So hello, everyone.
My name is David Nicholson.
And I'm Hannah Morden.
And we're the cofounders of Living DNA.
And it's really exciting to have you with us here today.
We're really excited to be at RootsTech.
As you can tell from our accents,
we're not originally from America.
We come to the States a lot, and we love it,
but we're actually from the UK, or you're from--
And Australia.
So today, the purpose of One Family is really
to help all of us understand how we're
connected to everyone else across the planet.
And what does that look like when
we bring DNA into genetics?
What does DNA, genetics, and family history look like?
What does that look like today, and what could that look
like in the future?
So we've got a lot of really interesting stuff
to share with you, but we would also love it
if you have any questions.
So if you have questions throughout the presentation,
if you just hold on to those questions,
and there'll be a microphone to go to
for a bit of a Q and A session.
At the end.
What we love is making this as interactive as possible
so we can build on something together,
build on something that allows you
and all of us to really shape the future of DNA.
Now, for everyone who's watching on the webcast,
there is a special offer.
If you go to livingdna.com and enter "roots18",
there's a discount off the DNA kits.
Bit more than half price, so it's a great deal
for those who can't be here.
And for everyone that's here today,
we have our booth in the exhibit hall,
which is opening at 6:00 p.m., for an incredible offer
on DNA kits.
So that's the commercialities out of the way.
So what is One Family, One World?
Now, when I think of family history
and I think of genealogy, traditionally, I
thought of someone in the family doing research on their own
in a room.
Perhaps you went to the library, and now you've
been able to do all of this online
with the incredible tools that are available
from lots of the different companies,
finding your records, searching online.
And now we've got the advent of DNA.
And when I woke up this morning, I was thinking, actually,
family history isn't just about my family history.
It's not about me.
It's not even just about our shared family history.
But it's actually about the whole of family history.
When we're involved in DNA and family history today,
we are building one world record, one big global family
tree, one world that we're all part of.
So for us, One Family One World is saying,
can you use DNA and genetics to actually build a genetic family
tree of the world?
So we'll be covering a lot of things
today about family history, about DNA, about matching,
and also about some of our unique methods
that allow us to pinpoint your ancestry down
to which county in the UK you come from,
which region of Italy your ancestry is from,
or perhaps which part of Germany your ancestry is from.
So a lot of information there.
But before we start on that, I thought
we'd play a little video.
And this is about what the One Family One World
project's about.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So we've worked on schools' projects
and educational endeavors across the UK
and the US, where we actually have children's DNA analyzed,
with all full consent from their parents and permission.
So it's all analyzed, and we do a whole family history research
project with them to help them understand not only
where they fit in within their family,
but where they fit in to the world.
We've done this initially in one school in the UK,
where we had kids around eight years old coming up
to the teachers and telling them that if you're not white,
you should be shot.
And that's from age eight.
A lot of stereotypical abuse going on.
And what they found was by combining DNA and education,
those kids had a sustained change in perception
over the very way they view race, culture,
and their own identity.
So we're actually seeing the power of DNA and family history
have an incredible change in people's lives.
And that stays with them.
Those programs have been put together and tested.
And six months and a year later, the same results
are being heard from those kids.
So it's actually pretty much changing people's perceptions.
So do you want to talk a little bit about who we are?
Yeah, so a little bit about Living DNA,
to give you a bit of context.
In 2004, David started DNA Worldwide Group.
And that was sort of what is now our mother company.
That was starting to do paternity testing,
and then eventually we are now doing testing
to the legal market as well.
So that's something that's been carrying on very
steadily in the background.
I joined in 2013.
And then in 2015, we started exploring, well,
what else could we do?
We had the legal test.
It's business to business, but what else is needed?
And at the time, we were exploring ancestry testing,
but we wanted to develop an ancestry
test that could give people a little bit more detail.
So as you heard, we're a British company.
And a lot of people were testing,
and they were finding out that they were European,
but not really where.
And a lot of Europeans generally know a lot
about their family history.
They know where they're from.
So for them to be told they're European
isn't that exciting, right?
So we started to think, well, how
do we do something that takes it to the next level?
And that's where we've developed the algorithms to actually show
you--and we'll go through this in a bit more detail--but
to actually show you not just that you're from Europe,
but actually whereabouts, and then for somewhere like
the British Isles, well, what region?
So it's getting down to that very granular level of detail
that really helps people take that next step.
And what that means is that the more
Europeans that start to get involved and test,
the more that that then connects to other people
all around the world.
So it kind of works both ways.
The other thing that was really important for us is that
generally, some of the tests take you
back about 10 generations.
So they give you that as your ethnic breakdown.
And what we wanted to do was say, well, that's great,
but what about before that?
And so if you look at what's happening in the world today,
there's, you could say, a little bit of separation.
We're going through Brexit.
And, you know, it starts to divide people.
And that's generally what an ancestry breakdown
does for your breakdown today.
And it's great to celebrate how unique we are.
But at the same time, not to forget, well, where
was our ancestry before that?
So our methods take you back 80,000 years
to put it into context, to show you
how we all are in some ways connected and to what degree.
