2018, the Year of DNA

In the last few months everyone is talking about DNA.  The experts are calling 2018 “the year of DNA”.  It’s exploding in popularity.  And we are already seeing new matches coming in from all the new kits they sold last Cyber Monday and through the holidays.  They are saying that over 15 million people have tested.  It is expanding exponentially.

At RootsTech I attended a panel of DNA experts (including CeCe Moore, Diahann Southard and others) about the future of DNA.  CeCe is now saying that we are no longer fishing in three ponds; there are five now.  That is to say, there are now five credible testing services for genealogists.  The two newer ones are MyHeritage and Living DNA, joining Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, and 23andme.  This is big news.

The news is COMPETITION.  Every company is trying to carve out their own niche in an industry that is growing by leaps and bounds.  This means unique tools, exclusive historical records, more frequent sales, and more listening to what genealogy customers what to see. 

At our meeting this month (the 19^th) we will start with DNA basics.  The rest of this post has all the news I won’t have time for this month.  It’s for people more involved and interested in the DNA industry.

MyHeritage is really coming into its own as a full-service family tree site with individual trees, historical records, unique searching techniques and DNA testing.  They have made huge improvements to their DNA algorithms and recent changes increased our matches ten-fold.  This is a great place to be matched with Europeans.  It’s where my Austrian relatives found me.  I moved my DNA results there free and you can to.  Sylvia passed along a kind-of-technical detailed explanation of MyHeritage DNA improvements here.  Most of the largest websites and testing services have blogs and it will help you to sign up for the ones you use.

In Roberta Estes’ RootsTech Day 2 blog  https://dna-explained.com/2018/03/02/day-2-rootstech-vendors-visits-and-myheritage-is-smokin-hot/  she calls MyHeritage “smokin’ hot” and lists their accomplishments and plans.  And Roberta is not that easy to impress.

Living DNA’s claim to fame is ethnicity matching to much smaller regions (like 21 regions in England).  They are starting in the UK and currently entering Germany with the intention of covering the world.  Did I say boots on the ground trying to convince people who have never heard of DNA testing to test?  Now this is really big!  We’ve known for some time that Living DNA matching was to be released in fall of 2018, but we didn’t know that Living DNA planned to reconstruct trees from genetic data alone.  That’s it, your DNA, your gender, and your birthdate.  That’s all.  Amazing!  No downloading your family tree to try to find matches.  You can read the announcement for yourself here.

Downloading Raw DNA:  Thomas MacEntee has given us a 5-page article about how to transfer raw DNA files with step-by-step instructions for all the different websites.  Here: https://mailchi.mp/genealogybargains.com/dna-do-over-download-guide-promo?e=504243bd5c

Seattle Times:  At our last meeting Marjie F. brought in an article entitled  “Risks of DNA kits: Experts fear genetic data could fall into the wrong hands”, published in the Seattle Times December 10, 2017 issue.   The biggest issue is that DNA data may not be secure and that customers may be “exploited” by companies selling DNA information.  The major DNA testing companies were interviewed for the article and said they “anonymize the data and transfer only when users opt-in to participating in research”.  Senator Schumer “urged the FTC to examine the industry to ensure that companies have clear, fair privacy policies”.  If you are concerned that your DNA may fall into the hands of your employer or insurance company, do not test.  Also if you are asking relatives to test, it is your responsibility to inform them of the risks. 

With others Blaine Bettinger has published an Informed Consent Agreement and a Beneficiary  Agreement here: https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2018/02/15/informed-consent-agreement-and-beneficiary-agreement/.  People have been saying something like this is needed for a long time.  Note: This is not legal advice. 

Something else to know about…GDPR.  General Data Protection Regulation in the EU and UK.  It’s their attempt to strengthen privacy and data protections.  It has serious fines for companies who hold European personal data and don’t comply.  Example: 20 million Euros.  One smaller testing company has decided to fold and others are changing their offerings to comply.  Roberta has written about it here.  https://dna-explained.com/2018/03/16/gdpr-its-a-train-and-its-a-comin/  Again just for people digging deep.

Also at our last meeting…people wanted everyone to know this piece of advice for contacting matches at AncestryDNA.  This is a little obscure and you will hear it again but here goes.  Don’t use the green button, use the tan.  When you go to the Match Page for someone on your Match List, there is a green Send Message button at the top.  Don’t use this one.  Your match is not notified by email that there is a message waiting.  Instead click on the person’s name to go to their profile.  On the top of the profile page is a tan Contact button.  Use this and there will be an email sent to notify your match.  Got it?  Don’t use the green, use the tan.  Ancestry has known about this forever but they won’t change it.