FTDNA Project Preferences, Privacy & Sharing


Since May 2018 (GDPR) everything previously granted as logical needs to be a conscious opt-in. This is why manually adjusting the FamilyTreeDNA kit settings for meaningful genetic genealogy and (public) project participation is so important. With the standard “Minimum” presettings you loose the crucial features of finding Matches, letting Admins see (Pending) Result Details and Matches, allowing Admins and others compare and discuss DNA-Results with ease. So Project Participation becomes almost useless in some case without adjustment, especially for Y-DNA research.
So please for your benefit and to allow and assist Project research after Login on Project Preferences page do:

  • Group Project Profile: Opt in to Sharing DNA results and ancestor information in the public results pages (Most important setting!).
  • give at least “LimitedGroup Administrator Access or if you want full support in the Analysis give “Advanced” Access.
  • Make “Limited” the standard Access for future Admins.

On the Privacy & Sharing page do:

  • Opt in to Matching

FTDNA Settings: Earliest Paternal/Maternal Ancestor Info

For every Y-DNA project it is very informative and sometimes important if the oldest paternal line (biological father of the father of the father etc.) information is given completely. This person is also called most distant known ancestor in the paternal line (Y-MDKA). This setting can be entered/changed in myFTDNA > Account SettingsGenealogy > Earliest Known AncestorsDirect Paternal/Maternal:

  • Name and Birth/Dead Date: enter name, earliest known year and municipality/city/town/village, province/county/region; examples (use b.=born, m.=married, d.=dead):
    Joseph Mayr, b. 1788, Völs am Schlern, South Tyrol
    Bruno Endrizzi, d. 1678, Mezzocorona, Trentino

    Martin Platter, m. 1812, Landeck, North Tyrol
    The place information should be for the same year as stated (birth, marriage or other records and then dead). If there was a known Non-paternity event (surname change) and the biological father is unknown please indicate the latest known male ancestor and his mother (“Martin son of Maria Gruber, b. 1822, Zillertal, Tyrol“). It is a common error that the paternal ancestor of Maria is indicated (“Georg Gruber, b. 1732, Zillertal, Tyrol“) because this ancestor is not the genealogical Y-DNA ancestor (strict paternal line).
  • Country of Origin: enter the oldest known or strongly suspected country of origin of your Y-DNA. For example: “Austria“, “Italy“. Otherwise enter “Unknown Origin“.
  • Ancestral Location Direct Paternal: enter the full location information: house/place/street, municipality/city, province/county/region, country. For example:
    Höttinger-Gasse 41, Innsbruck, North Tyrol, Austria“. Enter the coordinates: Latitude and Longitude