So that was a really important point for us,
because as a product, we wanted to say,
how do we actually show that we're all connected?
And one of the biggest things, certainly in Europe,
is data protection.
So we took a stance that we do not sell your data,
that we protect it, and that we store it anonymously, but by no
means will we ever sell it.
And so that became a really huge part of the reason
that we did this business and brought out this test.
So today we've got a number of announcements
that will be happening.
We've got an exciting announcement just
after the keynotes of a new type of technology
that's going to change the way we use DNA for family history.
Some of the other stuff that we do,
though, is the regional breakdown of ancestry.
And what you can see, a lot of companies at the moment
are saying they have more regions than everyone else,
and it's becoming a bit of a battle.
What we notice in the way that we do the ancestry testing is,
we have the most defined and specific regions
that are possible.
And that's because of the methods behind how we do DNA.
So we like to think of it as, when the internet first
came along, you had your Lycos and your Yahoos and stuff,
and you could go so far when you did
searching for things online.
And then Google came along, and they
had just a really power-killer algorithm,
and it made things a lot simpler.
And that's really what we'll cover off today,
how we've been doing that.
So with the DNA test that we're looking at here,
in the past--Who here has actually not done a DNA test?
Oh, wow.
Welcome to RootsTech.
We're in booth 817.
Come see us!
So traditionally, at the moment, the market
has kind of changed from the way that DNA testing was done.
In the past, it was set up around early 2000s
to mid-2000s, and there was a lot
of Y chromosome DNA testing, looking at your direct father
line.
And that's really how the industry started.
And a lot of women were quite rightly a bit
put off by that, because they were like, "I
don't have a Y chromosome.
I want to be able to be involved in this.
I love family history."
So along came mitochondrial DNA testing,
and that was pretty much the second type of DNA
that came onto the market.
And then, those bits of DNA are like the front
and the back of the book.
They're the bits that take you from today
all the way down your direct lines, all the way back
to, ultimately, a points in time when we all
share a common ancestor.
What then happened in, I would say,
early 2010, 2012, is autosomal DNA testing.
And this is looking at all of your DNA
that you get from everyone in your family.
And it looks at the last 6 to 10 generations.
And that's the type of DNA that you'll
see advertised on the TV.
What percentage are you German, what percentage Scottish
are you?
So for us, that's a staple to have in any DNA test,
and it works really, really well.
Now, the industry left behind a bit
of the mitochondrial and the Y chromosome DNA testing.
For us as an organization, we see
that has huge power, huge benefits in the way that you
can actually use that DNA, combine it with the family
ancestry that we'll talk about, and then you
get something that's very precise
and allows you to not only look at, for instance,
your recent ancestry, but see how everyone in your family
is connected and interconnected.
So autosomal DNA, mitochondrial DNA, Y chromosome DNA,
if you've not taken a DNA test, there's
some incredible classes by great speakers
over the next few days, and you'll
get to learn all about these types of DNA.
And if you come to us on the booth,
we'll be more than happy to talk to you about it.
So as Hannah mentioned, one of the really important things
we've come across when we look at a global family tree,
and for this we're saying, everyone in America,
when we come to shows, they're just like, give me a DNA test,
and they queue up, and people will hand you their credit card
before asking you any questions, because they
know how valuable and important it
is for their family research.
In other parts of the world, they don't do that.
The first question is, what are you going to do with my data?
What are you going to do with my DNA information?
And from everyone in North America, what we've heard
is, people, all of us, we want to connect back
to our relatives in Europe.
But the relatives in Europe have a different priority
to their cousins in America or vice versa.
So what we have to do is develop a test
and a way of presenting that information and the level
of trust and security that means everyone around the world,
no matter what their culture is, no matter
what's important to them, feels they can trust and partake
in the DNA testing.
And that's something we've worked really hard to do.
So no data is sold, and bringing that trust together
is actually helping us build the bridges between the US
and Europe.
And that's proving really, really successful.
So to give you some of the context
here, on the left-hand side of the screen,
you'll see a map of England and Ireland, and Scotland and Wales
as well.
But what you'll see is that was the kind of breakdown that you
could get up until--up until when we launched.
And the breakdown basically told you
you've got either English, Scottish, Welsh ancestry
or you have some Irish ancestry.
And on many of the tests, it would just be United Kingdom.
For all of us here today, we're looking
to say, how do we connect back to our relatives in Europe
or in Ireland?
But everyone in Ireland and in England
were saying, "well, I know that I'm from here."
"Why would I test?"
"So what's the point in me testing?"
So what we did is we took it, and on the right-hand side,
you can see our current map and breakdown,
was to really give people a granular detail
of where the ancestor, where their ancestry comes from.
Now, what's incredible about this is not only
does that give you the stories today and allows
you to narrow down your research,
but it actually allows you to see the historic migration
routes, not of just countries, but within countries.
How did people move and migrate across Europe, across the UK?
And that can really help inform us
on our family history research.
And this method is something that, whilst at the moment
we've done it for the British Isles,
is something that we want to expand globally
as much as we can, so that this just keeps on growing
and keeps giving you more and more detail.
