Thanks for that very clear and informative reply, Diana. You have put a lot of work into your projects! I can only hope to become a fraction that organized some day. Interestingly, I searched the FAQ before I asked this question and couldn't find anything. I don't know if it is FTDNA's search function or my queries, but I often have that problem, so I am very thankful to those of you who answer these questions on the lists (I'm also on the Newbie list). Our project is a combination of Surname and Family Finder. McElrea, my mother's maiden name, is an unusual name found in Ulster and primarily in a tiny spot of County Tyrone. As with a lot of Irish families in the 19th and 20th centuries, they left and settled elsewhere. A large contingent went to New Zealand and are still in touch with their family in Ireland. Individuals and smaller families went to Canada, the US, and England and did not maintain contact. I have found (and proved by traditional research) one line of my mother's family still in Ireland. I have been researching the name for a number of years and met a number of "cousins" also interested. One of our y-testers is very interested in the origins of the name (Irish or Scottish?) and is pursuing that end through deep SNP testing. We also want to find out if there are links to the other McElreas (and spelling variants) we have found in our research. Additionally, we are watching for clues that our surname might have morphed over time from some other name (McElroy is the most obvious). Since my mother and all of her siblings are now gone and I cannot persuade one of the male cousins to test, I have done the FF test and another Canadian female "cousin" is about to do the same. I have just been approached by one of our Australia branch to test, so at least we finally have a beginning. Our two y-testers (different Canadian branches) so far match at 25 and 67, but not 37. I would like another tester from Canada, but none are forthcoming at the moment. What I am saying here is that if our project only consisted of male y-DNA testers, we would be in poor shape! My thinking is that we need both y-DNA and FF to get an overall picture of this surname and its families' origins. For instance, my Canadian cousin mentioned above is almost my twin in appearance - my own mother took a photo of her for me at first glance. I know that isn't evidence, but added to the fact that our great-grandfathers came from the same very small townland in Ireland it is certainly curious. Unfortunately, the lack of written records at the time leaves her with a huge brick wall. How to display this on a site for people to understand is a puzzle. Sorry to be so long-winded, but it seemed the time and place to put it all down in writing. Kathleen On 6/16/2012 11:45 PM, Diana Gale Matthiesen wrote: > You request a FF project by contacting the Helpdesk. There's some > helpful information on this FAQ and the several following it: > http://www.familytreedna.com/faq/answers.aspx?id=7#599 > > However, and frankly, because FF results are not displayed, I don't > necessarily see a compelling reason to open one. I opened one > because, so far, 13 of the 14 family members who have been or are > being FF tested were funded by me. I simply got tired of logging in > and out of each one's account. This way, as project admin, I need > only log in to my GAP once - the same GAP I log into to admin my other > projects, so it's largely a convenience for me. > > My FF project has only been open a few days, and this is what it looks > like, so far: > http://www.familytreedna.com/public/IDavis-TThompson/ > > The FF projects do not come up when you search on a surname at the > FTDNA home page, nor do they show up on the projects list someone sees > when they click "Join Projects" from their member page. It's intended > that membership will be by invitation only. Eventually, the project's > web page should come up on a Google search, so I made certain key > names, places, and events were on the project's Background page. > > My hope would be that FTDNA would give us some tools to make FF > projects more useful. For example, a single table that would show > mutual matches between all family members, at once, rather like I've > already done: > http://dgmweb.net/DNA/aDNA/FF-Descendants_Isaac_DAVIS.html > > The problems with my "mutual match" table are 1) it was a lot of > trouble to create, 2) it constantly becomes out-of-date, and 3) it > only displays the surnames of matching individuals, not matching > segments. I still consider myself a novice when it comes to autosomal > testing, so I'm certain there are others who can think of better tools > and better ways to display results and progress. IMO, we need to > press FTDNA to give us a useful display for our FF project web sites. > They clearly have the data available and are currently making it > available to us individually. It's a matter of programming some new > reports with the features a FF project (i.e., multiple members) could > use. > > Diana > > P.S. I actually joined some other family members to the project, ones > who don't descend from the project's founding couples. Both their > Y-DNA and/or mtDNA results are suppressed, so again, this is for my > convenience - an unintended perk for being an admin. You could do > this with any of your projects (i.e., bring your relatives under one > umbrella) as long as you suppress display of any results that are > irrelevant to the particular project. > > > > > > >> From: Kathleen Cooper >> Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2012 7:05 PM >> >> Hi Diana, >> >> I am new to the group and I did not know FF projects could be opened >> at >> FTDNA. >> >> How do we find out what projects are available? How and why would we >> start one? >> >> I administer a surname project (McElrea) and I've been wondering how >> to >> organize the FF tests along with the y- and mt-DNA. Is it better to >> have >> a separate project, or perhaps I'm just missing something? Ours is a >> small project and I admit I am still finding my way around the admin >> job! >> >> Thanks, >> Kathleen > >