Today, Geneanet announced that they are discontinuing all DNA features on their platform.
Geneanet was purchased by Ancestry more than three years ago and offered DNA uploads and matching, with a chromosome browser, beginning in 2020. They did not offer DNA testing, so anyone who uploaded has to have tested elsewhere, meaning they are in another database somewhere.
Geneanet announced that:
- As of today, DNA uploads will no longer be accepted.
- On December 20th, in exactly 30 days, the entire DNA section will be permanently deleted, including your DNA file that you uploaded.
They don’t give any reason other than the DNA program didn’t meet their expectations, and they will focus on other customer-requested features now.
My initial reaction was that this might be due to the 23andMe data exposure issue that I wrote about here, here, and here. However, given the 7-week delay, I think that’s unlikely. Additionally, Geneanet is encouraging people to download their matches now, before the deletion. During this same time, other genealogy DNA companies have removed or restricted match downloads, which makes the 23andMe issue seem like an unlikely catalyst for their decision.
Geneanet states that none of its premium member features will be affected by this decision.
If Geneanet’s pending DNA exit affects you, you might want to take whatever action you deem appropriate, now, before the holidays distract you and you forget about it altogether.
Many people used Geneanet for its European focus to connect with European DNA matches. If this applies to you, I suggest that you upload your DNA files to both MyHeritage (here) and FamilyTreeDNA (here) if you haven’t already done so. MyHeritage has a significant European customer base, thanks to their abundant genealogy research records, and FamilyTreeDNA has many European testers with its 23-year history and European project offerings.
While the Geneanet exit from DNA may be inconvenient, it’s not a disastrous loss. You can find those Geneanet DNA matches elsewhere because they didn’t test at Geneanet.
You can read Geneanet’s blog posting, here.
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I believe it is due to the fact that taking a DNA test is still unlawful in France. Geneanet didn’t get enough people who were willing to take the risk. I am French but live in the US. I never uploaded my results to Geneanet because I suspected that their gamble would not work because of the law. Annick H.
But of course, that law hasn’t deterred loads of French residents from testing with MyHeritage. I have a lot of matches who identifed France as their nation of residence, if not citizenship.
I agree with you. I even had my parents take the test. But the number of French folks is minuscule compared to the number of US residents who have taken the test, some even at all the places available.
I’m getting many messages about the distrust that is being felt from many people. I’m not sure if I will continue my interests in DNA in the future. Pleasse keep posting thoughts, it’s helpful!!
Ancestry owns geneanet. I do think this is because of MH and 23 issues and clamping down on access. Ancestry decided they did not want to participate.
I liked geneanet because it showed the segments that timber affected on ancestry. It colored the segments different so you could see those segments that were considered valid and those segments considered suspect or had too many matches.
I was continually pondering how I shared a bit of the X chromosome with so many French people. (I do have a 17th century ancestor with a French surname (Moulin) but I can’t really conclude this is why.) Yep, no good matches despite being the first genearation in all my direct lines born outside Europe. – It was odd that they did include the X chromosome at Geneanet.
I have just now downloaded segment information from my Geneanet matches. Yes, the matches are from all of the different testing companies. But one advantage is that I have found matches who tested only at Ancestry who have uploaded their DNA to Geneanet. Because Geneanet has a Chromosome Browser (and Ancestry does not), I can now get the segment info I need to paint these matches on DNA Painter. Some of these matches also have trees at Geneanet but don’t have one published at Ancestry. I am downloading tree info, too.