Investing in our heritage

Ancestry, the genealogy website known for tracing family history and DNA testing, reached a deal valued at $4.7 billion with Blackstone ... 'We believe Ancestry has significant runway for further growth as people of all ages and backgrounds become increasingly interested in learning more about their family histories and themselves,' said Blackstone senior managing director, David Kestnbaum. 'We look forward to investing behind further data, functionality, and product development across Ancestry's market-leading platform to continue to provide a differentiated service.' Ancestry was launched in 1996 ... and has now accumulated 100 million family trees and 20 billion historical records. In 2012 they started a direct-to-consumer genetic test to provide more detailed information about the ethnicity of ancestors. Recently they started to offer genetic testing ... Ancestry state there are now 18 million people in their DNA network.