genealogical dna testing founded 2000 founder bennett greenspan max blankfeld and jim warren 1 headquarters houston tx area served international products atdna testing mtdna tests y dna testing owners bennett greenspan and max blankfeld website www.familytreedna.com family tree dna is a division of gene by gene a commercial genetic testing company based in houston texas . family tree dna offers analysis of autosomal dna y dna and mitochondrial dna to individuals for genealogical purpose . it is the most popular company worldwide for y dna and mitochondrial dna and the third most popular for autosomal dna . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 concept and founding 2000 2002 1.2 early testing 2000 2006 1.3 opening of the genomics research center 1.4 partnerships 2 dna testing products 2.1 autosomal dna testing 2.2 y dna testing 2.3 mtdna testing 3 national geographic geno 2.0 4 gene by gene 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit concept and founding 2000 2002 edit family tree dna was founded based on an idea conceived by bennett greenspan a lifelong entrepreneur and genealogy enthusiast . in 1999 greenspan had entered semi retirement and was working on his family history . he began work on his mother s nitz lineage . 3 4 5 when faced with a roadblock in his work he remembered two cases of genetics being used to prove ancestry that had recently been covered by the media . these were a study by university of arizona researchers showing that many cohen men from both ashkenazic and sephardic groups share the same y chromosome 6 and a study that showed that male descendants of us president thomas jefferson and male descendants of his freed slave sally hemings shared the same y chromosome and a recent common ancestry . 7 greenspan had both nitz cousins in california and had discovered someone in argentina with the same ancestral surname and the same ancestral location in eastern europe . wishing to use the same method of dna comparison for his own genealogy he contacted dr. michael hammer at the university of arizona . greenspan discovered that academic labs did not offer testing directly to the public and that in general direct to consumer testing for genealogy was not commercially available either . their conversation inspired him to start a company dedicated to using genetics to solve genealogy problems . 5 8 9 it was early 2000 when greenspan with his business partners max blankfeld and jim warren officially launched family tree dna . 1 initially the arizona research labs at the university of arizona performed all testing for family tree dna . family tree dna includes among its scientific staff dr. michael hammer phd one of a team of scientists that first published on the cohen modal haplotype in 1997 in the journal nature . 6 family tree dna began with a proof in concept group of twenty four that returned results in january . they began by offering 12 y chromosome str marker tests much like those used in many scientific publications of the time in march 2000 . family tree dna became widely known for its y chromosome str testing for the cohen modal haplotype . 10 soon they were offering not only dna tests but an interface by which dedicated genealogists could run surname research studies . the first person to create such a project through the family tree dna site was doug mumma . it was the mumma project . 10 early testing 2000 2006 edit the first tests offered by family tree dna were y chromosome str and mitochondrial dna mtdna tests like those used by published academic studies at the time . citation needed family tree dna s initial y chromosome tests were described as 11 marker tests . they eventually began to call this a 12 str marker test as one of the strs dys385 almost always had two copies . this they billed as a method to affirm or disprove a genealogical connection on the direct paternal line . citation needed family tree dna s first mtdna tests were for hvr1 hypervariable region 1 of the mtdna . citation needed eventually they added a plus test that tested for both hvr1 and hvr2 . citation needed in the early days they did not confirm haplogroups for either mtdna or y dna . citation needed opening of the genomics research center edit in 2006 family tree dna bought out the assets of dna fingerprint which was a german paternity testing company that offered la carte testing to the genetic genealogy testing community . with this buyout thomas and astrid krahn who had owned dna fingerprint moved to houston texas and helped open the genomics research center . citation needed the genomics research center initially did testing for many of the same products that had been sold by dna fingerprint . they began to offer individual and panels of y chromosome snp tests using sanger testing methods . they also offered the mtdna full genome test and upgrades to it using the sanger testing method . citation needed soon came the launch of the walk through the y wty test . the wty test offered the most adventurous of citizen scientists the chance to seek the discovery of new y chromosome snps . 11 meanwhile most testing continued to be done at the university of arizona lab . the demand for additional test types lead greenspan and blankfeld to move all testing to their own testing lab in houston texas under the genealogy by genetics ltd. parent company . 1 partnerships edit between 2007 and 2010 family tree dna forged several new partnerships that allowed them to access additional international markets . igenea the first of family tree dna s new partnerships was with the switzerland based igenea company . it was formed alongside the closing of dna fingerprint and thomas krahn s helping open the genomic research center in houston . their website is available in english french german italian and spanish . 