Friday, June 8, 2012

23andMe Announces New Genetic Ancestry Features

The personal genetics company 23andMe (www.23andme.com) has announced several new features at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree today.  Here is information about these features passed to me by their staff:



"All four of our new ancestry features will be in beta by the end of June. Because they are still in development, the attached screen shots are just approximations, the final products will likely look a bit different but these do effectively convey the enhanced functionality. The names of these features may change a bit as well - depending on the input we get during the beta testing period.

"Ancestry Painting Update - Currently our site provides an Ancestry Painting that displays 3 major world regions (European, African and Asian). We are refining this feature to provide Ancestry Paintings based on approximately 20 world regions. The attached example features the real data of Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. host of "Finding Your Roots on PBS." For Dr. Gates, the updated Ancestry Painting shows more detail between his Northern and Southern European ancestry and is able to distinguish his Native American heritage from Asian. 


"My Ancestry Page - One of our most exciting new features. This page will pull the highlights from each individual's ancestry and surfaces them on one easy page - no need to go digging around for special labs or tools. From Countries of Origin to how much Neanderthal DNA you have - it will all be conveniently displayed on one page.



"Relative Finder - Map View -  Forget "Where's Waldo," now you can see where in the world all your 23andMe Relative Finder matches are. Individuals can also add details to their profile so you can see not just where they are living now but known locations of family in the past so you can better zero in on family searches by location.


"Family Tree - Watch your family tree grow with 23andMe. Build and share your family tree. Add in details for individuals that include places, life events, traits, skills and fun facts. 


"Individuals interested in being beta testers for these new features can sign up at the 23andMe booth (#706/707) at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree."

Thank you to Catherine Afarian of 23andMe for the news, and the images that show these new features.


4 comments:

Root Digger said...

Thank you for the update Randy!!!

Geolover said...

Interesting, Randy. But they need to do a little history check: there is no evidence at present that there were humans in South America 50,000 years ago.

Anthony Parker said...

What are the new reference populations?

Anonymous said...

It's now October! WHen can we expect some of these to come online?