Yeah, so traditionally you could break your ancestry down
into maybe 31 global regions, 29 global regions.
We're at 80 and going a lot higher than that,
but we're doing it with your actual percentages
so we can give you which percentages from which region.
Now, this comes in really important.
So we had clients and avid genealogists who have 32
great-great-great-grandparents known,
and then they have missing people within that family tree.
And someone came to us and said, "You've given me 5 percent or 6
percent Yorkshire ancestry.
What does that mean?
That must be a mistake.
I have no one in my tree that has
any ancestry from that part of the world, part of the UK."
And two months later, they emailed in
and said, "You know what?
I did some research, and I found that great-great-grandparent
that was actually from Yorkshire."
So that shows how you can actually
use some of this really pinpointed precision
ancestry testing from regions to actually help
your family history research.
So at the moment, we're looking at a number of regions,
but we see us being able to go to thousands of regions
just in the upcoming years.
We're very close to being able to do that.
Now, this is more of a technical slide.
And this is looking at the most important thing
that I have come to appreciate about ancestry testing.
On the left, and I don't have a pointer,
but you'll see there's time point one.
If you can see that to the very left of this graph.
And it's where there's just a solid red bar touching
a line that says Cornwall, if anyone can read that
from where you are.
All DNA testing companies look at that one time
point, time point one.
Because that's the way that the methods allow.
For us, everything to the right is unique to Living DNA.
And this allows us to see how populations from around
the world make up you today.
So we could test every population across the world,
and you'll just have a slightly bigger square.
And what you end up seeing is what
your DNA is today on the very left,
and then you start seeing at what time point in history
was your DNA connected to other populations.
And ultimately, no matter who you throw into this mix,
by time point 75 there or 74, every single person
alive shares a common ancestor.
So it's allowing you to see your DNA today
and how that fits in to your DNA across multiple times
in history.
So on a slightly different topic,
has anyone looked at slave ancestry,
looking at your slave ancestry in the past?
Something that can be really difficult
is actually to pinpoint where that ancestry comes from.
And we had a lady who was looking
for her family for a long time, looking in the records
to try and see where was the slave master from.
She did a living DNA test.
And on the map, you can see an area highlighted
in like a pinky purple color.
We actually pinpointed her to have 10 percent
ancestry from that one region.
That allowed her to go back through the ship's manifest,
where she was actually able to identify
the actual record of where the slave master came from,
the name, and everything was on the ship's record
from that point, purely by combining
detailed ethnic ancestry breakdown
with traditional family history research.
So that's starting to give you some indications of how
people are using what's possible with DNA.
So for us, it's about saying, how
do we make every person have a benefit from the testing?
So this was another thing that we found really important.
Yeah, so we actually produce a personalized ancestry book
of your results which is completely unique and custom
to what your online results are.
The reason that we do that is because DNA can be very tech,
can be all about computers, can draw you
back into lots of complicated stuff, right?
And so we had to look at, well, again,
what's the purpose of why we're doing this?
And a lot of it is about connecting people.
So by producing a printed book, it actually
acts as a tool where you can share results
with somebody, where you can have a conversation, where you
can actually touch and feel and see a printed
version of your results.
And it's worked really well, certainly
for people who just don't want to be bothered
by checking online all the time or keep forgetting passwords
like I do.
So having something that's printed
is just a really lovely tangible experience.
And the theme of the conference of the moment
is connect, belong.
And for us it's about how do you keep those connections going?
How do you inspire those connections in families?
So by having something tangible, it
allows a family to sit together to discuss those results.
And for genealogists out there, it's
almost, how do you get the rest of your family
involved and as excited as you are when you find a DNA match?
Because that can be a challenge.
So by actually having this information
and presenting it and sitting down with the family,
It's almost like you get to pass on those stories.
And you get to do it in a way that actually
fosters real connection.
So today, about 80 percent of all DNA tests
are done in the USA.
So over here, this is the biggest market for DNA testing.
And so what we're trying to do with the One Family,
One World project is start to bring awareness and excitement
to the world of DNA to other countries around the world.
How do we inspire people in Germany
to think, "Yes, I want to do a DNA test"?
Because a lot of people from America
have their German ancestors, how do we help them connect?
How do we inspire people from France, where
it's illegal to do a DNA test?
How do we help change the laws in different countries
where you can't actually do DNA testing?
How do we help you guys connect with more people?
Yeah, ultimately, that's what we're working on doing.
And how do we inspire the next generation?
How do we take family history from something
that is purely about looking into the past to be something
where we're all cataloging our history today, where all of us
realize we're actually creating living family histories?
So we'll now look at something called the science
of population genetics.
And we'll keep this as light as we possibly can.
So if there's any questions, do let us know.
Now, population genetics is really
looking about the differences in populations around the world.
We have to start off with something
that I find fascinating, and that is that if you--
Has anyone eaten broccoli?
Is it called broccoli here?
Yeah?
Well, broccoli, absolutely, I eat a lot of broccoli
sometimes.
I like my broccoli.
But two species of broccoli actually
share less DNA in common than every single person
across the planet.
We are so genetically similar as people.
So when we talk about nationalities and we talk about
races, genetics just doesn't have a--race doesn't exist
in genetics.
