<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-16670 size-full" title="Mayim's connections" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Mayims-connections-e1674589980933.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="435" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Mayims-connections-e1674589980933.jpg 450w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Mayims-connections-e1674589980933-300x290.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" />
We plead guilty to occasionally geeking out on genetics, so it’s nice to see when someone else does it too.
In September, Moment Magazine got all nerdy and wrote about their<a href="http://www.momentmag.com/the-moment-magazine-great-dna-experiment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Great DNA Experiment</a>, in which they look at the 23andMe results of 15 notable Americans of Jewish ancestry and make some interesting genetic connections. It’s a good illustration of how our DNA can tell us about our interconnectedness.
The piece shows it’s not “six degrees” that separates these individuals from each other, but, in all but one case, no degrees of separation. This means that these individuals are all directly related to one another, albeit in most cases distantly. This was also news to the 15 participants.
All but one of the individuals has Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. The one exception is Linda Chavez, the political commentator, who descended from Conversos, indivduals of Jewish and Muslim ancestry who converted to Catholicism during the Inquisition. Her ancestors eventually settled in New Mexico. But even in her case, although she isn’t directly related to any of the group, she is connected to each of the others individuals focused on in the piece by just one other individual in the 23andMe database.
The connections shown in the article are what prompted The New York Times columnist David Brooks and NPR “All Things Considered” host Robert Siegel to joke about learning they were distant cousins, sharing a common ancestor several generations back. Brooks kidded that he was “most surprised that our ancestors worked together on National Schetl Radio, on a program called ‘All Pogroms Considered.’” (Maybe the line needs a drum roll to work.)
The article shows the genetic connections between people like Mayim Bialik, the actress on the Big Bang Theory, and Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics. Or the connections between NPR’s Siegel, and Harvard Law professor, Alan Dershowitz, or his connections to 23andMe’s CEO’s mother Esther Wojcicki, a journalist and teacher. The magazine shows the connections and the amount of shared DNA, measured in centimorgans (cMs), to illustrate the “relatedness” of any two individuals. More closely related individuals share more DNA.
So why is all this interesting?
It is a very specific example of unexpected connectedness. We&#8217;ve written about this <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/news/make-that-three-degrees-of-separation/">interconnectedness before</a>. We’ve even seen unexpected connectedness <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/ancestry/23andmes-three-degrees-of-separation/">among 23andMe employees</a>. Even in cases with people who have vastly different backgrounds and experiences, one can use genetics to create a short chain of people to connect any two individuals to each other. A little geeky, yes, but pretty cool nonetheless.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

