I set up a FTDNA atDNA Project for the Northern Neck of VA - we have a rootsweb email, a facebook page, a Message Board, an Ancestry Family Tree with over 50 Editors, and the atDNA project. We have many participants who have joined. I'm still trying to figure out how to facilitate or admin this group. There is lots of potential here. One way involves a lot of my time and effort to work with all the files - I can't keep up with my own atDNA Another way is to have individuals report on the email list when they determine a Common Ancestor and let us know the CA and the segment. I'm looking for some middle ground. I think one item might be to download the Matches for each participant, put them in a large spreadsheet, and sort on the Match names - looking for the larger groups of Matches. This isn't ICW or Triangulation, but it's something. It takes an hour or so to take the DNAGEDcom files (Matches and Segment). and merge them using only 7.7cM and above segments. And there is a privacy issue here. I could ask each participant to send me those two files if they wanted to be included in a large spreadsheet that could be sorted by segment.... Or have them send me the merged files first... But we'd still need a way for all to benefit from this. I could send the master spreadsheet back out to everyone who wants to participate. Or use dropbox and have everyone work on the same spreadsheet. It's hard to work with atDNA data for just one person, it gets really cumbersome for several - a project might have 20-50 or more.... just rambling' Jim Bartlett On 11/15/13, Margaret Waters<mg44wat@bellsouth.net> wrote: I am offering these comments in response to Linda's questions about ideas for managing an autosomal DNA project. I hope others will offer similar suggestions as I have a feeling that there are many ways to do this. I co-administer two projects at FTDNA that involve autosomal DNA test results. One project is geographically based and the other is based on descent from a common ancestral couple. I have evolved two different methods of working with the data due to the difference in focus of the two projects. The geographically based project had already been created using both Y-DNA and Mt-DNA results when I added autosomal results to it. My primary focus for this project is to get participants to send me their lineage charts showing all of their reasonably identified ancestors. I then create a chart, starting with their grandparents, and showing only those lines that are related to the geographical area of the project. This chart is then posted to a password protected site at the website of the genealogical group for the geographic area. Only participants who let me post their charts get a password. As additional "bait" to increase participation, I give everyone with a posted chart a list of all of their matches within the project. For some of us this can be as many as 20 to 25 matches (in a project that currently has about 110 autosomal DNA participants). I see one of my primary goals as being able to facilitate sharing among the members of the project. Since I have done quite a bit of research into many of the families of the area, I can also sometimes suggest ways that the matches might connect even if it is not obvious from their charts. I do stress to all of the participants that they could also match on lines that are not from the geographical area of focus. For the project that descends from the common ancestral couple I do things somewhat differently. All 26 of us have this couple in our 6th to 8th generation and we are all, except for one adoptee, fairly certain about our lineage from this couple. There are some unidentified female lines among the children of the ancestral couple and we are getting clues to possible identities on one of these females. Since I had no idea what to expect when I started this project, I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that we are learning more about the origins of the male part of the couple. (In an unusual turn of events we know the female's lineage back another 4 generations.) He was an Irish immigrant in the 1760s who came to America as a single male. We never had any hope of connecting him to his Irish ancestors but our collective autosomal DNA matches are giving us some good clues. I use a Dropbox file to keep all of our interested participants in this project updated on what we learn. These next comments would apply to either type of project. Most project participants have little understanding of what to do with their results. Some are interested in learning and some are not. I stress the value of having their data available to the project whether the participant wants to do anything with it or not. I spend a fair amount of time working with those who want to learn more. I am also the one who does most of the research in trying to understand what our test results are showing. As a co-administrator I am always looking for ways to share findings to keep interest among our members and thus get them to recruit additional relatives. Privacy is also a big issue for most participants. This creates the need to share data in a careful way, such as Dropbox or something similar or a password protected website. (I am aware that none of this is invincible but it is some additional protection.) I don't know if FTDNA would ever try to offer something along these lines, but since they don't, I have been using other resources, as mentioned, for sharing. The most useful tool at FTDNA for me is the FF Illumina OmniExpress Results report. I have talked multiple participants in both projects into transferring their test results to FTNDA from other companies so that they can be in our projects and I will be able to compare their data with other members. I get new members for both of my projects in several ways. Any of my matches pertinent to either of these projects get invited. When I find members in either project who see the value of the work, I encourage them to get their applicable matches to join as well. I also use the newsletter of the genealogical society for the area to attract interest. Neither project is easy to find at FTDNA so I usually have to walk folks through the necessary steps. I have been working on mapping my own chromosomes but had not considered trying to map those of other project members. Given the challenge, time and energy it has taken to work on mine, I am not certain I would want to try that until there are some helpful software tools to work with. I can see where it could be very useful, though. Each autosomal DNA project will probably have its own unique quirks and challenges but, perhaps, there are some ideas floating around that could help all of us. I would be delighted to hear how others work with their projects. Margaret PS. The couple project I manage is a subset of the geographical project but, for whatever reasons, I can't get all of the applicable participants in each project to participate in both.... ______________________________ For answers to Frequently Asked Questions about mailing lists, please see: [1]http://dgmweb.net/MailingListFAQs.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to A[2]UTOSOMAL-DNA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message References 1. http://dgmweb.net/MailingListFAQs.html 2. mailto:UTOSOMAL-DNA-request@rootsweb.com