See THE LONG VERSION for details, citations, and links

Pre 1980

See The Long Version and the other timeline links at the end of that page

1981

First report of mtDNA sequencing

1983

PCR procedure conceived (Mullis)

1984

Forensic scientists use blood analysis to identify families of kidnapped children in Argentina
DNA fingerprinting introduced (Alec Jeffreys, England)

1987

All humans alive today descend from a single woman 200,000 years ago (mtDNA, Cann, et al)

Late '80's

First crime conviction based on DNA fingerprinting

Oct 1992

Article published on use of mtDNA and genealogy (Roderick, et al)

1994-95

mtDNA identifies Romanov family - Nicholas II, last Czar of Russia (Gill, et al)

1996

FBI begins using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA in criminal cases

Jan 1997

Cohanim/Cohen/Kohanim study - Y chromosomes of Jewish priests (Hammer, et al)

May 1997

Alan Savin is the first genealogy hobbyist to conduct a DNA surname study

1997

Britain's 9,000 year old Cheddar Man has a relative living in Cheddar (mtDNA, Sykes)

Nov 1998

Thomas Jefferson - Sally Hemmings study (Y-chromosome - Foster, et al)

1999

Surname studies by Pearl Duncan (Akuapim Project), Sykes, Greenspan.
Sorensen

1999

Commercial stage begins. FTDNA and OA go into business.

1999

James L. Sorenson meets with BYU; see also on the Long Version, 2001 Relative Genetics, 2003 Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (SMGF).

2000

Savin's DNA for Family Historians

Feb 2000

Lemba study "Black Jews of Southern Africa" (Y-chromosome)

Mar 2000

BYU project begins (moved to Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in 2003)

Spring 2000

Surname projects begin with commercial companies - Mumma was the first
(FTDNA's early surname projects - and other pioneers - are listed in the Long Version)

Jun 2000

Sequencing of the entire human genome announced.

Oct 2000

Turner starts the GENEALOGY-DNA-L discussion list at RootsWeb after conducting the first known private mtDNA study

2001

Quiet year.

Sept 2002

DNAPrint Genomics offers "BioGeographical Ancestry" (BGA) testing and the above discussion list has been arguing about it ever since . . . .

Feb 2003

Genghis Khan study - he has a lot of descendants (Y chromosome)

Aug 2003

The "complete" sequencing of the Y chromosome (about 23 million bases out of 50+ million)

2003 Misc.

African Ancestry and Trace Genetics offer specialized services, DNA Heritage offers Y testing, DNAPrint test helps identify murder suspect

2004

 1st conference for surname administrators (FTDNA); three books published

July 2005

 Journal of Genetic Genealogy (JoGG) launched.

See THE LONG VERSION for details, citations, and links