Using 23andMe to Make Connections

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-15111 size-medium" title="Got Neanderthal?" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Got-Neanderthal-300x206.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="206" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Got-Neanderthal-300x206.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Got-Neanderthal.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Not everyone would embrace their inner caveman, but in <a href="https://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_evolution/2012/10/neanderthal_and_denisovan_genetics_human_ancestors_interbred_with_extinct.single.html#pagebreak_anchor_2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">today’s Slate</a> Ann Gibbons sure did.
<a href="http://www.anngibbons.com/">Gibbons</a>, who also writes for Science, is the author of the book The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors. Over almost two decades, she’s delved into the discoveries around human evolution.
In her Slate piece she writes about getting tested by 23andMe. While she was interested in her European ancestry, what really drew her in was the portion of her results that showed she has 2.9 percent Neanderthal DNA.
For someone who has spent years writing about the march of mankind from our earliest ancestors to the emergence of modern humans, finding a tangible link to the past is powerful stuff. The PBS show NOVA scienceNOW recently aired a piece that nicely crafts a story about <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/what-makes-us-human-pro.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">what it means to humans</a> to share Neanderthal DNA.
For a lot of us here, although Neanderthals disappeared long ago, it&#8217;s most intriguing that their DNA continues to live on in all non-African people. It may be that the DNA of other prehistoric human groups also are intermixed in our own DNA. Much like with Neanderthals, scientists extracted ancient DNA from the skeletal remains of another ancient cousin known as the Denisovans. The remains – a finger bone – was found in a cave in Siberia, showed that Denisovans were cousins of Neanderthals, who lived in Asia and disappeared about 40,000 years ago. Their DNA is found today in Melanasians.
As for Neanderthals, 23andMe launched our popular Neanderthal Lab about a year ago. It allows customers to determine what percentage of their DNA is Neanderthal. A typical range is between 1 percent and 4 percent with the average being about 2.5 percent, but there are outliers, who have much more.
Check out these posts about Neanderthals and Humans: 
&#8211; <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/did-humans-and-neanderthals-have-sex/">Did Humans and Neanderthals Have Sex?</a> 
&#8211;<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/find-your-inner-neanderthal"> Find Your Inner Neanderthal</a> 
&#8211;<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/new-evidence-suggests-interbreeding-between-humans-and-neanderthals"> New Evidence Suggests Humans and Neanderthal Interbreeding</a>
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Got Neanderthal DNA?
23andMe customers can find their inner Neanderthal or at least how much Neanderthal DNA they have at <a href=" https://www.23andme.com/you/labs/neanderthal/">23andMe Ancestry Labs</a>. Not yet a customer? <a href="https://www.23andme.com/store">Visit our store</a>!
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More On 23andMe’s Neanderthal Lab

by Emily Chang, Joanna Mountain, and Mike Macpherson
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-15198 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Haplogroup10-300x193.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="193" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Haplogroup10-300x193.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Haplogroup10-768x495.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Haplogroup10-1024x660.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Haplogroup10-880x567.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Haplogroup10-1180x760.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> 
 Click on the image above for a larger version of this chart, which shows that some ancestry combinations are more common than others in the 23andMe database.
Given the United States&#8217;s “melting pot” nature, it is not surprising that most Americans have mixed ancestry.
Like many of my fellow citizens, my ancestry is a long recipe: a bit of English, a dash of German, a pinch of Hungarian. Should my husband and I have kids, my children will have Chinese ancestry, too. Such mixed ancestry is becoming increasingly the norm, and genetics turns out to be a very useful tool to explore it.
Traditionally, genetic ancestry focused on two particular pieces of DNA, mitochondrial DNA and the Y-chromosome.  Your maternal line includes your mother, your maternal grandmother, her mother before her, and so on; likewise, your paternal line includes your father, your paternal father, his father before him, and so on. The paternal line is determined using the Y chromosome, which determines whether a person is male and only men can pass down. The maternal line is determined using the DNA found inside mitochondria, small energy-producing cellular machines with their own genetic blueprints.
