MyHeritage, the world's most popular genealogy site, now enables people to let their DNA be researched to find acquaintances who share the same ancestor. This is possible through a partnership with FamilyTreeDNA, a database with almost 220,000 DNA profiles and with it the most extensive genealogic DNA information in the world.Since FamilyTreeDNA’s foundation in 200 the company has tested over 450,000 people and helped them discover their family history where no conventional documentation was available. The advanced DNA analysis technology can show whether someone is originally American, African or Jewish descent, for example, and offer information on ancestors to those who were adopted. FamilyTreeDNA offers a large range of tests that give users insight in their recent and historical origin:
- DNA25 – a Y-chromosome test for men (US$129)
- mtDNA – a mitochondrial DNA test for men and women (US$129)
- Y-DNA25 + mtDNA – a combined Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA test for men (US$219)
The DNA tests show whether two people are related or not.
Future Vision by Erwin Van Lun on this article
The world is getting ever more transparent. The coming decades we’ll chart all human DNA (just from a health point of view) and brands like MyHeritage will make it easier to determine a family tree. We’ll start to discover that family trees and genetic heritage are two completely different things. Although we still want to believe that the man from a marriage really is the father, tests have often shown that this isn’t the case. The further back in time you go, the less certain you can determine whether it really concerns your genealogical ancestors. We’ll have to face this first and then we’ll even have to come up with new words (a different word for the description ‘biological father’) and use it to indicate this phenomena.