12 13 african dna in late 2007 henry louis gates phd created african dna in partnership with family tree dna to help promote genetic testing for personal ancestry among african americans . 14 dna ancestry & family origin dna ancestry & family origin dna ancestry & family origin is a genetic genealogy testing partnership between family tree dna and eastern biotech & life sciences . their website is available in both english and arabic . 15 myheritage in november 2008 a dynamic partnership with myheritage was launched allowing users to incorporate dna testing and advanced family tree technologies into their family history research . myheritage is a website offering online mobile and software platforms for discovering preserving and sharing family history worldwide . 16 dna testing products edit this section needs expansion . you can help by adding to it . july 2015 autosomal dna testing edit in may 2010 family tree dna launched an autosomal microarray chip based dna test . they called the new product family finder . the initial product used an affymetrix microarray chip but family tree dna changed to the illumina omniexpress chip and retested all customers who had results from the affymetrix chip for forward compatibility . 17 family finder allows customers to match relatives as distant as about fifth cousins . family finder also includes a component called myorigins . the results of this test provide percentages of a dna associated with general regions or specific ethnic groups e.g. western europe asia jewish native american etc. . notably unlike other testing companies they chose to strip out markers for mendelian medical issues mtdna results and y dna snp results . y dna testing edit the company markets a range of y dna tests . the y chromosome is imherited from father to son so testers can discover relatives with the same patrilineage . in many cultures these relatives will often share the same surname since surnames are also iherited father to son . these tests cover 37 111 str markers depending on the test and vary in price according to the number of markers covered . 17 once an individual has tested at least 12 str markers 18 they may take the big y test . big y tests approximately 20 000 snps . mtdna testing edit family tree dna also sells mtdna testing offering the choice of either a limited hypervariable region test or a full sequence test of the entire mitochondrial dna chromosome . 17 national geographic geno 2.0 edit family tree dna staff were instrumental in developing the geno 2.0 product for the second phase of the genographic project . 19 geno 2.0 samples for both public and scientific study are run at the genomics research center in houston texas that is operated by family tree dna s parent company gene by gene ltd. gene by gene edit main article gene by gene in september 2012 greenspan and blankfeld restructured family tree dna s parent company genealogy by genetics ltd. this included their renaming genealogy by genetics ltd. as gene by gene ltd. 20 21 22 23 after restructuring the business comprises four divisions one of these being family tree dna for genealogical dna tests . it is gene by gene ltd. that now operates the genomics research center grc lab in houston texas . 20 23 24 see also edit genetic genealogy ancient dna genealogical dna test genetic genealogy human mitochondrial genetics phylogenetic tree short tandem repeat single nucleotide polymorphism test types dna microarray dna sequencing polymerase chain reaction sanger sequencing test manufactures affymetrix applied biosystems illumina genetic genealogy and anthro genetics companies 23andme decodeme genetree international society of genetic genealogy isogg sorenson molecular genealogy foundation smgf references edit a b c bradford nicole february 24 2008 . riding the genetic revolution . houston business journal . retrieved june 19 2013 . autosomal dna testing comparison chart . isogg . retrieved 31 july 2016 . capper russ november 15 2008 . bennett greenspan of familytreedna.com . the businessmakers radio show . retrieved june 14 2013 . dardashti schelly talalay march 30 2008 . when oral history meets genetics . the jerusalem post . retrieved june 14 2013 . greenspan born and raised in omaha nebraska has been interested in genealogy from a very young age ; he drew his first family tree at age 11 . a b lomax john nova april 14 2005 . who s your daddy . houston press . retrieved june 14 2013 . a real estate developer and entrepreneur greenspan has been interested in genealogy since his preteen days . a b skorecki karl ; selig sara ; blazer shraga ; bradman robert ; bradman neil ; waburton p. j. ; ismajlowicz monica ; hammer michael f. january 1 1997 . y chromosomes of jewish priests . nature . 385 6611 32 . doi 10.1038 385032a0 . pmid 8985243 . national genealogical society quarterly . 93 1 4 . national genealogical society . 2005 248 . businessman bennett greenspan hoped that the approach used in the jefferson and cohen research would help family historians . after reaching a brick wall on his mother s surname nitz he discovered and argentine researching the same surname . greenspan enlisted the help of a male nitz cousin . a scientist involved in the original cohen investigation tested the argentine s and greenspan s cousin s y chromosomes . their haplotypes matched perfectly . gibbens pam april 2006 . talk of the town at familytree dna it s all relative . greater houston weekly houston chronicle . retrieved february 15 2012 . belli anne january 18 2005 . moneymakers bennett greenspan . houston chronicle . retrieved june 14 2013 . years of researching his family tree through records and documents revealed roots in argentina but he ran out of leads looking for his maternal great grandfather . after hearing about new genetic testing at the university of arizona he persuaded a scientist there