23andMe Transition arrives in UK & Ireland

Some time ago, 23andMe transitioned their US customers to a new website format, whilst those of us in Europe remained with the old format. That was quite some time ago! But just this week, I have received an email informing me that I will be transitioned to the new format in June 2017. 

Below is the email I received. Of note, all Health Reports will be archived as pdf documents. I received mine before the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) put the extended hold on 23andMe's Health Reports, so I have 63 reports on physical traits, 53 on carrier status for inherited conditions, 25 on drug response, and 122 on health risks for a variety of medical conditions including Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's. 

The first bullet point talks about "Ethnicity" but on my screen it is described as "Ancestry" - click on your name (top right), then Edit Profile, & you will see it directly under the Ancestry Information heading. Click on Update.

You can also enter or update your ethnicity by clicking on the green button above (in the email you receive). Of particular note, if you manage several kits, after filling out the survey for your first kit, be sure to switch profiles and complete the survey for each one of your kits.

The new 23andMe experience is discussed on their international webpages here, and additional information for European customers is available on this link here and is abstracted below.

Some of the key features that stand out for me include:

• some Health Reports may be available (depending on which chip was used - you can find this information on your Download Raw Data page in the Profile box toward the end of the page)
• the maximum number of matches has increased to 2000
• linking to online trees is allowed, even if they are with other companies (saves you the hassle of having to upload a gedcom ... which anyway is no longer available with the new experience)
• when defining haplogroup subclades, they have switched from the old terminology (e.g. R1b1a) to the new one (e.g. I-M253)
• any connections you currently share with your matches will be maintained in the new experience

One of the best additional features of the new experience will be the Relatives in Common feature. This is similar to the Shared Matches feature on Ancestry and the ICW (In Common With) Matches feature on FamilyTreeDNA.

Maurice Gleeson

May 2017