Thanks for posting this, Andreas. The blog is concise (something I respect but have difficulty achieving myself), but when talking about Family Tree DNA's company history I feel there's someone who was left out and deserving of mention.
Thomas Krahn and his wife, Astrid, owned DNA-Fingerprint in Germany before the company was acquired by Family Tree DNA (Gene by Gene) in 2006. The Krahns relocated to Houston, Texas, and were responsible for helping plan, design, and operationalize Gene by Gene's Genomics Research Center where the company would do all subsequent testing and sequencing. I've visited that center several times, and my biggest concern about the acquisition is potentially losing genetic genealogy as a priority for the lab. The Big Y test has been an absolute game changer and I sincerely hope it continues to be a focus for support and development.
The Krahns moved back home to Germany around the 2012 timeframe and founded YSEQ in 2013. YSEQ is one of the only labs in the world besides FTDNA where significant consumer yDNA testing is performed. Many DNA project administrators look to YSEQ for singleton SNP testing since their catalog of available one-off SNPs is larger than FTDNA's and they're generally less expensive for the purpose. YSEQ also provide NGS whole genome sequencing.
The Krahns have been researchers and influencers in genetic genealogy for two decades. For those familiar with SNPs on the Y chromosome, the naming convention includes one or more letters prefacing numerals. These designate the discoverer of the SNP. An "A" stands for Thomas and Astrid Krahn (for example, the SNP I-A19420), and a "Z" represents a group of several researchers that includes Thomas, Alex Williamson, Roman Sychev (one of the team at YFull), and others (for example, the SNP R-Z290).
Thomas also continues to develop and offer DNA utilities free of charge to the community. Under the auspices of ISOGG, YBrowse provides a detailed Y-only chromosome browser using Build 38, the current human genome assembly and the one FTDNA uses for the Big Y test. You can search by SNP, STR, or a range of base pair loci. If you're so inclined, from that site you can also download the current underlying data files for yDNA.
The YSEQ Clade Finder v1.0 is also free and OpenSource, and uses an application interface to the YFull haplotree to determine the deepest subclade based on either manually input SNP results, or by uploading data files from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, or an NGS VCF file. Originally pioneered by Whit Athey, also offered free is a new YSEQ Haplogroup Predictor (beta version) that takes as input up to 111 Y-STR values and returns an estimated haplogroup.
The Krahns had a lot to do with the success of the Gene by Gene Genomics Research Center and the migration of testing there from the University of Arizona. So just a footnote to acknowledge them and all the work they did in relation to Family Tree DNA.