Both men and women have mitochondrial DNA, but only women pass on their mitochondrial DNA to children.
These days, genetic ancestry tools like 23andMe use DNA from all of your 23 pairs of chromosomes to offer insights into your heritage.  However, information about maternal and paternal lines, which can reflect ancestral origins, can yield interesting insights.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-15199 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/MaternalPaternalLines-300x283.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="283" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/MaternalPaternalLines-300x283.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/MaternalPaternalLines.jpg 400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> This figure shows the paternal line in blue and the maternal line in pink. Your maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather are members of your maternal and paternal lines, respectively.
Our large customer database shows that some ancestry combinations are more common than others among our customers. Given a pair of ancestral origins, there are two ways to combine the maternal and paternal lines: a maternal line of the first ancestry with a paternal line of the second ancestry or a paternal line of the first ancestry with a maternal line of the second ancestry.
Our database shows that these two ways of combining the maternal and paternal lines are not equally common, indicating gender trends in mating. For instance, about 3.5 times as many 23andMe customers have a maternal line indicative of African ancestry and a paternal line indicative of European ancestry than the reverse. This mating trend probably reflects, in part, a disgraceful period in the United States&#8217; past in which white male slave owners fathered children with enslaved African American women rather than recent trends in interracial marriages. More recent marriage patterns actually reflect a trend in the opposite direction.
The 2010 US census shows that a “white” wife and “black” husband is 2.3 times more common than a “white” husband and “black” wife [note: the terms “black” and “white” were the descriptors used in the US census report].
The maternal and paternal lines of the 23andMe customers, thus, tell the sad truth of the treatment of enslaved African American women. In one episode of the television program Finding Your Roots, Condoleezza Rice says this aspect of United States history is an “unhealed wound in America” and that we have trouble talking about what really happened during slavery. She is right. Most of us would rather not talk about the rape of enslaved African American women, but DNA isn’t shy about addressing this ugly truth. As we study and learn about these genetic patterns, we face one of the most disturbing aspects of United States history &#8212; a vital step towards healing that unhealed wound to which Rice referred.
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-12163" style="float: left; margin-right: 15px;" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/JRBgdIBXKIeVIdETJrxYIw_ttam_logo.jpg" alt="" width="24" height="40" /> Learn more about <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/ancestry">your ancestry</a> in your  23andMe account.
Not yet a customer? Visit our <a href="https://www.23andme.com/store/cart/">store</a> or <a href="https://www.23andme.com/ancestry">learn more</a>.
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A similar but less extreme pattern was observed for individuals of Asian and European ancestry; about 1.7 times as many 23andMe customers have a European paternal line in conjunction with an Asian maternal line than have an Asian paternal line with a European maternal line. The reason for this particular mating trend can not be traced to slavery and may have more complex sociological and historical origins.  Regardless of its source, however, the trend is supported by other studies. The large <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/02/16/the-rise-of-intermarriage/">PEW study</a> on interracial marriage released this past February which observed that Asian American women were more likely to have an interracial marriage than Asian American men, and the US Census Bureau, which captures a wider segment of our society than the 23andMe database, shows an even stronger trend &#8212; a “white” husband and “Asian” wife is 2.4 times more common than a “white” wife and “Asian” husband [note: the terms “Asian” and “white” were the descriptors used in the US census report].
Our DNA holds a lot of information. It tells us who we are and who we, collectively, were. The mating trends seen in the maternal and paternal lines of 23andMe customers reflect complex sociological and historical truths, even some historical truths that are difficult to face. Genetics helps us learn more about who we are and who we were, hoping that such knowledge will translate into less racism and more appreciation for people who are different from ourselves.