And what we are actually starting to see
is we are very, very, very similar,
but you can pick up slight variances.
So the first time this was actually done
was done in the early 1900s to actually look at blood groups.
And you could look at blood groups and the difference
of blood groups depending on where
people were living in the world and about their background.
So this was the first time that it was ever looked
at in a way of saying, well, can we see differences in people?
Can people be grouped into different areas?
So in here, you can see it's talking
about the blood of different races.
Now, that's being completely discounted since.
As we've understood and just explained,
genetics shows there is no different race.
We are just one race.
Then what happened was, in the early 2000s,
there was software called "Structure."
And Structure was designed to look
at what is the difference in people's DNA.
What is actually the difference between people,
and can you actually help to identify groups of people?
And this is really important for our health purposes.
So if you ever go to the doctor, one
of the things they want to know is
what is your ethnic background.
Because understanding that information can help
them look at how to best treat you.
So the initial studies, and a lot of population genetics
is all done for helping with health and medical research.
So when it comes to population structure here,
we're actually able to see the difference between people
in Africa, Asia, Europe, and everyone
has a slightly different genetic signature.
But as we mentioned earlier, the test would tell you you've
got x percent European, x percent African, and x percent
Native American.
So if you tell an African they've
got 100 percent African, they're not really interested.
Tell a European they've got 100 percent European,
they're not interested either.
So the technology at this point was starting to come together,
but it wasn't quite ready for the mass interest market
where it is today.
We then move into a new type of structure program, which
is something called "using structure" and something called
"principal components analysis."
And in this study in 2008, we were actually
able to see very clear differences between countries.
Now, Germany, France, and England
are very similar genetically due to the history,
so they all kind of blur together.
You can see that you've got differences there with Italy.
You've got differences across Greece and across some
of Eastern Europe as well.
So you can actually start to see that there's
some structural differences.
Now, the way that the genetics works on this
is, it looks at which bit of DNA have you got, and it says,
is that DNA found in a reference population?
So we compare your DNA to a database of people who
we know come from, say, Spain.
And we say, which bits of DNA are in your DNA that are also
in this group in Spain?
And then it adds it all up, and it gives you your percentages.
So that's traditionally how the DNA has come together.
What we've done is, we've taken that a step further.
So we're able to say not only which bits of DNA have you got,
but how are those bits of DNA arranged together.
And that allows you to actually get more refined scale
within the structure.
And I think the important thing here is to look at, well,
what impact does this have?
It has impacts to do with both our genealogy perspective,
but it also has impact on the way
that we look after ourselves, which exercises
will work best for different people
depending on what your ancestry is actually showing,
depending on which part of a country you're from.
Now, I read a study recently that was
trying to say, how do we deal with diabetes?
Yeah, diabetes is one of the biggest conditions
at the moment, and it could bankrupt health organizations
around the world.
And this study concluded, after three years,
that the best way to beat diabetes
was more exercise and less sugar.
So it's not exactly rocket science
that we know some of this stuff, but actually
what we can see is, within our DNA,
the way that people actually look after themselves will make
a big difference in the future.
This is another slide just about then
saying, once we look at the DNA of, say, your ancestry
today in the British Isles or in Germany
or whichever part of the world it comes from, we then say,
but how does that connect to other places?
So you then get to see that, just like America,
many parts of the UK are a complete mix of ancestry.
And what we're looking to do is to see
not only what is your ancestry in the last five
generations, 10 generations.
What about 1,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago,
5,000 years ago?
Can we start to build a real picture
of what our ancestry is?
That starts to inspire the next generation of people
to get involved in DNA, get involved in family history.
So you may be coming at family history from the early angles,
like looking today, my grandparents,
great-grandparents.
And you have other people in the future that
are starting to come together and come and look at genealogy
from the perspective of, well, 10,000 years ago,
this was my ancestry.
Now I want to know what's happening
with my great-grandparents.
So just looking at how this whole market's going to evolve.
Does anyone know what this is here?
Food, yes.
Absolutely.
So this is a cream tea.
We could talk about it as a cream tea,
as a cake, whatever we want to have.
Now, what we can see is the ingredients
of what's here, which is a cream tea.
And this is found across different parts of the UK.
It's a common food.
And every time, every cream tea has a scone, it has cream,
and it has some jam on it.
The question, though, is, how do you know
where that cream tea's made?
What you can actually find out is that in Cornwall, they
actually put the jam on the scone, and then the cream
on the jam.
And in Devon, they put the cream on the scone and the jam
on the cream.
That way around.
Yeah.
Complicated.
Anyway, two different ways of making a scone.
Normal DNA testing could tell you
you've got ancestry from the UK, because it's got a scone,
it's got cream, and it's got jam.
With these refined methods, we look at the order
of the DNA information.
And then we're able to actually let
you know which part of a country your ancestry comes from.
So combining order with the actual bits of DNA information.
Now, one of the problems that we've
had with large-scale studies and how do we help genealogy
is that a lot of the studies done today
are done for medical research.
So there's a lot of DNA that's been banked,
a lot of DNA that's been tested, but the use of that DNA
is only really for medical applications.
