisted of four divisions, one of these being FamilyTreeDNA for genealogical DNA tests. It is Gene by Gene, Ltd. that operates the Genomics Research Center (GRC) lab in Houston, Texas. [31] [34] [35] In January 2021, Gene by Gene was acquired by MYDNA Inc. Gene by Gene now works together with MYDNA improving genomics testing for a broad range of clinical and non-clinical services.
In December 2018, FamilyTreeDNA changed its terms of service to allow law enforcement to use their service to identify suspects of "a violent crime" (defined as child abduction, sexual assault or homicide) [36] or identify the remains of victims. The company confirmed it was working with the FBI on at least a handful of cases. [37] [38] [39] As of March 2019, the company instituted a policy allowing its customers to opt out of law enforcement access to their genetic data. All customers were automatically opted in to such exposure except those living in the European Union who were opted out by default. [40] Law enforcement officers will be required to go through a more rigorous process in order to access the database, while customers who opt out of allowing the FBI to access their data will still be able to search for possible relatives as before. “Users now have the ability to opt out of matching with DNA relatives whose accounts are flagged as being created to identify the remains of a deceased individual or a perpetrator of homicide or sexual assault, also referred to as Law Enforcement Matching (LEM),” the company wrote in an email to customers. [41] In May 2019 FamilyTreeDNA prevented access to its Y-DNA database ysearch.org and its mtDNA data base mitosearch making it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to identify crime suspects. [42] In August 2019, FamilyTreeDNA reported that about 50 law enforcement agencies had submitted DNA samples for matching and that almost 150 cases had been submitted. [36] By spring 2020, only around 3% of about 2 million users have opted out. [43] By August 2020, the company helped solve at least 27 cases. [44]
DNA profiling is the process of determining an individual's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is called DNA barcoding.
Genetic genealogy is the use of genealogical DNA tests, i.e., DNA profiling and DNA testing, in combination with traditional genealogical methods, to infer genetic relationships between individuals. This application of genetics came to be used by family historians in the 21st century, as DNA tests became affordable. The tests have been promoted by amateur groups, such as surname study groups or regional genealogical groups, as well as research projects such as the Genographic Project.
A genealogical DNA test is a DNA-based genetic test used in genetic genealogy that looks at specific locations of a person's genome in order to find or verify ancestral genealogical relationships, or to estimate the ethnic mixture of an individual. Since different testing companies use different ethnic reference groups and different matching algorithms, ethnicity estimates for an individual vary between tests, sometimes dramatically.
Robert Tyrone Hayes is an American serial killer who has been convicted of three murders in the Daytona Beach, Florida, area between December 2005 and February 2006. DNA tests have also linked him to a fourth murder committed in March 2016. In addition, he remains the prime suspect in the murder of another woman in December 2007.
The Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (SMGF) was an independent DNA and genealogical research institution with the goal of demonstrating how the peoples of the world are related. SMGF collected DNA samples and genealogical information from individuals across the globe to establish these connections.
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Bennett C. Greenspan is an American businessman. His business ventures have covered industries from real estate to the .com boom. Though he has mainly worked in the fields of photography and genetic testing, he is best known for his pioneering work in genetic genealogy.
Gene by Gene is a commercial genetic testing company based in Houston, Texas. The company was owned by Bennett Greenspan and Max Blankfeld, and was the parent company of Family Tree DNA. In January 2021, Gene by Gene was acquired by US based parent company myDNA Inc. Gene by Gene and Australia company myDNA Life Private Ltd. are both subsidiaries of parent company, myDNA Inc. The current Chief Executive Officer of myDNA Inc. is, Dr Lior Rauchberger.
CeCe Moore is an American genetic genealogist who has been described as the country's foremost such entrepreneur. She has appeared on many TV shows and worked as a genetic genealogy researcher for others such as Finding Your Roots. She has reportedly helped law enforcement agencies in identifying suspects in over 300 cold cases using DNA and genetic genealogy. In May 2020, she began appearing in a prime time ABC television series called The Genetic Detective in which each episode recounts a cold case she helped solve. In addition to her television work, she is known for pioneering the genetic genealogy methodologies used by adoptees and others of unknown origin for identifying biological family.
Investigative genetic genealogy, also known as forensic genetic genealogy, is the emerging practice of utilizing genetic information from direct-to-consumer companies for identifying suspects or victims in criminal cases. As of December 2023, the use of this technology has solved a total of 651 criminal cases, including 318 individual perpetrators who were brought to light. There have also been 464 decedents identified, as well as 4 living Does. The investigative power of genetic genealogy revolves around the use of publicly accessible genealogy databases such as GEDMatch and Family TreeDNA. On GEDMatch, users are able to upload their genetic data from any direct-to-consumer company in an effort to identify relatives that have tested at companies other than their own.
Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. is an American company based in Reston, Virginia, that develops nanopharmaceuticals and provides DNA phenotyping services for law enforcement organizations.
Jay Roland Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg were a Canadian couple from Saanich, British Columbia who were murdered while on a trip to Seattle, Washington in November 1987.
GEDmatch is an online service to compare autosomal DNA data files from different testing companies. It is owned by Qiagen.
April Marie Tinsley was an eight-year-old girl from Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States, who was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in 1988. Her killer left several anonymous messages and notes in the Fort Wayne area between 1990 and 2004, openly boasting about April's murder and threatening to kill again.
John Arthur Getreu was an American serial killer who was convicted of one murder during 1963 in West Germany and convicted of two more that took place in 1973 and 1974 in the United States. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the latter murders, and died at the California Health Care Facility while serving his sentence. He was identified through genetic genealogy by CeCe Moore in 2018.
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The murders of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett were a double murder case that occurred in Ozark, Alabama, on August 1, 1999. J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, two 17-year-old best friends and high school seniors from Dothan, Alabama, disappeared after leaving their homes to celebrate Beasley's birthday on July 31, 1999. The next day, authorities found the girls' bodies in the trunk of Beasley's car in Ozark, Alabama. Beasley and Hawlett died from a gunshot to the head. DNA was found in Beasley's underwear, leading police to believe she had been raped.
Greenspan, born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, has been interested in genealogy from a very young age; he drew his first family tree at age 11.
A real estate developer and entrepreneur, Greenspan has been interested in genealogy since his preteen days.
Businessman Bennett Greenspan hoped that the approach used in the Jefferson and Cohen research would help family historians. After reaching a brick wall on his mother's surname, Nitz, he discovered and Argentine researching the same surname. Greenspan enlisted the help of a male Nitz cousin. A scientist involved in the original Cohen investigation tested the Argentine's and Greenspan's cousin's Y chromosomes. Their haplotypes matched perfectly.
Years of researching his family tree through records and documents revealed roots in Argentina, but he ran out of leads looking for his maternal great-grandfather. After hearing about new genetic testing at the University of Arizona, he persuaded a scientist there to test DNA samples from a known cousin in California and a suspected distant cousin in Buenos Aires. It was a match. But the real find was the idea for Family Tree DNA, which the former film salesman launched in early 2000 to provide the same kind of service for others searching for their ancestors.
DNA DTC is the Research Use Only (RUO) division serving both direct-to-consumer and institutional clients worldwide. Gene By Gene offers AABB certified relationship tests through its paternity testing division, DNA Findings. The privately held company is headquartered in Houston, which is also home to its state-of-the-art Genomics Research Center.