Genetic Genealogy I: Background
- Rachel Leah
- Jul 23, 2019
- 3 min read
Commercial Genetic testing has skyrocketed over the last 5 years. This is largely due to the popularity of Genetic Ancestry/Genealogy tests among the general public. Previously private sector testing companies often struggled with marketing their services but have managed to ride the coattails to greater financial success in the wake of the popularity.
The business revenue nearly doubled in 2017 with sales exceeding 12 million units amongst the biggest players in the market. Most customers (1 in 25) are found in the United States.
The term Genetic Genealogy is thought to have been used first in a February 1989 article in the Dallas morning news, which was written by Tom Siegried. The first mention of it in a published paper (a into genetic testing by Alan Savin*) was in 1998, and was in the context of the Surname DNA project.
The Surname project is based on tracking male lineage through the Y-Chromosome. It involved testing the genetics of two males who share a common surname. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that the usefulness of the Y-Chromosome in this form of research was discovered.
The Surname project is thought to be rooted in a much earlier time period, far before genetics would be fully understood.
George Darwin, son of Charles Darwin, is thought to have used surnames to help establish the frequency of 1st cousin marriages in England and calculate the likelihood of such a union. He calculated that the percentages were between 2.25 and 4.5% of the population of England, with the higher classes reflecting a higher percentage of these types of unions. His parents were in fact first cousins.
Now let's jump forward in time:
As the 1970’s came around DNA/Genetic testing was largely used in the medical field. For example, it became common practice to test newborns for PKU. It would take until the 2000’s for the commercial prospect of genealogy to be more fully explored.
Family Tree DNA, in 2000, offered the first commercial Y-Chromosome test** while Oxford Ancestry, founded by Molecular Biologist Bryan Sykes, offered Mitochondrial DNA testing.
As the popularity of the product increased so did the technology offerings.
Today companies can offer specialized testing like African Ancestry, Autosomal DNA testing which tests the number chromosomes instead of Y or X ones, and can help discover your Haplogroup*** which can take you past where surnames are no longer useful in tracking your family line.
Today, Ancestry and 23andMe have become the largest providers of these genetic tests and have far surpassed Family Tree and Oxford Ancestry. Companies such as Habit and Promethease represent those entities, which I mentioned earlier, who have used the momentum of Genetic Genealogy to market their own off shoot services. Services that had been struggling before the explosion of popularity in this style of genealogy. For example, Habit claims, through DNA testing, that they are able to provide you a health and diet plan suited to your genetics and biometrics.
This post has mostly explored the history of DNA in the context of Genealogy - in the next post I will get further into the history of the providers which have played such a large part in the technological push in their field.
If you would like to read more about the history of Genetics you may find these links useful:
https://bit.ly/2LDJOol
https://bit.ly/1DewEQg
Footnotes:
*Alan Savin is known as the first hobbyist to launch a Surname project.
** At this time only Y Chromosome or Mitochondrial testing was used - with the preference given to Y Chromosome testing in the pursuit of genealogy.
*** For example - Vikings are considered a Haplogroup.
Articles/websites referenced:
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