And a lot of people in the room would
love to get hold of that DNA, because that
could help your records, that could
help you connect with cousins.
But it's just not accessible.
So what we're seeing, though, is with citizen science
and the advent of all the DNA companies,
there's a lot more people taking DNA tests,
but again, it's kind of limited to America.
Which is great, but it doesn't actually
help us connect with our cousins around the world.
And that's really what the One Family, One World
project is about.
In the first instance, we're saying which parts
of the coun--which founder population should we actually
be talking to?
So we have projects in Ireland, because there's
a lot of people in America who have Irish ancestry.
We have projects in Germany, because that's pretty much most
of--the biggest population of America has German ancestry.
We're doing projects in South America,
projects across Africa, projects across the Middle East,
and projects across Eastern Europe.
So everywhere to try and connect up
the world, that's really what One Family, One World is about.
To those who've been following us on social media,
the first project we launched was the Irish One Family
project.
In this project, we could identify that actually, we
think we can get to about 14 to 15 different regions of Ireland
to pinpoint what percentage of your ancestry
comes from which ones of these regions.
We're about 60 percent complete through that project,
but we're still collecting more samples as it goes.
If you've got a Living DNA test or you take one today,
in the future, we update for free your breakdown
across Ireland to give you more details.
And then you can start to pinpoint and pinpoint
your research in that.
So what you'll start to see in the future
is the convergence of DNA matching
with actually refined and fine-scale ethnicity
breakdowns.
The German projects are--this is very exciting.
Again, we're looking at Germany, and how do we break it down
into more detail.
And as David mentioned before, Germany, bits of it
can be melting pots.
So it's really about collecting the samples that really
help us to pinpoint the difference between all
the different areas.
So again, we've made a start on this.
As we keep developing it and finish it,
it will be updated in your results.
But what it starts to do is, if you have any German ancestry,
it starts to say, OK, well, whereabouts could it come from?
And it gives you more links and more ties to exploring, well,
what next?
Where can I go with my family history with my research,
if now I know whereabouts in Germany some of my ancestry
is from?
And what it helps is, everyone in Germany,
it gives them an inspiration and a reason
to actually take a DNA test.
Yeah.
And it gives them the breakdown, so therefore it
helps them be involved in DNA and helps
them connect back to you.
And the Scottish project.
So this is one that's just started.
Again, it's looking at how can we
break it down into as much detail possible
and really getting those very specific samples
and collecting them so that we can feed that back in.
Yeah.
So those are just three, but there's a lot more.
So we have a website about the One Family, One World project,
where you can see this list which
is all of the different places that, at the moment,
we're starting to explore.
So the three ones are up and running at the moment,
but this is what's in the bank.
And it's really exciting, because the more and more
we get into this kind of detail, the more exciting
this becomes for everybody in the world
to have a reason to connect, to be part of it,
to see what this looks like and how we fit
in to the rest of the world.
Exactly.
And with the One Family project, anyone can join.
So if you've already got DNA, you can go
to livingdna.com/onefamily and upload your data.
For free.
Or you can--yeah, or you can take a test.
So that's what's going on there.
The next thing is, in terms of South America,
there's a new publication that's coming out,
where we can actually look at the ancestry of South America.
And you can start to see which groups across Europe
migrated to which parts of South America,
and actually get people's regional and specific
breakdowns.
And then what were the migrations from South America
into America.
So it's really fascinating work that we can actually do.
So the next thing I wanted to talk about
was stories in our DNA.
So Hadrian's Wall, who knows about Hadrian's Wall in the UK?
Fantastic.
So with Hadrian's Wall, this is the wall dividing, so
a north-south divide in many ways.
Looking at the wars that were going on around 1066,
what we could actually see is that there is actually
a difference with the DNA, depending
on which side of the wall you're actually on.
So within these two different plots
that you can see on the right-hand side, what
you start to see at the bottom plot,
and you can ignore the titles in there, but the bottom plot,
you'll see a different breakdown and a different mix of ancestry
when your DNA actually came to be.
And what you can see is, when there is a war that goes on
and you have two sides of the war coming together,
and that creates a line, you will actually see in the DNA
stark differences with the genetics
between two groups of people.
And that is quite staggering.
So what we can start to see is actually the historic stories
actually being referenced and told within our DNA.
Now, that's one, and there are dozens
of stories like this that you can actually
pull out of your DNA.
But this is just in one part of the world.
So when we start to map the entire world,
we start to see, well, what stories
were coming up across Germany?
What stories across Poland?
What stories across Italy?
It's this wealth of knowledge that we actually
haven't been tapping into yet that we'll start
to explore and start to see.
So it's super, super exciting.
DNA seems like the finance of a business, where
you can look at it, and there's just so much
that you can take from it.
There's so many stories that it can tell.
And like the finances, it's pretty accurate.
Exactly.
It doesn't tend to lie.
Which, when we talk about the new developments in DNA
testing, and how you can start to build your entire family
tree based on DNA alone, then it starts
to bring different stories out of the closet, so to speak.
So we'll see about that.
Another thing that we wanted to share with you
was a little bit about some of the education programs.