Emily Chang

Who Planted The Family Tree?

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-6445" title="elderly_1" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/elderly_1-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/elderly_1-300x199.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/elderly_1.jpg 425w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
A study published in March in the journal <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0032840">PLoS ONE</a> suggests that having more African ancestry is associated with higher risk for type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in the United States, affecting about 26 million people and more than 25% of the population over the age of 65. While most people realize that lifestyle factors like an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise increase the risk of developing the disease, many may not realize that ancestry plays a role, too. In fact, type 2 diabetes strikes non-white ethnic groups at higher rates, with African Americans experiencing the highest rates of all. 
 
Higher rates of obesity and heart disease, and lower socioeconomic status in the African American population certainly contribute to this trend, but, as <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0032840">this study</a> found, those factors aren’t the whole story. Led by Ching-Yu Cheng and Linda Kao from Johns Hopkins University, the research team analyzed DNA from more than 7,000 African Americans and found that those with the most (&gt; 87.5%) African ancestry had about 33% higher odds of type 2 diabetes compared to those with the least (&lt; 80.5%) African ancestry after accounting for body mass index (BMI) and socioeconomic status.
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See your <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/ancestry">ancestry breakdown</a> in your 23andMe account.
Not yet a customer? <a href="https://www.23andme.com/store">Visit our store</a>!
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A person’s ancestry can be traced back to various regions of the world (e.g., Europe, Asia, and Africa) using genetic markers that are known to be indicative of those ancestral groups. On average, the African Americans in the study had about 84% African ancestry.
Cheng and Kao’s findings add further support to the idea that differences in disease rates across different populations can be partly explained by ancestry genetics. A previous study looking at <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/the-ancestry-link-for-atrial-fibrillation-risk">atrial fibrillation (a heart rhythm disorder) in African Americans</a> also found that having more African ancestry correlated with higher odds of the condition. Most likely, correlations like these reflect variations in the frequency of many different genetic factors involved in disease. In a few cases, though, individual genetic factors can have greater importance. For example, in East Asians, who have some of the highest rates of esophageal cancer in the world, a specific genetic factor causing the “<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/researchers-warn-that-physicians-need-to-ask-about-alcohol-flushing-to-reduce-esophageal-cancer-risk">alcohol flush</a>” reaction plays a direct role in the development of esophageal cancer.
Studies like this one highlight the complex interplay between ancestry and health in African Americans, the vast majority of whom can trace significant parts of their ancestry back to at least two continents. Combined with <a href="https://www.23andme.com/ancestry/recent/">DNA-based tools</a> that allow people to see their <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">ancestral breakdown</a>, health risk assessments that incorporate genetic ancestry may help make healthcare more personalized.

African Ancestry and Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

Three Degrees of 23andMe

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-421 size-full" title="Neanderthal" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/neanderthaler2.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="266" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/neanderthaler2.jpg 400w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/neanderthaler2-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" />
Did they really “do it?&#8221;
We’re not talking about actress Kristen Stewart and her “Snow White and the Huntsman” director; We’re talking about Neanderthals and modern humans. 
Without meaning to get all People magazine on you, the question about whether modern humans and Neanderthals hooked up has again become a subject of scientific debate.
The short answer is yes, they had sex. At least, based on the science it certainly appears there was indeed “interbreeding” between modern humans and Neanderthals. 
But a counter argument published in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/08/14/1200567109">PNAS</a>, asserts that the shared DNA found in both modern humans and our Neanderthal cousins may have come from common African ancestors. Since the paper’s publication there has been a lot of coverage in the<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/aug/14/study-doubt-human-neanderthal-interbreeding"> popular press</a>, as well as<a href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/08/neanderthal-sex-debate-highlights-benefits-of-pre-publication.html"> science-centered publications</a>.
Several researchers have said the model supporting the theory that the shared DNA comes from a common African ancestor is wrong. Beyond that, the science done to support the theory of interbreeding actually took into account the idea that is the cornerstone of their theory and debunked it. 
Or as Discovery magazine blogger Razib Khan observed, “One could say that the appropriate follow up paper to the PNAS contribution was actually published before it.”
23andMe scientist Eric Durand, a computational biologists who helped work on the<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/site/special/neandertal/"> first draft of the Neanderthal genome</a> and on analysis of<a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v468/n7327/abs/nature09710.html"> the Denisova genome</a>– another of our early human cousins – said much the same thing.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-15111 size-medium" title="Got Neanderthal?" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Got-Neanderthal-300x206.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="206" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Got-Neanderthal-300x206.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Got-Neanderthal.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
“It is surprising that such a paper got published – and received so much press coverage – as the<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/328/5979/710.full"> initial paper</a> explored such a demographic model of ancient structure and wrote in the main text that it could explain the data,” Eric said. “At this time we simply regarded this model as less parsimonious than the recent admixture model, because the ancient structure model implies that barrier to gene flow consistently separated highly adaptable hominins for hundreds of generations.”
Beyond that paper published in Science two years ago, Eric worked with others from UC Berkeley on a<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22513287"> paper published earlier this yea</a>r, using another statistical approach that also undercuts the theory that a common African cousin explains the shared DNA between modern humans and Neanderthal.
What’s more exciting for Eric is that this more recent paper uses a new methodology to estimate that the interbreeding occurred between 37,000 and 86,000 years ago, or about the time when modern humans began their slow migration from Africa to Europe.
The estimate “actually coincides pretty well with the estimated time of the ‘out-of-Africa’ event,” Eric said.
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Got Neanderthal DNA?
23andMe customers can find their inner Neanderthal or at least how much Neanderthal DNA they have at <a href=" https://www.23andme.com/you/labs/neanderthal/">23andMe Ancestry Labs</a>. Not yet a customer? <a href="https://www.23andme.com/store">Visit our store</a>!
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Did Humans and Neanderthals Have Sex?

