Hi WikiTreers,
We are now calculating and displaying a new statistic on the home page: The number of profiles on WikiTree with DNA test connections.
Today that number is 3,027,628.
I had no idea what the count would be before today, and I'm shocked and amazed by it. I think it's awesome. It's a number that really says something impressive about our commitment and progress toward growing an accurate shared family tree -- a tree with relationships that can be confirmed with DNA.
What exactly is a DNA test connection? It's where we post a notice on a WikiTree profile that says there is a DNA test that might be useful for confirming or rejecting relationships to that person. For Y-chromosome tests it means the test-taker is on the same paternal line. For mitochondrial tests it means the test-taker is on the same maternal line. For autosomal tests (the most popular these days, e.g. AncestryDNA, Family Tree DNA Family Finder, 23andMe) it means that the test-taker is within eight degrees and is therefore likely to share significant segments of DNA.
The bottom line: A DNA test connection is an opportunity to try to scientifically prove what's been established through traditional genealogy.
Every time I see a new one on a profile that I care about I get a little rush of excitement. Knowing there are three million of these around our shared tree puts a big smile on my face.
Three million is a much larger number than I expected. Mind you, this is unique profiles. There are many profiles with more than one DNA test connection; we're not double/triple/quadruple counting profiles with two/three/four test connections. A profile such as Roberts-7102 with a dozen test connections is just one of the three million.
With 15 million profiles on our tree, that 20%. One in five.
The number will be updated every day, when the test connections are refreshed.
Some days the count could go down, as tests are removed, or relationships are disproven and disconnected. It will be interesting to watch.
Onward and upward, for our shared family tree,
Chris
P.S. A big thank-you to Peter Roberts for asking about this number here a few weeks ago. And, more fundamentally, for suggesting DNA test connections in the first place, and helping to develop almost every one of our DNA features.