British Isles DNA by County

Member Guidelines

Once you receive your test results, you can start learning about your genetic heritage and search for near and distant cousins. Here is a checklist of steps you can take to ensure you derive the greatest benefit from your membership in the project. Return to your MATCHES and ANCESTRAL ORIGINS on Familytreedna.com often (via your MyFTDNA page) to find out if other testees have produced close matches to your profile. It is also recommended that you visit the results pages on this website (www.britishislesdna.com) often so that you can follow developments in the British Isles DNA project.

When you log into www.familytreedna.com and enter your KIT and PASSWORD in the blank boxes on the blue strip, you will be taken to your MyFTDNA page. There are a number of things you can do from this page. (N.B.: Only after your test results have been posted.) Your first order of business should be to enter your ancestral information in th4e USER PREFERENCES (see below).

	Modify Contact Information: Change details of the personal information you provided to FTDNA when you ordered your DNA tests.
New Messages	Access the British Isles project message board to exchange information with other members. Read any messages you have received from FTDNA or other members.
Groups	Manage your DNA  projects. You may remove yourself from any of the projects listed here. Please bear in mind that you may belong to one surname project, and more than one geographical project.
	Find information about the Western Modal Haplotype if your haplogroup is R1b. The WAMH is the most common Y-DNA signature in Europe.
	Visit the British Isles DNA Forum. Click on this link to go to the BI discussion bulletin board. On your first visit you will be required to give a new username and password (no numeric characters). Once your username is confirmed to you by email, you will have access to the forum, where you can read posts from other members, reply to them, or post your own queries on everything genealogical. A Matchmaker thread has been started for persons wishing to contact other members about possible connections.
	You can also join the FTDNA public database called YSearch. This will upload your Y-DNA profile and enable you to search for matches or near matches from among a larger pool of contributors who may have tested with other DNA services. Visit YSearch often to see if you have any new matches.Once your Y-DNA results have been uploaded to Ysearch, you can search the database by clicking on this icon on your MyFTDNA page.
	You can also join the FTDNA public database called Mitosearch. This will upload your mtDNA profile and enable you to search for matches or near matches from among a larger pool of contributors who may have tested with other DNA services. Once your mtDNA results have been uploaded to Mitosearch, you can search the database by clicking on this icon on your MyFTDNA page.
	Join other projects. You may belong to one surname project and multiple geographical or haplogroup projects. There is a search box on the top left of the Family Tree DNA home page where you can search for surname or geographical projects. To the right of this icon are links that enable you to order new tests and update your contact information.
USER PREFERENCES (Important)	This is where you determine how you want your data displayed, and also where you enter information on your most distant known ancestors on your paternal and maternal sides. The Paternal Side is for the Y-DNA paternal line (father, father's father, etc.), and the Maternal Side is for the mtDNA maternal line (mother, mother's mother, etc.). Include a name, date (birth, death, or other) and place, including a town and county in the UK if this information is available.* If you have British Isles ancestors, please enter the latitude and longitude where they lived so that the location can be displayed on the project map. Use the tool provided to find the latitude and longitude, and be sure to enter a minus sign if the longitude is a negative value. * The earliest known paternal ancestor is traced from your father, to your grandfather, to your great grandfather, etc., back up the lineage of your surname. The earliest known maternal ancestor, on the other hand, is traced via your mother, to her mother, to her mother's mother, and so on. A typical Paternal Side entry would look like this: John Doe, b. 1815, Yeovil, Somersetshire.
GEDCOM  - Family Tree	Allows you to upload GEDCOM format pedigree charts for your paternal and maternal lineages. Most family history programs (e.g., Family Tree Maker) allow you to export a GEDCOM file for exchange with other such programs . We suggest starting your GEDCOM with a grandparent or even a great grandparent, or in any case a non-living person. A GEDCOM file is created by any of the family history programs available to organize genealogical research, i.e., to build a family tree. One such program (a free one) is Family Tree Maker, which you can download from here. There is a complete catalogue of genealogy software on Cyndi's List.
Genographic Project	Learn about the Genographic Project and how you can join it.
Pending Lab Results	Tells you the current status of any pending lab results.
Y-DNA Matches	Find your Y-DNA matches in the Family Tree DNA customer database. People listed here are exact or close matches to you. An email address may be shown for persons who match you, provided both of you returned your signed Release Form.
mtDNA Search	Search FTDNA's mtDNA database anonymously.  All results will be searched, but names and email addresses will not be displayed.
mtDNA Matches	Find your mtDNA matches in the Family Tree DNA customer database. People listed here are exact or close matches to you. An email address may be shown for persons who match you, provided both of you returned your signed Release Form.
mtDNA Results	See your mtDNA results, which will enable you to compare your mtDNA test to other people and other databases worldwide.
Recent Ancestral Origins	Shows you the distribution of other Y-DNA testees in the FTDNA database with whom you have matches by country or region.
Haplogroup	Compares your profile against the entire FTDNA database including samples from around the world. See from which branch your Y-Chromosome descends. This is where you order a Deep SNP test in order to determine to which sub-branch (Subclade) of the haplogroup you belong.
Y-DNA DYS Values	See your Y-DNA DYS #'s and Allele values, which will allow you to compare your results from your Y-DNA test to other people and other databases worldwide.
Groups	Displays any surname and geographical projects to which you belong in a pull-down list. You may remove yourself from a displayed project using the command just underneath the pull-down list.

Note: If your DNA profiles do not appear on the results pages, and you did your DNA testing with Family Tree DNA, you need to fill out the release form. You can obtain the release form from the FTDNA website (http://www.ftdna.com/release.html). Just fill it out and mail it back to:

Family Tree DNA

1919 North Loop West, Suite 432

Houston, TX 77008, USA

Your results will then appear on this website and your email will appear on the matches pages.