Ancestry announced its launch of AncestryHealth powered by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS).  It is designed to help people understand their risk for developing certain inheritable conditions, such as heart disease, breast cancer, colon cancer and blood disorders. They also provide carrier status reports for cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and Tay-Sachs disease; five connective tissue disorder reports, which were not part of the existing AncestryHealth Core offering; and four cardiovascular reports related to heart disease, high cholesterol, risk of blood clotting, and iron overload, and rolled its wellness reports in AncestryHealth covering 10 traits related to alcohol flushing, caffeine metabolism, lactose intolerance, and others according to a report in Genomeweb.com (https://www.genomeweb.com/sequencing/ancestry-rolls-out-sequencing-based-health-offering-focused-common-conditions).

Ancestry has amassed a database of 18 million people in its AncestryDNA network since launching the microarray-based genetic genealogy service in 2012.

According to Ancestry’s press release, “Because NGS technology reads parts of the genome that a microarray cannot, the NGS technology that powers AncestryHealth does a better job of determining if someone is at greater risk for some of the most common inherited conditions. Quest Diagnostics developed NGS technology for AncestryHealth.  The release also states NGS achieves about 80-90 percent detection of inherited risk for specific health condition and they state the NGS technology powering AncestryHealth has a risk detection rate four times higher than most microarray-based tests.

AncestryHealth powered by NGS will replace the microarray-based AncestryHealth Core which it started last year. In partnership with PWNHealth, an independent network of board-certified genetic counselors, geneticists, physicians and other allied health professionals, AncestryHealth powered by NGS offers genetic information on risks combined with educational resources, remote access to genetic counselors and a clinical lab report consumers can share with their healthcare provider to help them understand their results and make more informed choices.

Ancestry does not share customers’ DNA data with insurers, employers or third-party marketers.

Beginning Aug. 3, AncestryHealth powered by NGS is available to adults (ages 18+) in the United States, with the exception of New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island, for $179. Existing AncestryDNA® customers can upgrade to AncestryHealth for $99. You can purchase and activate the kit via the AncestryHealth website: https://www.ancestry.com/health

To read more about this see Ancestry’s press release at: https://www.ancestry.com/corporate/newsroom/press-releases/ancestry%C2%AE-launches-ancestryhealth%C2%AE-powered-next-generation-sequencing-ngs

I have no affiliation with Ancestry or AncestryHealth and am posting this solely for the information of the reader.

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

JewishGen is pleased to announce that a new data set has been added to Holocaust Database (https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Holocaust/)

This is a small collection, put together by the World Jewish Congress, with 639 names of Polish Jews found in Hungary immediately after the end of the war.  Some of them had fled from Poland to Hungary to escape deportations to death camps in Poland.  In other cases, there is no explanation as to how/why they ended up in Hungary.  Since most of these survivors entered the postwar displaced persons system, using USHMM and Bad Arolsen databases, in many cases it is possible to establish their final destination

The material consists of surname and given name, year and place of birth and residence in 1939.  An unusual addition to this list is the mother’s given and maiden name.

This list of Polish Jews in Hungary was produced by the World Jewish Congress April 18, 1946.  It is one list in an extensive collection (3.1.1.3) of lists of liberated persons held at the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany.  The list was created by Carol Oliver, as JewishGen volunteer.  To learn more about this data set, please see https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/holocaust/PolishSurvivorsFoundinHungary.html

You can search these records, along with all of JewishGen’s records from the Unified Search page at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/all/ Alternatively, to search the Holocaust Database specifically, please start at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Holocaust/  You will also find a listing of all the component databases below the search grid.  By entering search terms in the grid, you will search all component databases at once.

Nolan Altman

Holocaust Database Coordinator

August 2020