As additional people are tested and offer their genetic information — and their family history records — to the foundation, the larger the database will grow, Woodward said.

While it doesn't circumvent the need for accurate family history data — names, birthdates, marriage and death dates, place of birth and other vital statistics — it supplements such information by providing what many consider to be definitive proof of familial relationships: a genetic "match" meaning people are related "with a high degree of probability," Woodward said. That probability is in the "high 90 percentile."

Available family history data was gathered from all those whose genetic information is stored in the database and will be requested from those who want to be a part of the database in the future.

The DNA tests are especially accurate for ancestors up to eight generations back, he said, noting that technology makes it possible to go back "even 50 or 60 generations" but cautions that genetic markers become less reliable the further back they are traced because DNA undergoes slight alterations over time.

Many people seeking to uncover their ancestry run into numerous roadblocks in their search, including faulty information about family lines and surnames that have been changed over time. Genetic testing offers a way to bypass such roadblocks — if the information about ones' ancestors is a part of the Sorenson database, or others that exist in a variety of laboratories in the United States and England.

The difference at this point is the Sorenson Foundation is offering access to such information not only on the Internet but free of charge to users. By providing the information and encouraging people to not only use it but to add to it, Woodward said his organization hopes to map the world's entire human family tree through genetics at some point in the future.

Woodward, who started his work several years ago at Brigham Young University and is considered one of the world's leading researchers in his field, is now working for Sorenson, the medical devices pioneer who was recently recognized as the state's wealthiest man.

Sorenson told the Deseret Morning News he is dedicated to expanding the project indefinitely in the quest to help people the world over understand "how similar we are, rather than how we're different. . . . We need other people and they need us."

Sorenson said he established the foundation as a nonprofit organization "to move this work along globally" rather than having it confined to one university or research organization.