Changes at the top at Ancestry

At the beginning of December 2020 it was announced that Margo Georgiadis, Ancestry's President and CEO, was planning to step down at the end of the year. Georgiadis joined the company in 2018 and presided over the launch of the short-lived AncestryHealth test in the US which was subsequently discontinued in January 2021. During her tenure the subscriber base expanded to 3.6 million and the AncestryDNA database grew to nearly 20 million people. 

At the end of January, Ancestry announced that Mark Thompson, the former Director General of the BBC, had been appointed as Chairman of the Board at Ancestry.  Here is the text of the press release from Ancestry:

LEHI, Utah and SAN FRANCISCO -- Jan. 29, 2021-- Ancestry®, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, today announced the appointment of Mark Thompson as chairman of the board.

Thompson formerly served as President & CEO at The New York Times Company, where he led the 170-year-old brand’s transformation into the world's fastest-growing and most successful news digital subscription business. During his tenure, digital subscriptions grew nine-fold to over five million and the company's market cap increased nearly five times.

Thompson’s appointment at The New York Times Company followed an eight-year term as Director General (CEO and Editor-in-Chief) of the BBC. He is widely credited with expanding the BBC’s digital and global reach and overseeing development of the BBC iPlayer. He joined the BBC from Channel 4, where he was Chief Executive from 2002 to 2004.

“I'm honored to be named as Chairman of the Board for Ancestry and excited to support the next chapter in the company's success,” said Thompson. “Ancestry is already the world leader in its category but I believe it has the potential to grow much further. I’m looking forward to working with the board and management team to build the business through innovation, product enhancements and investment in records, technology and data science so that many more people around the world can embark on their own journeys of personal and family discovery."

David Kestnbaum, a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, and Sachin Bavishi, a Managing Director at Blackstone, said “Mark’s long history of leadership, coupled with his successful track record in leading subscription and content businesses makes him an ideal Chairman. He brings a great deal of skill and strategic expertise to Ancestry. The company and the board look forward to working closely with him to accelerate Ancestry’s next phase of growth.”

Thompson was educated at Stonyhurst College and Merton College, Oxford.

This week, a few day's after the announcement of Thompson's appointment, Ancestry's Board of Directors announced that they had appointed Deborah Liu as their new Chief Executive Officer. Here is the text of the press release from Ancestry:

LEHI, Utah and SAN FRANCISCO -- February 2, 2021-- Ancestry®, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Deborah (Deb) Liu as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the company’s Board of Directors, effective March 1.

Liu joins Ancestry from Facebook where she most recently created and led Facebook's Marketplace product group. Prior to Facebook, Liu held leadership roles at eBay and PayPal. Liu is actively involved in promoting diversity and women in technology and co-created the Women in Product​ nonprofit. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Intuit Inc.

“It’s an honor to join Ancestry. I’m excited to help craft the company’s next chapter, accelerating growth in Family History subscriptions and AncestryDNA by bringing the product to more people around the world,” said Liu. “I have tremendous admiration for Ancestry’s rich history and powerful mission to empower journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. Finding and sharing our family history and understanding the challenges and triumphs our ancestors faced helps u​s feel a greater sense of connection and belonging and ultimately realize our shared humanity.”

“Ancestry already leads the field in its category but still has the potential to attract many new customers and grow its business still further,” said Mark Thompson, chairman of Ancestry’s Board of Directors. “In the course of an extensive search, it became clear to all of us that Deb was the perfect next CEO of Ancestry. She has a proven track record of product innovation and deep experience in building global consumer technology platforms. She is an outstanding leader able to inspire and motivate teams to achieve their goals.”

David Kestnbaum, a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, and Sachin Bavishi, a Managing Director at Blackstone, said: “Deb is a terrific leader with a very strong track record of driving innovation and growth, as well as building world-class product and technology platforms. We are excited about Ancestry’s future and look forward to partnering with Deb as she leads the company into its next phase of growth.”

What does this mean?

These moves would appear to signal a welcome change of direction for Ancestry and a return to their core genealogy market with the aim of increasing family history subscriptions around the world and expanding sales of the AncestryDNA test in the international market. Of all the DNA testing companies, Ancestry has the smallest presence in the global market and their test is only sold in just over 30 countries so there is plenty of room for growth.

Launch of AncestryHealth® in the US

Ancestry have today announced the launch of AncestryHealth®, a new genetic health testing service. The test is currently only available to customers in the US, but cannot currently be sold to people living in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. AncestryHealth® has to be ordered through a doctor and you need to be over 18 to place an order. The test is currently being offered to existing Ancestry members before being rolled out to the general public.

