Today, AncestryDNA announced that their database of DNA test takers now exceeds 3 million. They also reported that they sold 1.4 million new kits in the fourth quarter, including more than 560,000 during their Black Friday sale alone. (Hands up! Who else bought a bunch?)
Here’s an update to the autosomal testing growth graph, using numbers taken from the edit history of the ISOGG company comparison chart. Feel free to use it in presentations to the genetic genealogy community.
We can all expect new matches to treeless newbies in the coming months. Many tested just for ethnicity estimates or because they got the kit as a gift. This is a great opportunity for us to help them get started in genealogy. Kerry Scott has a great blog post on this topic. A key quote:
“We also need to make sure we’re treating these newbies in such a way that they don’t log off and leave us in the dust. Being friendly, approachable and gentle with new matches can go a long way toward turning these people into genealogists, not just people who took a DNA test once. We have the opportunity to pull them in, but we also have the power to push them away. Let’s recognize that, and make good choices.”
Excellent advice!
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