New DNA Breakthrough Connects You to Ancestors in the 1700s

Latest Breakthrough in Consumer Genetics Connects People to Ancestors Dating Back to the 1700s Using Just Their DNA

DNA testing has turned out to be a godsend for adoptees searching for lost family members who are still alive and family historians looking to connect with genetic cousins. The tests work by looking for strands of DNA two people share in common and using statistics to estimate what their relationship might be. So how is AncestryDNA using their DNA test to find relatives who lived up to 300 years ago who have no sample in the DNA database?   

New Ancestor Discoveries

Ancestry calls their groundbreaking new feature New Ancestor Discoveries. They work through a unique combination of AncestryDNA results and the millions of family trees shared by Ancestry members.

First, AncestryDNA tracks down living cousins for each person who has taken an AncestryDNA test and organizes them into family networks called DNA Circles. These Circles bring together groups of people who are genetically related to a common ancestor who appears in each Circle member’s online family tree. New Ancestor Discoveries take this one step further by finding people who are a genetic match to members of a Circle but don’t have a Circle’s common ancestor in their tree—or don’t have a tree at all. Their genetics suggest that the Circle’s common ancestor could be their ancestor, too, so Ancestry passes this hint along.

A “Shortcut Through Time”

“It is effectively a shortcut through time – you take the test today and we tell you who your ancestors were, for example, in the 1700s. You don’t need to research records or build a family tree – AncestryDNA now transports you to the past,” said Dr. Ken Chahine, SVP and GM of AncestryDNA.  “It’s a combination of three things that allowed us to achieve this breakthrough innovation: (1) millions of family trees created by Ancestry members, (2) the fastest growing genetic database in the world, currently with more than 800,000 genotyped members, and (3) a dedicated team of scientists who are pushing the boundaries of genetics and statistics to help people make family history discoveries in ways never before possible.”

These advancements make discovering new ancestors made simple. Customers just provide a small saliva sample for the AncestryDNA test, which reads a person’s genetic code at more than 700,000 DNA markers, and mail it back. Results are available within six to eight weeks, including new possible ancestors, accompanied by historical narratives of their lives that can include photos, locations, and life events available to Ancestry members.

A New Gateway for Discovering Your Past

With this latest innovation, AncestryDNA will open the door to a whole new segment of consumers who may be interested in family history but don’t know how or don’t have the time to search records or build a family tree. It will also meet the needs of experienced genealogists, who may need new genetic connections to their ancestors to help break through dead-ends in their research that historical records alone can’t.

AncestryDNA is now connecting people to ancestors going back generations from all around the world, including Colonial America, the UK, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Poland, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Italy, and more.

It’s the latest example of today’s science taking us back to yesterday’s world in a way that’s never been possible before.

Learn more about the new AncestryDNA experience!