And there's a video.
It's about a four- or five-minute video,
just sharing what happens when kids actually
start to explore their family history and explore their DNA.
So.
So I was part of one of these projects.
I was over in Europe, working with a school.
And there was a little boy, and his dad was a police officer.
And his dad had pretty set views about the world and people.
And this little boy came in to do his test, with his parents'
consent, and got his results.
And he found that he was from so many different places
in the world, right?
So he's European.
He had ancestry from China, all across Asia,
and all across Europe.
And it was amazing to see.
And he looked at his results, and his mom was there.
And he was--he was five years old, right?
So he was looking at his results,
and he said to his mom, "Look at all these places I'm from.
Look how I can show Dad that he can't talk about those people
anymore that way, because I am one of those."
And it's those kind of things that make this worthwhile,
where you start to open doors to people
and give them their own information that shows
how connected we really are.
And the other thing he said was, "Well, you know,
this probably comes from Dad."
So it's just giving them that context
and those stories that they can really take as their own.
Cool, so we'll play this.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Well, I'm Peter Malcolm.
I'm the head teacher at Rayleigh Primary School.
So tell me, where are you from?
I'm from England.
England.
I'm from Rayleigh, which is in Essex,
which is also in England.
Rayleigh.
England.
I'm from Rayleigh.
Wales.
Probably England or Wales.
I don't know.
England.
I know I'm from Rayleigh, which is
in Essex, which is in England.
And I've also been the coordinator
of this international project looking at ancestry, family
histories, and real activities that we
can build children's understanding of us
being part of a shared world.
Grandma has a bit of Welsh in it.
I know that my mom was English.
I know my granddad's American.
I think my mum's half Jamaican.
I think my mum comes from Scotland.
I have cousins in Australia.
My mum was born in England but came from Portugal.
Mum, I think, comes from Wales.
We've already done an awful lot of work on family histories
and found some amazing stories, but to conclude it,
what we really wanted to do was use DNA
to show every child that they share a common ancestry.
It started off initially with a select group of children
doing a cheek swab to collect their DNA,
which was then posted off to laboratories.
These then came back with results for the children
to actually look at.
There we go.
Turn the first page.
Page number--here we go.
What is that telling you?
Blindness.
Oh, my God!
Oh, wow.
We all have Scandinavia.
Wow.
What if I told you part of that is actually from south China?
Part of you is from south China.
And the biggest part of you is actually
from Kenya, Sweden, and Norway.
North Turkey.
Egypt.
Kurdish.
The whole concept is that if we can
get children to understand that they have a unique family
history, and then show them that that unique family history is
part of a shared human experience, that we can
overcome some of the barriers between populations
and between the diversities within our societies.
That's crazy.
Pretty amazing.
I just thought I was from here.
Are you shocked?
Shocked.
I can't really talk, to be honest.
It's really weird.
Oh, my God.
I was not expecting that.
That's surprising.
That's really weird, because I never thought
I'd be from anywhere else.
The fascinating thing was actually
seeing the look on the children's faces
when they turned those results over as a world map
and see that where they thought they came from,
a small town in England, was actually
connected to a variety of different countries
across the world.
So that project will continue to run all over the world
with as many schools as want to be part of it,
as part of just an education and awareness program.
And the other side is building the world family tree
for everybody, where, as we said, anyone can upload,
anyone can be part of it to help map and show
just how connected we all are.
Yeah.
So for those on the webcast, this is your price drop
to launch what we're calling Family Networks, a new feature,
today.
And for those of you who are in the audience,
you'll be able to pick up kits at just $49 a kit until stocks
run out, hopefully soon.
They will run out very quickly at our booth, which
is booth 817.
So that means that we've made this accessible for everyone
now, so you can test not only yourself,
but you can test other members of the family, great gifts, got
to plug it.
I've been told we're in America.
We've got to go, go strong and smile.
Show teeth.
That was another tip.
Absolutely.
So we're learning that, but I think that's really
where we're up to.
We really appreciate you listening.
We've got some time for Q and A.
Yeah.
So thank you very much.
Yes, thank you.
If you could--I think there's a microphone that's up the back.
Oh, there's a microphone.
Right here.
So anybody with a question, if you could go to the microphone
so that everybody could hear you,
that would be hugely appreciated.
Yeah, and we'd love to talk questions about DNA
in general, questions about the project, anything
you want to know.
No question is stupid.
Someone asked us yesterday, who was working in our booth,
is it OK for men to remove nail varnish?
And we said if you've got nail varnish on and you're a man,
you can keep it on.
There's no problem.
Sometimes-- it's on?
Is this on?
OK.
Yeah.
A person may have some family roots that originally
came from some country, but maybe they
migrated through a number of different areas
before they ended up where they are.
Yeah.
Can DNA testing help with that?
So DNA testing can give you an indication.
It depends on how mixed their DNA got during that process.
So part of us building the genetic world family tree
is, you'll be able to combine the ethnicity breakdowns
with the genetics of the history to actually identify
those deeper roots.
And because we have things like the mitochondrial DNA,
the mother line and the father line,
that also doesn't change as much.
