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....

Margaret, Thanks for your input! What you are doing with both of your projects sounds similar to what I have been trying to do with mine. In order to keep the information as private as possible I have set up a myfamily.com account which I invite members of my project to join. I'll look into a dropbox account as an alternative. There are 3 Excel files I upload to the myfamily.com as often as there are changes (usually monthly) A) a file listing all members and their most distant known Carrico ancestor and their relationship to that ancestor. (I could prob. add to that info). Most of us in the group are brickwalled and are missing 2 to 3 generations connecting to the 1674 immigrant due to lack of paper trails during the 1700's in MD. B) a file listing all members & not only the other members of the project they match, but also their matches who claim to be a Carrico descendant (via FTDNA's Ancestral Surname search function on each members page) (another to do list to invite each to join) and last, but not least C) "Matches in Common" with other members of the project. Initially I use FF Illumina OmniExpress and still do for new members. BUT, this does not give dates, so am unable to determine which are new matches since my last update. Instead, I have had to go to each person's kit to sort out the newest matches then compare to everyone else to see who has who in common with other members. (FTDNA could you add some sort of date feature to this database???) Which brings to mind the current problem with OmniExpress, it is NOT showing any of the latest matches. Abt. 10/31 FTDNA did some updates which gave us all some "new" matches but have older dates. These are not showing up in OmniExpress nor are any matches since then. I've a cousin whose results were uploaded 11/7 who still shows as having no matches via Omni. Since I want to make sure I don't miss anyone, even if the Omni was working, guess I am going to start from scratch and download each members matches, combine into one file and then compare who has what matches in common with another member..... Sigh Not looking forward to this as I know it will take me a week or more during my 'spare time'. My next big issue seems the same as yours, educating and trying to get others more involved. Linda -----Original Message----- From: Margaret Waters Sent: Friday, November 15, 2013 10:10 AM To: autosomal-dna@rootsweb.com Subject: [AUTOSOMAL-DNA] Managing autosomal DNA projects 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....