[4] FamilyTreeDNA was founded based on an idea conceived by Bennett Greenspan, a lifelong entrepreneur and genealogy enthusiast.

[5][6][7] When faced with a roadblock in his work, he remembered two cases of genetics being used to prove ancestry that had recently been covered by the media.

Wishing to use the same method of DNA comparison for his own genealogy, he contacted Dr. Michael Hammer at the University of Arizona.

Their conversation inspired him to start a company dedicated to using genetics to help solve genealogy mysteries.

[7][10][11] It was early 2000 when Greenspan with his business partners Max Blankfeld and Jim Warren officially launched FamilyTreeDNA.

FamilyTreeDNA includes among its scientific staff, Dr. Michael Hammer (PhD), one of a team of scientists that first published on the Cohen Modal Haplotype in 1997 in the journal Nature.

The company began by offering 12 STR marker Y-chromosome tests much like those used in many scientific publications of the time in March 2000.

With this buyout, Thomas and Astrid Krahn, who had owned DNA-Fingerprint, moved to Houston, Texas, and helped open the Genomics Research Center.

The WTY test offered the most adventurous of citizen scientists the chance to seek the discovery of new Y-chromosome SNPs.

It was formed alongside the closing of DNA-Fingerprint and Thomas Krahn's helping open the Genomic Research Center in Houston.

MyHeritage is a website offering online, mobile and software platforms for discovering, preserving and sharing family history worldwide.

Services provided by FamilyTreeDNA are made in own laboratory meeting CLIA and CAP standards and they are based on various biotechnology products, including for example sequencing platform NovaSeq by Illumina, Inc.[21] In May 2010, FamilyTreeDNA launched an autosomal microarray chip based DNA test.

The results of this test provide percentages of a DNA associated with general regions or specific ethnic groups (e.g. Western Europe, Asia, Jewish, Native American, etc.).

[37][38][39] As of March 2019, the company instituted a policy allowing its customers to opt out of law enforcement access to their genetic data.

“Users now have the ability to opt out of matching with DNA relatives whose accounts are flagged as being created to identify the remains of a deceased individual or a perpetrator of homicide or sexual assault, also referred to as Law Enforcement Matching (LEM),” the company wrote in an email to customers.

[41] In May 2019 FamilyTreeDNA prevented access to its Y-DNA database ysearch.org and its mtDNA data base mitosearch making it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to identify crime suspects.