SMGF (the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation) is a non-profit organization backed, at least in part, by philanthropic donations. It was never the intention of the foundation to make a profit. But it's a fact of life that you do "get what you pay for," and most genealogists find the limitations of being tested at SMGF unworkable. Hence the market for commercial DNA testing, despite the fact that someone's giving it away (or at least was). FamilyTreeDNA is a business, in competition with other DNA testing businesses, so you can't expect to avail yourself of their services without paying for them. As an academic, not just a commercial, laboratory, they also have their own reputation to protect, so they aren't going to risk it by allowing the general public to upload results to it. They do, however, provide a free database for people tested elsewhere, called Ysearch: http://www.ysearch.org/ You can take your SMGF results and upload them there, along with a GEDCOM of your patrilineal line, and enjoy most of the benefits you might have received had you been tested at FTDNA. Frankly, I think it's quite generous of them to provide this free service. Most DNA projects at FTDNA make their results public (a pox on the few that don't), so you are not being "locked out" of comparing your results to most of the people tested there. Assuming your surname of interest is WALSH, all you have to do is compare your results to those in the results table of the FTDNA WALSH project, which is based on the WorldFamiliesNetwork web site: http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/walsh/results If you have a match with one or more persons in the table, you can email the project admin and ask them to let the member(s) know you would like to be in touch. If they want to be in contact with you, they will respond. Also, given that the WALSH project is based at WFN, they can accept results from labs other than FTDNA, so as long as your a male surnamed, WALSH, I can't see why they wouldn't let you join. These are their instructions for joining: http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/walsh/order Given my earlier messages, I obviously couldn't agree with you more that sharing results (and lineages) is the point, but there's more than one way to do it. I've just described two avenues that should work for you: Ysearch and the WALSH project at WFN. I recommend doing both. Hope this helps, Diana > -----Original Message----- > From: y-dna-projects-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:y-dna-projects- > bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Billie Walsh > Sent: Saturday, December 04, 2010 9:06 PM > To: y-dna-projects@rootsweb.com > Subject: [Y-DNA-projects] The view from the outside looking in. > > My main interest in having DNA results is to help me break down my brick wall on at > least one of my lines. I won't bore you with all the boring details, just suffice it to say > that my results are from Sorenson and the samples were donated well before just about > anyone had even heard of DNA testing for genealogy. My results were made available for > a pittance. Less than half what FTDNA wants for a Y test I got both my Y and MTDNA. > > Because I didn't spend my money with FTDNA I'm locked out of their data base. I can't > share my details with anyone in their system. That doesn't help me, or anyone else that > may need my information, much. Pretty narrow minded in my opinion. > > Someone that wants to join a group and not share their information with the group > shouldn't be allowed to join. They are not helping anyone, or themselves. The whole > point is to share and help each other. >