Here is the press release I have received from Ancestry:

Ancestry® Announces Genotype and Next Generation Genetic Sequencing Services 

LEHI, Utah & SAN FRANCISCO - (Oct. 15, 2019) – For more than 30 years, Ancestry®, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, has built innovative services that empower millions of people to make more meaningful discoveries about themselves and their families. First with family history, then through DNA and today, with the introduction of AncestryHealth®. AncestryHealth is a long-term commitment to making a difference in preventive health through personalized and actionable insights. 

Through a highly supportive and guided experience, AncestryHealth services deliver actionable insights that can empower people to take proactive steps -- in collaboration with their healthcare provider -- to address potential health risks identified in their genes and family health history. In a recent AncestryDNA® customer survey, 83 percent of respondents said they are looking for new ways to improve their health and 89 percent said it is critical for their children to learn about improving their health. 

AncestryHealth is launching with two new services. AncestryHealth Core™, a one-time, array-based service, and AncestryHealth Plus™, a membership service using next generation sequencing (NGS) technology, help people start on the path toward better health for themselves and their families. 

AncestryHealth services include:

• Physician-ordered tests that were developed and are performed by independent CLIA-certified laboratories
• Educational information, including access to genetic counseling resources
• Printable consumer and physician-ready reports that provide guidance for next steps an individual and their healthcare provider can take together

Ancestry has partnered with PWNHealth, an independent network of board-certified physicians and genetic counselors, to offer these services, which are included in both AncestryHealth Core and AncestryHealth Plus. 

“Your genes don’t need to be your destiny. Understanding your familial and inherited health risks can help you take action with your doctor to improve your chances of better health outcomes,” said Margo Georgiadis, chief executive officer of Ancestry. “For more than three decades, Ancestry has empowered journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. In the same way that knowledge of your family and ethnicity helps you understand your past to inspire your future, knowledge of your genetic health profile and any associated risks can help you be proactive in managing the future for you and your family.” 

AncestryHealth Products and Availability 

AncestryHealth delivers personalized insights so people can take action to better manage their health in collaboration with their healthcare provider. 

• AncestryHealth Core is a first step on the journey of understanding how family heritage and genetics can impact health and wellness. It covers a set of curated, common ‘need to know’ health conditions and includes printable family health history and lab reports people can share with their healthcare provider. The physician-ordered laboratory test included in AncestryHealth Core uses genotyping array technology to detect genetic differences and deliver personalized reports related to health conditions such as heart disease, hereditary cancers, blood-related disorders, and risks for carrier status of health conditions, such as Tay-Sachs disease. Additionally, there are wellness reports on topics such as nutrition and metabolism. AncestryHealth Core is priced at $149 and includes AncestryDNA. Existing AncestryDNA customers can upgrade to AncestryHealth Core for $49. 

• AncestryHealth Plus will use next generation sequencing (NGS) technology to deliver more comprehensive screening data, providing both greater coverage of DNA differences for each condition and more risk categories such as those related to potentially developing heart disease, cancers, and disorders related to blood, the nervous system and connective tissues. For new customers, AncestryHealth Plus with NGS technology has a $199 activation fee, which includes the first six months of membership with an additional $49 membership fee every six months. Existing AncestryDNA customers can upgrade to AncestryHealth Plus for an initial payment of $49. The ongoing membership will include quarterly screening updates, more educational resources and enhanced tools for family health history and healthcare provider collaboration.

Both AncestryHealth services include simple, step-by-step guidance to help people track and record their family health history all in one place. Family health history information often holds important clues about an individual’s risk for disease and is an important foundation, along with genetic screening, to proactively identify and address potential health risks. Customers can download and share a printable version of their family health history, along with their test results, with their healthcare provider so they can have the information necessary to personalize their care and take proactive steps where clinically necessary. 

“Genetics play an important role in your health, along with factors such as your family’s health history, lifestyle and diet,” said Catherine Ball, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Ancestry. “Our job is to make sure our customers are educated, informed and supported throughout their health journey with us. Empowered with the right information, they can take proactive steps now to manage their and their families’ health for years to come.” 

Ancestry is committed to safeguarding customers’ data and privacy. Just like all Ancestry offerings, AncestryHealth gives customers full consent and control over their own data at all times. Ancestry does not share customers’ DNA data with insurers, employers or third-party marketers. 

AncestryHealth services are now available at www.ancestry.com/health.

I note from the website that the AncestryHealth Plus next generation sequencing test is not currently available but is expected to launch in early 2020. I understand that this will be an exome sequencing test and not a whole genome sequence. The exome is the part of your genome containing all the genes.

