Since I last tested Ancestry in 2006, the company has revamped its desktop software program, Family Tree Maker, so the program can synchronize with Web-based data on Ancestry.com.
That is partly because the carrier rate for Tay-Sachs in the Irish population hasn't been scientifically proved, she says, adding that the current U.S. study is expected to provide data on the risk faced by people of Irish ancestry.
"There was a giant digitization wave that Ancestry brought on, and we realized that there is an enormous amount of data that is now made searchable, " Mr. Shaw says.
After using the Ancestry app on my iPad and adding records to my family tree, I easily synced that data with my desktop software by clicking a top-right button when I next opened the Family Tree Maker.
In order to control costs and improve efficiencies Ancestry.com has been working to reduce its storage costs and the growth of the physical footprint of its data centers.