FamilyTreeDNA
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| Industry | Genealogical DNA testing |
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| Founded | 2000 |
| Founder | Bennett Greenspan, Max Blankfeld, and Jim Warren |
| Headquarters | Houston, TX |
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Area served
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International |
| Products | atDNA testing, , Y-DNA testing |
| Owners | Bennett Greenspan and Max Blankfeld |
| Website | www |
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 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.
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. 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 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.
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.
It was early 2000 when Greenspan with his business partners Max Blankfeld and Jim Warren officially launched Family Tree DNA. 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.
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.
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Wikipedia