So when you combine all of that DNA together,
you can start to get stories.
The other thing that's important is,
within all the DNA companies, there's
no one from America that's actually included
in the reference databases.
So what you're looking at is the founder populations
before they came to America or Native Americans.
Yeah.
So it skips five, six generations for some people.
And when you do the test, does it
do the regular DNA plus the mitochondrial DNA?
Yep.
Correct.
It does the regular DNA, around about 600,000 to 700,000 areas
of that, plus the mitochondrial and the Y chromosome,
and, in fact, the X chromosome.
So it does four tests in one.
If anyone else wants to go and line up, there's a microphone.
That'd be great.
Please do it.
Love to get your reactions.
Hi.
Hello.
Can you hear me all right?
We're getting it.
OK, I've been really into this DNA testing.
So two years ago, I got the ancestry test,
and it said I was 81 percent UK.
And I was like, yay!
And then I got the Living DNA for Christmas this year,
and another one.
I--oh, I think I was 23andMe.
And I submitted those tests, got those back.
23andMe said I was about 67-ish UK.
And I was like, oh, maybe they're
just testing different groups.
And then I got your result back just a about week or two ago,
and it said I was like 98.8 percent UK.
So I understand that there's different pools that you
could be drawing from, different people that test.
And because yours is so specialized,
I tend to trust yours a little bit more.
And one way I feel like I kind of won the UK lottery and just
all of the little DNA components from everybody
just ended up in me.
But it's just like, I don't understand.
I don't understand how I could end up with so much
of just one concentration of it.
And so my question is, I have several siblings and parents
that may have received different components.
So would you encourage someone who
has my result to have my siblings continue
to test to see if there are other regions I could start
exploring as well that might not have all piled into the UK?
Or what would you recommend on that front?
Yeah, so everyone, depending on your siblings,
will have similar but different DNA depending
on how that's been inherited.
So the benefit of testing more people,
it's not just purely from because we sell kits.
It's just you get more of a picture,
and you start to actually connect those people together.
So with the feature today, which we'll be talking about,
called Family Networks, the more people you test,
the better it actually works.
In terms of the differences between companies,
I think when you actually start to look at it,
they're actually quite similar.
So Scandinavia, for instance, is very similar to the UK,
and it just might be some older ancestry from Scandinavia
before it came to the UK.
And some of the companies tend to split out
some of the Scandinavian.
Because we have a very detailed reference base in the UK,
we're able to be more precise with that.
We're also doing the same within Germany, but at the moment,
Germany and the UK have very similar genetic breakdowns.
And so if you had a little bit of Germany,
it may show up as southeast England
in our test, or Germany, because they're very, very similar.
Interesting.
But yeah.
OK, thank you.
Pleasure.
Hi.
I wonder, in the future, will you
be making match data available and chromosome data?
We will be.
And if you stay tuned tonight at the actual wonderful keynote
session, if you come to that, you'll hear all about it.
Yeah.
Hello.
Hi.
The test I've done before, not this one, a different one,
I'm Inupiaq from Barrow, and the majority--when the results came
back, it mostly just lumped me into Native American
as a whole.
Like, it circled the entire state of Alaska
and part of the US, but didn't give me as much information
as I thought it might.
Are you thinking in the future it
will do some narrowing of Native American tribes?
Yeah, so at the moment, we break down the Native American groups
into four different tribes.
Yeah.
One of the challenges has been the way
that science has been used in the past and the abuse
of the Native American tribal groups.
And so there can be a bit of a resistance to people
actually having access to the data.
So every type of DNA test for every company
relies on the quality of that data.
So we do have a Native American project that we're running.
Yeah.
And we are working on ways to be able to utilize
more of the public data for Native American groups.
Yeah.
Thank you.
And we're doing the same with Australia
for the aboriginal groups as well.
Yeah.
Two questions.
When you report on the mitochondrial and Y DNA,
are you going to give full sequence information
or only haplogroups or STR information in the case of Y?
And then for the ethnicity testing,
will you be able to identify, like, which snips
or which chromosomal segments have
been identified as, say, Welsh or from Cork in Ireland or et
cetera like that?
So for the second answer, which is
which bits come from where, the difference with our method
is, we look at not only which bits have you got,
but what is the order of those bits.
So it's a very different method to being
able to just paint which bit of DNA
has come from which country.
Because that chromosome could actually have
appeared from multiple places across the UK.
And it's only when it's ordered together with other chromosomes
can you actually say it's from Wales.
So the power in what we do means that that's very challenging
to actually present, but we are working on other ways
to be able to visualize that information.
With the mitochondrial and the Y DNA,
we are enhancing what we offer on there.
It's not full sequence, because it's all
run through on one chip.
But it is very detailed.
It is the most detailed Y and mitochondrial test
you can get on a chip that we provide.
And we are working at the moment to make that even
more detailed, to the level that it's equivalent, hopefully,
of the majority of what people need from sequencing.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Just have one question.
How are you choosing your reference population
in the regions that you're using, that you're
testing at the moment?
So the first thing we do for the regional breakdown
is, we have people who've had all
their four grandparents born within 50
kilometers of each other.
