FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions, Facts and Tips
The majority of the information below was provided courtesy of the FTDNA R-1b Project. Many thanks to Administrators Mike W and Gail Ruddenklau-Riddell for providing so much useful information that could be easily adapted to this small surname project!
Members of this surname project who are Haplogroup R-1b and any subclade below that are encouraged to join the FTDNA R-1b All Subclades project.
In addition, members of this surname project who are R-1b U-106 are encouraged to join that FTDNA project.
Members with other Haplogroup designations, please ask for assistance or search for and join your appropriate Haplogroup project.
The following questions are addressed below:
Why Y DNA testing?
Why Y STRs and how are they used?
Why Y SNPs and how are they used?
Why Big Y Next Generation Sequencing?
Should I upgrade Y STRs, even if I have limited or no matches?
Which FTDNA Account Profile Settings are important?
Why Y DNA testing?
The Y chromosome can only be passed from father to son and as such is passed almost completely unchanged. Changes or mutations occur every couple of generations but those mutations are also passed on giving each male lineage a unique signature that grows in uniqueness over the generations. The mutations can be thought of as a path of bread crumbs or footprints in the snow that never wash away. As we follow the path back through the woods we can find common ancestors with other people and potentially origins information.
Comparisons between potentially related people allows us to build a descendants tree back to a common ancestor. This can be used as a proof for genealogical records but can go way back into ancient times to understand where our people came from and how as we compare with historical and archaeological records. Your Y DNA has tremendous potential to track lineages from the head to the toe, from the ancient to the present.
The comparison method for tree building is simple, just compare stable mutations across potential relatives. If you have two brothers that have the same mutation unique to them then you can legitimately assume their most recent common ancestor, their father, had it. If you check a male cousin and he has the same mutation you can back up a step and know the grandfather had it. However, you need apples to apples comparisons of test results. It is of little value to do tests that few others are doing. Think of this as a team sport. You have to get others potentially related to take the same tests as you do or find them in the matching database. This is why the size of the matching database and recruiting efforts are so important.
https://www.familytreedna.com/why-ftdna.aspx
Y DNA tracking is both very granular, sensitive to the generations, and consistent, due to the father-son inheritance staying intact. However, it only tracks a paternal lineage, your father's father's father, etc. Still, this can be applied across your family tree. Every mother has a father. The key is to find male relatives, male cousins and uncles, and get them Y DNA tested while you can.
Why Y STRs and how are they used?
STRs - Short Tandem Repeats:
STRs are very useful in a multi-pronged approach, but should not be used out of context with SNPs. STRs support the formation of a useful matching database because:
1) They have a long legacy of usage and standardization, even beyond genealogy into forensic sciences.
2) They are consistently measured in standard STR based panels.
3) For the legacy STRs (111), everyone gets measured and issues like no calls are rare.
STRs are useful in several ways:
1) Team or cluster building and finding people who might be closely related to you.
2) TMRCA estimates.
3) As a guide for advanced and deeper SNP testing.
4) Cross-checking and validation of newly discovered SNPs.
5) As differentiators at the tips of the branches (the leaves) in tree building as fenced in by SNPs. However STRs should not be used to assume branch placement as a replacement for SNPs.
Why Y SNPs and how are they used?
SNPs - Single Nuclear Polymorphisms
SNPs support the discovery of the paternal lineage tree of mankind because:
1) They have a very strict father-son inheritance property
2) They are generally very stable, making for a high reliability tree
3) They have a very high opportunity for mutation, providing great resolution in the branching
SNPs are critical for their benefits.
1) SNPs can document a Y DNA tree that is very accurate, granular and comprehensive from the ancient to current genealogy.
2) TMRCA estimations.
3) Eliminating false matches caused by STR convergence.
Using either SNPs counting or STR variance, TMRCA estimates are subject to error ranges and anomalies. All mutations can occur in fits and starts. There is a lot we don't know.
Why Big Y Next Generation Sequencing?
Big Y is probably the most important Y DNA test that you can take because it goes beyond testing for public and known SNPs. Big Y discovers your own line of SNPs rather than just the known SNPs.
There are now several thousand Big Y results completed for many haplogroups. It works. Big Y results can come in as quickly as 4 weeks (FTDNA uses an 8-10 week estimate). Pooling of resources at the project/family/surname levels can help share the cost, but be on the look-out for holiday, DNA Day, Father's Day and other sales promotions from FTDNA.
https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/y-dna-testing/big-y/
Should I upgrade Y STRs, even if I have limited or no matches?
Yes, upgrading can still be of benefit. There is no magic in the STR panels and what one panel, such as 1-12, shows does not guarantee that another panel, such as 68-111, will not have new matches. The STR panels are essentially a random arrangement of STRs.
Which "FTDNA Account Profile Settings" are important.
How should they be set to garner the most matches and provide the greatest amount of information?
