23andMe launches feature connecting customers to historic individuals

23andMe Holding released a new feature for 23andMe+ Premium and Total Health members, that uncovers DNA connections to 335 unique historical individuals, from medieval Vikings to late Stone Age African hunter-gatherers to pre-colonial indigenous Caribbean people to the great musical genius Ludwig Van Beethoven. 23andMe plans to add additional historical genomes to the Historical Matches feature over time, offering 23andMe+ Premium and Total Health members more opportunities to connect their stories to past epochs. To create this new feature and connect members to Historical Matches, 23andMe identifies segments of DNA that individuals share with the genetic sequences of historical individuals. The feature relies on publicly available data, scientific publications, and the 23andMe relative matching technology to link to these historical individuals. Most members will have a match to one or more of these individuals, offering them a connection to specific individuals from a particular time in history.