So that's the first requirement.
That's the first filter.
Filter number one.
Then what we do is, we actually look at the science
and we say, what does the science show us?
Does that person show deep ancestry
all from that one region?
And if not, we actually filter them out.
So that 50 percent of people that apply, that have actually
got ancestry or all their four grandparents
from one region, which is criterion number one,
that they know all of those ancestors
have pretty much always been from that same region, which
was point number two, 50 percent,
and we actually have to get rid of from the database project,
because they don't actually meet the quality criteria.
Yeah.
So there's a strict quality criteria.
We let the DNA do the talking, and then we
confirm it with the records and the historic information, which
is the opposite way from some of the other companies, where
they look at the history and use the DNA to confirm the history.
Yeah.
OK, so I'm really excited.
How do I get the $49 deal again?
So $49.
817.
817, 6:00 p.m.
tonight.
We've got kits until they run out at $49.
We've got a limited stock.
OK, so we have to do the booth.
We can't do it online.
Online, it's $89.
OK.
So at the booth.
I'd go to the booth.
6:00.
6:00, when it opens.
Bring dinner.
Go there.
We'll be there for the next few days.
Last time, we launched in RootsTech 2017.
We sold out of kits on, like, the second day.
We brought a lot more, but then there's a lot more people,
we've just heard, that are here, and we've also
put it at a price that it's never been at before, $49.
OK, we don't have to say anything, just come
to the booth?
Just come to the booth.
Just come see us.
And just say, I'd love 10 kits.
We'll be there.
We'll sort you out.
Cool.
Is there any other question?
We're in the main exhibit hall.
So you walk through FamilySearch.
Just walk straight through the FamilySearch booth
that's there.
And we're just behind FamilySearch.
Yeah, right behind FamilySearch.
Yeah, you can stop and say hello, it's not--don't do that,
but we're just behind FamilySearch.
Yeah.
Living DNA.
That's cool.
Brilliant.
Any other questions or anything else you wanted to talk about?
OK.
Oh, we've got another one.
Hi.
Hi, I had my DNA tested a few years back.
What kind of DNA did I get then?
That's a great question, and I have no idea who you tested
with, but it will probably be--was it to do with
mitochondrial DNA, maybe?
Like, how many years back did you test?
I got it through Ancestry.
OK.
OK, so Ancestry probably, they did the autosomal DNA
in the last five years, I think.
And before that, they did mitochondrial DNA.
So you would have got your breakdown to about 31 regions.
So we'll have more detail on the breakdown.
We also include the mitochondrial DNA.
So you'll get your deep ancestry showing up.
And there's a--
Motherline.
Motherline ancestry and a lot more features.
We'll let you look at your ancestry
at different periods in history.
So do you think that I did the Y DNA, then?
You wouldn't have done the Y DNA, because only males have
the Y chromosome.
So it would have been the mitochondrial that would have
been done, or the autosomal.
That makes sense.
Thank you.
No worries.
Thank you very much.
I was just wondering if this included the health issues
or propensities to different conditions.
So this test is looking at your ancestry and your family
history.
And it's something that we're talking to our clients
about, about users if they're interested in stuff
like that in the future.
But for now, this is all about family history.
There's no medical diagnosis.
Nope.
There's nothing else that comes with that.
So yeah, it's all about you and where
you come from in the world.
And we'll be adding in new features and traits
and exciting information to the test for you in the future.
Yeah.
OK, thank you.
Thank you very much.
Hi.
So you would recommend that if we
had a test done through Ancestry,
that we should go ahead and have one done through Living DNA,
as well?
Without trying to be unbiased about this, because it also
includes the mitochondrial and the Y DNA for males
and the mitochondrial DNA, you will get more information
and different information.
I think what's fascinating about the way
that the market's working is, in the past people thought
you would just do one DNA test.
But the price points are so low that actually you
get to have multiple DNA tests.
It's like you have different cereals
for breakfast different days.
So it's kind of the same thing, perhaps.
So you get more information.
More information, different information.
Also, it's good to see, what were your results?
You did you have any European ancestry?
Do you want to go deeper in that?
Because that's also where we can help.
Yeah.
Well, and the other thing is, my understanding through the--with
Ancestry is that you get updated information.
The more people that submit, they continue to evaluate,
and you get more and more information as time goes along.
Yes, so you get more and more DNA matches.
Yeah.
And people you can connect with.
And that's the same thing with us as well.
You get more and more DNA matches to work with.
And that will be coming online.
So the data is there.
The one thing about the Ancestry test
is, it doesn't include the mitochondrial,
and it doesn't include the Y. So by testing
with us, that alone is something new that you will get.
And those tests typically run by other companies
for a few hundred dollars.
Yeah, at $49 today, you get all three tests in one.
So it's very, very good saving.
But when you do a book, you're getting information
that you received just from that one point in time.
You're not getting ongoing, updating information
as time goes along.
So the book is one part of it, which can give you a snapshot.
And that's more about your deep ancestry.
You get full online access and full interactive views
of your results, updates via emails, updates and connections
with different people.
OK.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
OK, that's it.
Thank you very much, everyone.