Key Takeaways
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At 23andMe, we believe your DNA holds the key to stories you’ve never heard and people you’ve never met. Today, we’re excited to introduce a groundbreaking new feature that uncovers ancestral stories hidden in your DNA: Reconstructed Ancestors.
This innovative experience uses the DNA you share with close and distant relatives to piece together the genetic profiles of your ancestors, revealing insights into their ancestry composition and what they passed down to you.
Unlocking Your Family’s Untold Stories
For many of us, family history has blank spaces. Maybe it’s because records were lost or destroyed or never existed in the first place. Maybe no one really talked about “that side” of the family. Reconstructed Ancestors helps bridge those gaps by using DNA to learn about how ancestry from different global populations moves through branches of your family tree.
23andMe can use your genetic relatives to rebuild parts of your ancestors’ genetic profiles. That means you can learn more about ancestors who were never genotyped and who may no longer be here to share their stories.
GRAMPA: The DNA Detective Behind the Scenes
Behind the scenes is our GRAMPA algorithm (Genotype Reconstruction and Ancestral Mixture Proportions in Ancestors). Think of it like a genetic jigsaw puzzle: each piece of DNA you share with another relative has traveled through a shared ancestor. GRAMPA uses these overlapping segments, scattered across hundreds or even thousands of relatives to piece together the genome of that shared ancestor.
The more relatives who test, and the more relatives you add to your family tree, the more pieces we have and the clearer the picture becomes.
An Ever-Growing Portrait of Your Family’s Past
Reconstructing an ancestor starts with our DNA Relatives feature. By opting in, you allow 23andMe to identify and connect you to people who share DNA with you. These connections form the foundation of your automatic, DNA-based Family Tree and it’s from this tree that we can begin to reconstruct your recent ancestors. First, we scan the database for shared DNA segments between you and your relatives. Then we begin piecing together those segments into an ancestor profile, revealing what we can for now and continuing to add more over time.
Each reconstructed ancestor profile is unique and dynamic. As you build out your Family Tree, and as the 23andMe DNA database grows, more puzzle pieces are added to the ancestor profile. You can see what percentage of your DNA you inherited from that ancestor, explore their likely ancestry and begin to imagine who they might have been. The story deepens, details emerge, and a clearer picture of your family history begins to take shape.
Importantly, your privacy remains central. You control who sees your Reconstructed Ancestors, your Family Tree and how your information is used, ensuring your journey into your family’s past is both meaningful and secure.
Why It’s Different
Reconstructed Ancestors is the first and only feature of its kind. It covers more than just inheritance; it rebuilds the genome of the person behind the inheritance. And it’s not limited to parents. At launch, the feature will include ancestors up to grandparents. Our hope is that one day you will be able to accurately piece together your entire family tree, including the gaps, with DNA as your guide.
Real Stories, New Connections
More than 200,000 23andMe customers who self-report as an adoptee have already found close relatives in our database. For those who cannot make that connection yet, Reconstructed Ancestors offers a new kind of discovery, a way to learn about their ancestry inheritance, a way to feel closer to a relative they’ve never met.
It’s about more than just genetics. It’s about reclaiming pieces of your past that history forgot.
Available for Subscribers
Reconstructed Ancestors will be available for 23andMe+ Premium™ and Total Health™ members. There’s no need to provide another DNA sample or wait for results.
And this is just the beginning. Your family story is still unfolding. Every new relative who joins 23andMe helps add more pieces to the puzzle and brings you one step closer to understanding where you come from.
