Family Tree DNA recently updated their ethnicity report for individuals who have tested with them.

You may have overlooked the newest addition in My Heritage that manipulates old photographs and makes then move. It is called “Animate.” Some individuals may find it a bit creepy however it does help visualize what an ancestor may have looked like when they were alive.

I tried it on a photograph of my father (one person in a group photograph) taken about 1901 when he would be about 3 or 4 years old. The result was remarkable and it is certainly one way of looking at your ancestors that is quite unique.

My Heritage began by colorizing photographs and moved on to enhancing photographs. The latter certainly helps individuals who are unfamiliar with photo editing or enhancement techniques.

If you have not tried these options, you should at least try one photograph and see how it works for you, I think you will be surprised.

MyHeritage to be Acquired by Leading Private Equity Firm Francisco Partners

The leading global service for discovering your past and empowering your future, announced today that Francisco Partners, a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology businesses, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the company. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Francisco Partners shares MyHeritage’s vision for growth as well as its intense commitment to ensuring the privacy of its users. The users’ personal data is an extremely important priority and we will work together with MyHeritage to expand its already strong privacy framework going forward.

Since 2003, MyHeritage has pioneered a new approach to discovering family history, making it easier and more accessible to millions of people around the world. Founder-led and fueled by a deep-seated passion for genealogy and a commitment to innovation, MyHeritage has built a successful, subscription-based global enterprise. Powered by unique and proprietary technologies, the MyHeritage platform is currently used by 62 million users worldwide and is available in 42 languages, which is a testament to the company’s international reach and diverse user base. MyHeritage users have collectively created more than 58 million family trees.

Another DNA testing company makes changes. After Ancestry.com changing hands some moths back, and then FamilyTreeDNA merging, we have another DNA testing company merging and going public.

• 3andMe is a leading consumer genetics and research company that offers a personalized health and wellness experience and has built a premier genetic database to unlock insights leading to the rapid discovery of promising new targets for drug development
• Transaction will provide the capital to fund additional investment in key growth initiatives across 23andMe’s consumer health and therapeutics businesses
• The transaction will value the outstanding shares of capital stock of 23andMe at an aggregate enterprise value of approximately $3.5 billion
• 23andMe CEO and Co-Founder Anne Wojcicki and Virgin Group’s Sir Richard Branson are each investing $25 million into the $250 million PIPE and are joined by leading institutional investors including Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Altimeter Capital, Casdin Capital, and Foresite Capital
• The pro forma cash balance of the combined company will exceed $900 million at closing
• Current shareholders of 23andMe will own 81% of the combined company

By: Rebecca Burnett

RESTON, Va. (WDVM) — Nearly 30 years ago, 24800 Old Hundred Road was home to Sugarloaf Mountain Market, a convenience store in Montgomery County, Md. In 1992, a customer walked into the store and found a 57-year-old man suffering from stab wounds. He later died and the case went cold.

That is, until 2020 when Parabon NanoLabs stepped in. Using a DNA sample left at the crime scene, its analysis team drew up this sketch, leading to an arrest.

“We do both DNA phenotyping, which is predicting the appearance; so we predict someone’s eye color, hair color, face shape, ancestry,” said Dr. Ellen Greytak, Parabon’s Director of Bioinformatics and its Snapshot division team lead. “We also have kinship testing and genetic genealogy. Genetic genealogy is about building family trees and trying to figure out who that person could’ve been based on who their relatives are.”

In 2020, the Reston-based company generated a total of 50 leads, nationwide. Two were from our area: in Montgomery County and in Arlington. In January of 1991, a woman was walking home from the East Falls Church Metro station when she was attacked. Last year, the serial rapist was positively identified and arrested on four separate charges.

Greytak says it’s important to remember that Parabon’s work is in lead generation, not crime-solving. “Even if that lead is used to get DNA from so-and-so, it’s still just a lead and the detectives are the ones that are closing those cases, finding that person, getting proper cause to get their DNA and match it back to that crime scene sample, so we’re just helping them get there.”

Ancestry has announced that it will end its 15 month-long product Ancestry Health which was launched in October 2019. They are discontinuing the product so they can focus on their core business. It appears that DNA testing has hit a plateau with the loss of jobs at both Ancestry and 23andMe.

It is unclear if the acquisition of Ancestry by the Blackstone Group Inc. for $4.7 Billion which was completed last month has anything to do with the change in ending Ancestry Health.

Family Tree DNA and its parent company Gene by Gene has been merged into myDNA. myDNA is an Australian company founded in 2007 by Les Sheffield to revolutionize “the field of pharmacogenomics, making truly personalized medicine a reality, before expanding into nutrigenomics to deliver actionable, personalized nutrition, fitness and skincare recommendations.”

“Gene by Gene and FamilyTreeDNA will continue acting in the field of Genetic Genealogy, their original business, keeping intact their privacy rules and all terms of service.”

Time will tell what this may mean for the thousands of volunteer-run DNA projects.

An article from Barry Star and the Ancestry team explaining the issues related to determining your British ethnicity. It covers the September 2020 ethnicity updates for people with British Heritage

Click here -> British Ethnicity

Ancestry.com has announced they will be making a number of updates during August. These include:

More accurate number of shared segments (beginning early August)

See the length of your longest shared segment (beginning mid August)

Distant DNA matches must share 8.0 cM or higher (beginning late August)

This will be the third time Ancestry has changed their DNA and ethnic algorithms in the last five years. It will be interesting to see what changes these updates will bring.

It appears that Gedmatch is once again live after they were hacked on Wednesday. A quick look and some testing shows that it is working normally.

Gedmatch is off-line and according to a press release, they were hacked. It appears they managed to identify the issue quickly and took all servers off-line immediately.