We've long known that Ancestry have wanted to enter the health testing market. They partnered with Quest Diagnostics in 2016 to provide "wellness" reports. Clearly this new service has been planned very carefully. However, Ancestry face stiff competition from 23andMe who have revitalised their service and are now the only company with FDA approval to sell health reports direct to the consumer. 23andMe offer a much wider range of health and trait reports. Their health reports are available in the US, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. As I reported in July this year, MyHeritage have also entered the genetic health testing market. The MyHeritage health test is also available direct to the consumer and is sold in nearly all countries of the world but US customers have to order through a doctor.

Further reading

• Message from Margo Georgiadis, CEO of Ancestry
• AncestryHeath landing page
• AncestryHealth help pages including a list of the health and wellness reports available from AncestryHealth
• Ancestry branches out into genetic health screening by Megan Molteni, Wired
• Ancestry launches consumer genetics tests for health, intensifying rivalry with 23andMe by Matthew Herper, Stat News
• Ancestry begins genetic testing services for health by Turna Ray, GenomeWeb (£)

The AncestryDNA international roll-out, shaky leaves and AncestryHealth

The AncestryDNA test is now starting to be rolled out in other countries. The test was officially launched in the US in May 2012. It became available in the UK and Ireland in January 2015, and was launched in Australia and New Zealand at the end of May. The test became available in Canada this week. It is not known if Ancestry will sell the test in any other countries. They also have offices and a subscriber base in Sweden and Germany. Germany has restrictive laws on direct-to-consumer testing so it seems unlikely that the test will be offered there. However, Sweden might well be another target market for the company in the near future.

It is interesting to note that the AncestryDNA test is much more expensive outside the US, and it remains to be seen how this will impact the take up of the test in other countries. Here is a comparison of the prices.

US $99 + $9.95 for shipping = US $108.95
Australia and New Zealand AUS $149 + $29.99 for shipping = $178.99 or US $138
Canada CAN $149+ $19.95 for shipping = $168.95 or US $138.40
UK and Ireland £99 + £20 shipping = £119 or US $183

Note that we are paying much more for the test in the UK and Ireland than in any other country. However, Ancestry do have frequent promotions such as the current offer of 10% off for Father's Day so do look out for these special offers.

I put myself on the invitation list when the AncestryDNA test first came out in the US, and was able to order a test in June 2012 despite the fact that I don't live in America, though this loophole was quickly closed. The AncestryDNA database has grown at a phenomenal rate and by the end of March this year they had DNA results for over 850,000 people. However, with a database that has until this year been 99.9% American I've had very little out of the test so far. I have no known cousins in America. Nevertheless I have had a lot of matches but they are nearly all with very distant cousins with deep roots in Colonial America. They generally have no surnames or geographical locations in common with me and it would be an impossible task trying to find the genealogical connection in these circumstances.

Now that the first results are starting to come in from the UK the situation is changing and I'm pleased to report that I have my first ever shaky leafy hint at AncestryDNA which has enabled me to confirm a genealogical connection with a third cousin in the UK. The shaky leaf hints are well named because the leaf really does shake when you first see it! This is what my match page now looks like.

The predicted relationship for my new match was third to fourth cousin. When I click to view the match I get taken to a page where I can see the shared ancestor hint and an outline of our two trees showing our connection to the common ancestral couple, my great-great-grandparents Charles James Wiggins and Mary Ann Thorn. (I've blurred out the names of the recent generations in the screenshot below.)

In this particular case the shaky leaf hint has worked exceptionally well, and my match turned out to be a third cousin. Because it's a close relationship it probably would have been a straightforward matter finding the connection but it certainly helps having Ancestry doing all the hard work for you. I shall look forward to confirming more relationships as more results start to come back from the UK and Ireland. I also look forward to receiving matches with people in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, as I have a number of links with all three countries in my family tree.

The frustrating part of the AncestryDNA test is that there is no way of verifying the validity of the match. Ancestry do not provide the underlying segment data on which the match is based and they don't offer a chromosome browser. It is rather like being given access to an index and then finding that the key records that you want in the index have been withheld for no good reason and you are expected to rely instead on someone else's transcription. I am hoping to persuade my match to transfer her results to Family Tree DNA using the autosomal DNA transfer programme. I'm also hoping that she will be able to transfer her results to GedMatch. However, we should not have to rely on transferring our data to other websites in order to access such basic data. I hope that Ancestry will fix this issue as a matter of priority.

In another development Roberta Estes reports that Ancestry are now beta-testing a new AncestryHealth website in the US. Roberta has bravely volunteered as a guinea pig and tried out the new service. I suggest you read her blog post if you want to find out more. It remains to be seen if AncestryHealth will become available in other countries. It is not clear to me what benefits can be derived from such a service as it is not telling you anything that you didn't already know. There are already a number of free tools available online to calculate your risk of developing various conditions. Here are three examples that I found in a quick internet search: Stroke Risk Calculator, Diabetes Risk Calculator, and Oncolink. However, if I had a family history of a particular condition I would much rather go and visit my GP to determine my risk rather than input the information on a website. If I want to record my own health information online I can use a free service like the Microsoft HealthVault.