Please take some time to review and update the information in your kit at Family Tree DNA.
Go to https://www.familytreedna.com/
Click the LOGIN TAB on the top of the screen and enter your kit number and password to open your MyFTDNA page.
Click the MANAGE PERSONAL INFORMATION link on the left of the page. Or, use the drop-down menu at top right to open your profile.
There is a lot you can configure. Please take some time to click around and setup your profile.
In particular, please check and consider the following.
1. ON THE CONTACT INFORMATION TAB:
Input your current mailing address. This is used in case FTDNA needs to send you a new test kit to upgrade your kit. It is also useful if a DNA Project Administrator wants to contact you and your email is not working.
Input multiple email addresses if you can. This is helpful if your email address stops working for any reason. If you have a beneficiary or relative that you might want to take over your kit someday, input their email address too. If you want, input the email address of your DNA Project Administrators. Any email that you input here could someday takeover management of the kit if you are no longer able to do so.
If the contact person is not the person who gave the DNA sample, then please input the name of the DNA donor and put the contact person as c/o (Care Of) in the address line. For example, John James Smith, c/o Donna Smith Jones.
2. ON THE ACCOUNT SETTINGS TAB:
Change the Personal Information default from Private to Basic or Full. This allows others with FTDNA login access to view the information you share in your profile. This is useful for people who match you and for others in any DNA project groups you join.
If you have a web site or family tree online, you can show the link in the ABOUT ME box. If the DNA donor has passed, or is no longer able to donate additional DNA, then you might want to include a note explaining this in the ABOUT ME box.
3. ON THE GENEALOGY TAB - FAMILY TREE:
Even if you have not yet created a family tree on FTDNA, please change the default Family Tree privacy settings. Hopefully, someday you will create or upload a tree. Or, a project admin might do it for you. So, it will help if these settings are configured. In order to use DNA for genealogy, you want people to check your tree. I set my tree to Public for deceased people, but individually select those I wish to retain as Private (because they are living). If you have a gedcom file of your family tree, please upload it by clicking on the FAMILY TREE button on your kit's main page.
If you don't have a gedcom file, and can't make one, then you can manually create a tree by clicking on FAMILY TREE then clicking the profile icon. If you have a tree on Ancestry.com or elsewhere then you can get a gedcom.
Or, if someone else has you in their tree, they might be able to give you a gedcom. If you need help creating a gedcom or extracting your tree from Ancestry, go to http://www.nixternal.com/export-gedcom-file-from-ancestry-com/
4. ON THE GENEALOGY TAB - MOST DISTANT ANCESTORS:
Input your Most Distant Ancestors. These should be the most distant known ancestors you have in your direct paternal and direct maternal lines. Only input names that you know with high confidence. It helps if you include dates and location info with the name, although you may have to abbreviate words.
Please do not enter a man's name for your maternal line. This space is for your mother or her mother or her mother. Yup, enter your mother's mother's mother as far back as you reliably know.
If the date is approximate, use the letter "c" as abbreviation for circa in front of the date. Circa is the standard term meaning around or about.
For example, John Henry Smith, bc.1822, Scotland or Dorcus Margaret Jones, b. 1802 England, d. 1852 North Carollina
5. ON THE GENEALOGY TAB - SURNAMES:
Input all the surnames of your known ancestors on all branches of your lineage. This is very useful because the matching tools allow people to search matches for surnames. If you have a surname with variations in spelling, it can help to input each variation. That way you will show up whichever variation some uses to search their matches.
6. ON THE BENEFICIARY INFORMATION TAB:
Input the name and contact information of someone you want to take over the kit should you pass away or become unable to manage it. If you don't have anyone to make your beneficiary, then ask one of your DNA Project Administrators for their contact information to make them your kit beneficiary. It is very sad that many people pass away without designating a kit beneficiary. That makes their DNA kit of limited use for future researchers.
7. ON THE PRIVACY & SHARING TAB:
Change most of the default settings here. FTDNA has made the defaults extremely limiting. That makes it harder to use the DNA results for genealogy.
Change "Who can view my Most Distant Ancestor" so that project members can see it. Otherwise, it is hidden.
Change "Who can see me in project member lists" so that others can see you. It helps if people can see you and contact you to share their research.
Change "Who can view my ethnic breakdown" to allow matches to view it.
Change "Who can view my mtDNA Coding Region" to allow project admins to view them if you want their help in researching your direct female lineage.
You can give project administrators full access to your account. This allows the administrator to view all of your DNA results and keep your account information up to date. This makes it easier to manage the DNA project. To give a project administrator full access to your account, you must tell them your kit number and password. Giving administrators full access can also ensure that your kit remains useful for future researchers should you pass away.
Administrators can help your relatives or beneficiaries take over the kit someday if they need help. If you give an admin full access, then you can ask them to make changes for you.