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-15043" title="mark_lg" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/mark_lg-240x300.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/mark_lg-240x300.jpg 240w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/mark_lg.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" />
Maybe you always knew you had music in your heart, but 23andMe shows <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/traits/musical-pitch">it’s in your genes</a> too.
Our <a href="https://www.23andme.com/ancestry/deep/">new lab,</a> developed by 23andMe’s   Mark Ackerley, gives customers the opportunity to create a unique melody from their DNA.
Mark, a composer trained at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, developed an algorithm that sorts through bits of your genetic data to create a melody that is totally personal.
“It’s fundamentally different because we look at so many parts of an individual&#8217;s DNA, that the total possible number of melodies is very high,” Mark explains.

Others have used DNA sequences – the chain of As, Cs, Gs and Ts that make up our genetic code – to create musical arrangements. But in those cases the code mostly provids a leaping off point for a composer to write an original tune. What Mark has done is different because the melody isn’t just inspired by your DNA, like you, the melody is created by it. Creation of the tune is fully automated with every note derived from your DNA.
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He did this by breaking down the essential parts of a melody – the pitch, rhythm, key and timbre of a piece of music – and then created an algorithm that uses your 23andMe data to make selections for each of those different components. He created a way to automatically arrange them so that the tool can assemble a coherent and pleasing melody each time.
“By using these guidelines we ensure we won’t get random notes or disjointed melodies,” he said.
It starts by using some of the 50 traits 23andMe reports to customers – height, for instance, or eye color – and assigning a specific rhythmic value based on your specific genotype. Rhythm is the duration of time that a note is held and provides the framework for the melody. The music lab then chooses a key using your assigned maternal haplogroup. So if your maternal haplogroup is H, for instance, it might select the key of C Major. Once the rhythm and key are determined the algorithm selects the pitches using some of the traits 23andMe reports on. Mark included guidelines to ensure that the melodies created abide by certain musical conventions while also keeping it free enough to produce plenty of variety.
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Hear the music in you and create your own DNA Melody. 
Not yet a customer? <a href="https://www.23andme.com/store/cart/">Visit our store! </a>
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Once the the melody is complete, you can pick the musical instrument that gives the melody the color or timbre (pronounced tam-bur) that most matches who you are. Mark has tried to give a selection of instruments that represent a variety of preferred sounds, so on top of guitars and pianos you can choose marimbas, or a hammer dulcimer, or steel drum to play the melody.
“We use enough variables to allow for the creation of hundreds of thousands of unique melodies,” Mark said.
For Mark this very personal soundprint – this DNA melody – brings up profound questions about music and people. In every culture since the dawn of man, music has been an integral component of life. Why is it that something that does not provide any basic necessities for survival, so strongly attached to the human experience?
For Mark the answer is simple:
“Music helps us feel connected and reminds us that there are universal qualities in humanity that we all share.”

We Got the Music in You

Over the last week 23andMe customers got a different view of their ancestry.


Since we launched our new<a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/ancestry/"> Ancestry Overview</a>, customers now get a quick and comprehensive summary of what their DNA tells them about themselves and their ancestors.


This new dashboard summary gives you a quick outline of where your ancestors likely came from, the number of relatives you’re matched with in our database and how closely they’re related to you, as well as other hard to find ancestry gems like our Neanderthal Lab or the just added feature that tracks the top surnames for your Relative Finder matches.
These changes help you dig deeper into your ancestry by giving you more tools and making the ones we already have easier to use.
For example, our very popular Relative Finder tool now includes a turbo-charged upgrade that displays your matches on a world map.

