47 lines
6.3 KiB
Markdown
47 lines
6.3 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Ancestry.com"
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chunk: 2/3
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestry.com"
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category: "reference"
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T14:17:34.067164+00:00"
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instance: "kb-cron"
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---
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==== 2010–2019 ====
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In 2010, Ancestry sold its book publishing assets to Turner Publishing Company.
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In 2010, Ancestry.com expanded its domestic operations with the opening of an office in San Francisco, California, staffed with brand new engineering, product, and marketing teams geared toward developing some of Ancestry's cutting-edge technology and services. In 2011, Ancestry launched an Android and iOS app.
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In December 2011, Ancestry.com moved the Social Security Death Index search behind a paywall and stopped displaying the Social Security information of people who had died within the past 10 years, because of identity theft concerns.
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In March 2012, Ancestry.com acquired the collection of DNA assets from GeneTree.
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In September 2012, Ancestry.com expanded its international operations with the opening of its European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. The Dublin office includes a new call center for international customers, as well as product, marketing, and engineering teams.
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In October 2012, Ancestry.com agreed to be acquired by a private equity group consisting of Permira Advisers LLP, members of Ancestry.com's management team, including CEO Tim Sullivan and CFO Howard Hochhauser, and Spectrum Equity, for $32 per share or around $1.6 billion. At the same time, Ancestry.com purchased a photo digitization and sharing service called 1000Memories.
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In 2013, Ancestry acquired Find a Grave from Jim Tipton, who had created the original site in 1995. Ancestry subsequently launched a redesigned version of Find a Grave in 2017.
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On July 16, 2015, Ancestry launched AncestryHealth, and announced the appointment of Cathy A. Petti as its Chief Health Officer. That year, Ancestry partnered with the Google subsidiary, Calico, to focus on longevity research and therapeutics, in an effort to investigate human heredity of lifespan.
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In April 2016, GIC Private Limited (a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Government of Singapore) and Silver Lake (a private equity fund manager) bought equity stakes in Ancestry.com. The estimated market value of Ancestry.com in 2017 was more than $3 billion.
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In June 2017, Ancestry.com stated that it was migrating all of its applications and data to Amazon Web Services (AWS).
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Through vintage photographs, a woman was able to document eight generations of her family, dating back to 1805, including an interracial couple. A controversial Ancestry.com advertisement had run on television stations in Utah, showing a slavery-era interracial couple. The advertisement was criticized by a news correspondent for Boston radio station WBUR-FM and MSNBC, and law professor Melissa Murray, on the grounds that it romanticized slavery in the antebellum South. In April 2019, Ancestry withdrew the advertisement with an apology.
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In November 2018, Ancestry claimed to have more than 10 billion digitized records and more than three-million paying customers.
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In December 2018, after authorities arrested the Golden State Killer and used GEDmatch to solve the case, Ancestry.com and 23andMe announced a data policy that they would not allow their DNA profiles to be used for crime solving without a valid legal process such as a search warrant, as they believe it violates users' privacy. In the 2021 case of the murder of George Seitz, Ancestry.com was used to help identify the remains of a crime victim.
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==== 2020–present ====
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In August 2020, The Blackstone Group announced plans to acquire Ancestry for $4.7 billion, and in December 2020 the acquisition occurred.
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In February 2021, Ancestry announced Deb Liu, a former Facebook executive, as their CEO effective March 1.
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In November 2021, Ancestry announced the acquisition of French Genealogy Company Geneanet.
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In March 2023, Ancestry announced that it had won a contract to digitize more than 3 million British Army service records, which it would release from 2024 through 2029. In February 2021, the Ministry Of Defence commenced transferring 9.7 million military records for individuals with a discharge date before December 31, 1963, to The National Archives UK, its largest record transfer in the history of the organization.
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Ancestry's Board of Directors selected CFO and COO Howard Hochhauser to succeed Deb Liu as the company's President & CEO effective February 1, 2025. Hochhauser will continue to serve as a member of the Board. The company has initiated a search for a new CFO.
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== Subsidiaries ==
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=== AncestryDNA ===
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AncestryDNA is a subsidiary of Ancestry LLC. AncestryDNA offers a direct-to-consumer genealogical DNA test. Consumers provide a sample of their DNA to the company for analysis. AncestryDNA then uses DNA sequences to infer family relationships with other Ancestry DNA users, and to infer "ancestral regions" (previously "ethnicity estimates"). Previously, Ancestry.com also offered paternal Y-chromosome DNA and maternal mitochondrial DNA tests, but those were discontinued in June 2014. The company describes the technical process of testing in a series of scientific white papers. In July 2020, the company claimed that their database contained 18 million completed DNA kits bought by customers.
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Ancestry DNA is commonly used for donor conceived persons to find their biological siblings and in some cases their sperm or egg donor.
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The testing itself is performed by Quest Diagnostics.
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AncestryDNA offers the option to participate in their Human Diversity Project, a "scientific research project aimed at helping scientists better understand population history, population movements, and human health".
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Members can also pay an additional fee to access DNA traits, which range from predicted physical traits to limited health data.
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=== Know Your Pet DNA ===
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Since 2023, Ancestry has also offered genetic testing for pets, which at the moment is limited to dogs. The test compares the DNA to more than 400 breeds.
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=== Find a Grave ===
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On September 30, 2013, Ancestry.com announced its acquisition of Find a Grave. Site editor Jim Tipton said of the purchase that Ancestry.com had "been linking and driving traffic to the site for several years. Burial information is a wonderful source for people researching their family history". Ancestry.com launched a mobile app in March 2014. |