It’s unclear at this point whether the acquisition will have any substantial impact on AncestryDNA’s operations or its privacy and security policies. In August 2020, Blackstone Group, the largest private equity firm in the world, announced a deal to acquire a roughly 75% ownership stake in AncestryDNA from a trio of other private equity firms.GEDmatch said that “DNA information was not compromised, as GEDmatch does not store raw DNA files on the site,” but the incident is yet another reminder that once your genetic information is on the internet, there’s no guarantee it will remain private. In July 2020, the GEDmatch website was hacked, resulting in users who had opted out of law enforcement matching being opted in, and private profiles being made public.DeAngelo was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on August 21, 2020. California law enforcement officials solved the case by uploading the suspect’s data to GEDmatch, ultimately identifying him through relatives with matching DNA. In June 2020, Joseph DeAngelo pleaded guilty in the Golden State Killer case, 45 years after his crimes began.The detective said GEDmatch complied with the warrant within 24 hours, making this the first case we know of where the operator of such a database handed over customer information as a result of a court order. In November 2019, the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida issued a warrant to allow a detective to override user privacy settings and search the GEDmatch database.FamilyTreeDNA acknowledged in early 2019 that it has been working voluntarily with federal law enforcement in criminal investigations, allowing agents to upload crime-scene DNA to look for familial matches among the company’s customers.In Canada, immigration officials have used DNA samples and consumer-oriented ancestry websites in an effort to establish the nationality of migrants.The first medicine the two companies are working on together is an anti-cancer antibody, a spokesperson for 23andMe said in September 2020. 23andMe made news in 2018 when it announced a $300 million, four-year deal to provide pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline access to its customers’ genetic data.It can tell you you’re related to someone, but DNA can’t distinguish between a first cousin, a half aunt or half uncle, or a great-grandparent.” Except in very close relationships, DNA alone can’t provide the answer. “It’s something you do with, not instead of, regular research. “DNA works hand-in-hand with paper trail documentation,” said Judy Russell, genealogy lecturer, educator, and author of the blog The Legal Genealogist. But Collier and other experts agree that DNA testing is just one tool in the genealogy tool belt, and far from the final word in establishing family connections. Collier, genealogical researcher and author of Mississippi to Africa: A Journey of Discovery, via email. “I have utilized autosomal DNA tests to find long-lost branches of my family tree that my family and I were totally unaware of and likely would have never been found had it not been for DNA,” said Melvin J. The first page of the book gave Joseph’s birthplace in Germany and the name of the church where he was baptized.If you’re taking on the challenge of building a detailed family tree, a DNA test can provide useful information about your ancestry. Even though the book was about Joseph and his descendants, there might be valuable information in it. The immigrant ancestor in this book was Joseph, who was supposedly Caspar’s brother, but that relationship had never been proven. One of the last items that I looked at was a family history book published in 2001. I created a timeline in Excel and began to enter data. I gathered all of the books, family trees, photos, etc., that I had collected on Caspar and his descendants. Carefully reviewing all of my sources was important. I could have forgotten to go back to search online for a source that I could not access previously.įinally, I could easily have missed an important piece of information in the sources that I had used. In addition, new collections are digitized and made available online every day. I had high hopes that I had learned something since I first started researching that might help me now. One of the reasons I took this approach is the fact that when I began my research over 20 years ago, I was still a rookie in the world of family history. Instead of resuming my research from where I stopped the last time, I decided to start fresh. However, I decided to approach the search differently this time. This is not the first time I have searched for Caspar’s birthplace.