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-14614" title="RF Map" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/RF-Map-300x181.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="181" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/RF-Map-300x181.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/RF-Map.jpg 526w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
It’s not just a cool visualization; it’s also incredibly helpful for anyone on a genealogical hunt for ancestors. It can help you focus your search and triangulate between multiple sources of information by showing where in the world your relatives cluster.
You can also filter the results by how closely related to you the matches are. Beyond that it’s just a great way of telling you more about your family history, where you and your family are from and the places where your connections remain.
Another new feature we’ve added, but are still testing, is a Family Tree. The Family Tree is easy to share with others and offers customers a way to track a lot of family facts beyond just dates, such as major life events, occupation and health information.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-14629" title="family tree form" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/family-tree-form-300x172.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="172" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/family-tree-form-300x172.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/family-tree-form.jpg 498w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Because it’s sharable you don’t have to just rely on your work, but can pool the collective wisdom of your family members to fill in blanks in your tree.
Customers who’ve already done the work of creating a family tree elsewhere can import their GEDCOM data into 23andMe’s Family Tool. There is more to come. A few of our scientists are putting the final touches on a new Ancestry Painting analysis, which we believe will provide the most accurate breakdown of your genetic ancestry now being offered anywhere.
Our new Ancestry Painting will soon draw from approximately 20 different world regions, creating much finer detail of your genetic ancestry and a break down of European ancestry as well as a clear differentiation between Native American and Asian ancestry. We’ll keep you posted on when this new tool is ready.
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Take a look at your ancestry overview<a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/ancestry/"> here</a>. Not yet a customer? <a href="https://www.23andme.com/store/cart/">Visit our store!</a>
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23andMe’s New Look at Ancestry

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The dance is sort of a gnome-like jig – all knees and elbows and no hint of cool – but where Matt Harding gets you is in his pure unabashed release of happiness.

As you watch, a smile creeps across your face. You can’t help yourself.

For almost a decade, Matt has cobbled together the most unlikely of careers – making a video series in which, as he says, he “travels around the world dancing badly.”

The series, called<a href="http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> “Where the Hell is Matt?”</a>, started innocently enough when he was backpacking through Vietnam in 2003 after quitting his job as a video game programmer. On a lark, his buddy suggested that Matt, “do that stupid dance you do.” His friend videotaped him doing his silly shuffle next to a busy traffic circle with people walking by. There was no intent to share it with anyone but the video wound up on YouTube and went viral.

Fast-forward nine years, and Matt’s quirky videos have attracted almost 78 million views. More than 40 million people saw his last one, and over the last two years, he’s traveled to dozens and dozens of countries shooting his next video that he released <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&#038;v=Pwe-pA6TaZk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this week</a>. 
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As he was putting together the final touches on this latest video, Matt partnered up with 23andMe for another short little film. (Editor&#8217;s note: This video is no longer available online.)
In this one he’s meeting and dancing with strangers like in his other videos, but this time each person he’s dancing with – in Tucson, Colorado Springs, Minneapolis and San Francisco – has something in common with Matt. They each share some DNA.

Using 23andMe’s Relative Finder, Matt connected with distant cousins around the country. A few wanted to meet him in person so he crisscrossed the country in a very few days, and was introduced to relatives he never knew he had. Then, he danced with them.

“Having these people who I’ve just gotten to go around and meet, whom I’m related to, is really amazing,” said Matt. “Somewhere back on our family tree we have a common ancestor… I would’ve never known that without the DNA.”

For Matt this is where he sees the overlap with what he’s been doing over the years.

“It’s all about connectedness,” he said. “It’s all about seeing what we have in common. With 23andMe you realize that we all share the same roots, the same origin if you go back far enough. And yet we are all unique.”

Ancestry Service — Page 25