Although AncestryHealth is currently a separate entity from AncestryDNA you can import your family tree and also your ethnicity estimates from AncestryDNA. I noticed that the AncestryDNA Privacy Statement and Terms and Conditions were updated on 18th May and the changes take effect for existing customers from 18th June 2015. I have not received an e-mail from Ancestry advising me of these changes but the updates were visible when I checked into my AncestryDNA account. The Privacy Statement was also updated back in February 2015 though I don't recall noticing this update at the time. On comparing the different versions the biggest change I noticed was introduced back in February this year. AncestryDNA now make it explicitly clear that users' DNA results will be internally analysed not just for genealogical purposes but also for "medicine and other topics".

Here is the relevant clause from the old Privacy Statement dated 20th March 2013:

v) To Research the human genome. If you voluntarily agreed to the AncestryDNA Consent Agreement we may use the Results and other information in an aggregated and anonymous form, for the purposes of research and publication and in accordance with the AncestryDNA Consent Agreement.

Ancestry do state here that your DNA results can be used for research but the implication is that this will only happen if you voluntarily sign the AncestryDNA Consent Agreement. Contrast this clause with the updated Privacy Statement dated 20th February 2015:

vi) To perform research: AncestryDNA will internally analyze Users’ results to make discoveries in the study of genealogy, anthropology, evolution, languages, cultures, medicine, and other topics. In addition, if you voluntarily agreed to the Research Project Informed Consent we may use the Results and other information for the purposes of collaborative research and publication and in accordance with the Informed Consent.

If you sign up for AncestryHealth you are given the option to sign an Informed Consent form to participate in research. Similarly, if you take an AncestryDNA test you are also given the option to participate in research by signing an Informed Consent form. The wording of both forms is almost identical. Here is the description of the Research Project from AncestryDNA:

1. What is the research project?
The Ancestry Human Diversity Project collects, preserves and analyzes genealogical pedigrees, historical records, surveys, family health data, medical and health records, genetic information, and other information (collectively, "Information") from people all around the world in order to conduct research studies to better understand, among other things, human evolution and migration, population genetics, population health issues, ethnographic diversity and boundaries, genealogy, and the history of our species ("The Project"). Researchers hope that the Project will be an invaluable tool for a wide range of scholars interested in genealogy, anthropology, evolution, languages, cultures, medicine, and other topics and that the Project may benefit future generations.

Here is the description of the project from AncestryHealth:

What is the research project?
The Ancestry Human Diversity Project utilizes genealogical pedigrees, historical records, surveys, family health data, medical and health records, genetic information, and other information (collectively, “Information”) from people all around the world in order to conduct research studies to better understand, among other things, human evolution and migration, population genetics, population health issues, ethnographic diversity and boundaries, genealogy, and the history of our species (“The Project”). Researchers hope that the Project will be an invaluable tool for a wide range of scholars interested in genealogy, anthropology, evolution, languages, cultures, medicine, and other topics, and that the Project may benefit future generations.

Many people will have signed the Informed Consent form on AncestryDNA without realising what they were doing as it is presented as just one extra box to be ticked to complete the order process, and it is easy to tick the box without even reading the form. I wrote of my concerns about this process when I activated my own kit back in 2012. At that time the research project was known as the Human Genome Diversity Project. As I was unable to find out any further information about what this project involved I did not sign the form and have still not done so.

I suspect many people who took the AncestryDNA test will be surprised to find that by submitting their DNA for a genealogical DNA test their results might also be used for medical research. I'm quite happy to have my DNA used for research purposes. I've tested at 23andMe, and I am participating in the UK Biobank Project which is sequencing the DNA of over 500,000 British people. However, if people's DNA results are to be used for medical research I do think that the process should be transparent and that informed consent should be obtained up front rather than changing the terms and conditions and the privacy policy and hoping that people won't notice.

Despite these concerns I do think it is worthwhile doing the AncestryDNA test. Ancestry have a big marketing machine and will inevitably attract customers who would not have considered taking a test anywhere else. However, if you are taking a test to confirm a specific hypothesis about relationships then the Family Finder test from Family Tree DNA is the most cost-effective option. The Family Finder test costs around £70 inclusive of postage versus £119 for the AncestryDNA test.

For a detailed comparison of all the different autosomal DNA testing companies see Tim Janzen's Autosomal DNA testing comparison chart in the ISOGG Wiki. See also Sue Griffith's Notes for UK (and ex-US) residents on DNA testing companies where she provides advice and detailed costings on testing with all the different companies from a UK perspective.

© 2015 Debbie Kennett