DNA tests offered by family history website
A FAMILY history website is offering the ultimate in social networking - the chance to track down unknown relatives using DNA tests.
Ancestry.co.uk has launched a new service that promises to help people identify living genetic cousins and learn about their distant ancestors’ roots.
The results will be stored anonymously on a database and future matches will be flagged up automatically.
The website plans to allow users to create ‘DNA groups’ so that people sharing the same surname can use their genetic test results to find out if they are related.
Ancestry’s chief family historian, Megan Smolenyak, said: “DNA testing in family history is reaching a critical mass. As more people add their results, Ancestry’s DNA database will become a powerful asset for users to make connections and discover their family tree.”
Ancestry - which claims 15 million registered users worldwide - is offering three different DNA tests.
A paternal lineage test, analysing the Y-chromosome DNA which is passed virtually unchanged between father and son, costs 74.
This test, which is not available to women because they do not have a Y-chromosome, can confirm a shared ancestor in past generations and predict ancient origins.
For 99, site users can obtain a more comprehensive version of the same test, and for 89 they can undergo a maternal lineage test.
