NEW TO THE TAYLOR DNA PROJECT OR WANT TO JOIN?
If you're interested in being a part of Taylor Family Genes please click the "Join" button. You may click on the pricing link or scroll down to "Type of Test" and look at the drop-down box to determine the type of test you want. Clicking on the link does not obligate you to join if you fill in no information, but will provide the group prices for the test that interests you.
Unlike some projects, Taylor Family Genes is relatively open. You do not need prior approval to join. But, we do ask your cooperation and communication after you join.
If you have any questions contact one of the project administrators.
TFG SURPASSES 550 MEMBERS!
In March of 2013, Taylor Family Genes saw its 550th member join. We had already been the largest Taylor surname DNA project in the world and the achievement solidifies our lead. We have grown rapidly since our beginning in late 2003 and expect to continue growing further, without diminishing our service to our members. As of November 2012, we have 535 members.
Survey bearing fruit:
One of our long-standing goals has been to survey Taylor DNA -- a very difficult job. We are (finally!) beginning to make progress and identify relationships predating the time of Taylor families' adoption of the surname. Some of these findings are now posted on the groups pages of our Freepages project website.
NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ADMIN TEAM:
We welcome George and Judy West, who have recently joined the project's administrative team. Their perspective as members of another project (in addition to TFG0 will be helpful.
MATCH NOTICES:
In 2011, we began following up on FTDNA's Y-DNA match notices. FTDNA match notices have a liberal reporting threshold. They report many matches which we consider insufficiently significant from a genealogical perspective. We'll continue to do so when time permits.
As much as feasible, we investigate each and send you an e-mail message trying to put the match into genealogical significance. (If you have not received a match notice, it is probably because no new matches have been found for you.) For simplicity's sake, we use three categories:
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Significant -- The quality of the match indicates a high probability of a common paternal ancestor within genealogic time. We recommend that members with significant matches communicate and share paper trails to jointly identify their common ancestor.
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Not significant -- The quality of the match indicates a low probability of a common paternal ancestor within genealogic time. We do not believe that member follow-up would prove fruitful. (There may be a common ancestor, but he may lived before existence of records to identify him by name, dates, places or other characteristics.)
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Borderline -- The quality of the match falls on the cusp between significant and not significant.
WORLWIDE INITIATIVE:
Expanding membership worldwide, particularly in the British Isles, is a project priority. We welcome Taylors around the world to participate in our service-oriented and well-run project. Let us help with your genetic genealogy. Subsidies may be available, see "Financial Assistance" below.
TAYLOR TOPICS:
See our newsletter on our BLOG site! http://taylortopicsdna.blogspot.com
Taylor Topics is our newsletter for concerns, questions, success stories, and reading what others are saying. LALIA WILSON, a Taylor descendant and co-administrator of TFG has graciously consented to create and manage the blog. Write to her at LaliaW@aol.com to suggest ideas for articles. Visit the blog spot often for interesting discussions on DNA and Taylor-made articles.
STAY IN TOUCH:
Update your email addresses on your personal page or you won't know the latest and greatest that we are working on. (We send bulk e-mails through the FTDNA system.) If you have a "spam-blocker" on your e-mail account, you will not receive our communications unless you specifically authorize them.
Nor, will you receive our follow-ups on your DNA match notices. These go beyond the information sent by FTDNA to advise you of the specific nature of the match and its genealogical meaning.
If you know a member is now deceased and has no other contact, please inform us. We recommend that yake arrangements now for a beneficiary who will manage your FTDNA account when you're no longer able to. Your DNA results are a valuable resource for your entire family.
NEW WEBSITE:
We've created an additional website to this one. It allows us more freedom to provide additional information and bring information together in order to serve you better. Please visit it at
http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~taylorydna/.
To answer concerns we've received, we will NOT be removing this site, hosted by FTDNA. You may continue to use it to view the project's results. However, all ancestral trees have been moved to the new site for better access and linking to Y-DNA results.
REQUESTS:
Just a few reminders to all, to help the project help you:
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Please complete your complete earliest known maternal & paternal ancestor information. (You'll find it on your User Preferences page, under "most distant acnestor".) At minimum, please supply a given name and surname, plus either or both of birth or death year. This is is information (not your name) that will accompany your DNa results.
A state or country abbreviation is also helpful.
It may be that you don't know some of that; provide what you know and indicate missing information with this symbol [?].
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Please share your tree if you haven't done so. This helps other Taylors (natural or adopted) answer some of their basic research questions. You may e-mail it or complete the online form at http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~taylorydna. Click tthe trees link to access it. For your own SAFETY regarding your identity, we strongly recommend NOT posting the names and dates of you, your parents, children and spouse. (We'll remvoe these if we spot them.) And, if possible, upload your GEDCOM to your personal page.
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Please upload your results to www.ysearch.org. That's another place where you might also find a match. It's most easily done from your personal "My FTDNA" page.
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Our public FTDNA site for anyone to view the trees and the marker/allele results is here at http://www.familytreedna.com/public/taylorfamilygenes.
Our new site (Bookmark it now.) is at
http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~taylorydna.
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TELL A TAYLOR about the DNA testing. He might just be the connection for some Taylor in our project. The larger the number of participants, the better the chances for all of us to find a perfect match!
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Have fun with the BLOG! Visit at http://taylortopicsdna.blogspot.com
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Be persistent and pateint. Visit your personal FTDNA page often and check for matches. More are appearing all the time, but it may take a while for yours to show up.
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Don't be afraid to ask questions or communicate with the admins. We want to hear from you.
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FINANCIAL A$$I$TANCE for DNA tests:
DONATIONS to our Taylor project to assist in funding tests to 37 markers are always welcome. Email to: http://www.familytreedna.com/contribution.html and tell them it's for TAYLOR.
REQUESTS for funding may be made by sending an email to one of the administrative team members. Requests will be handled on a first-come, first served basis and as long as funds are available. We require submission of a well-documented Taylor lineage and consider criteria such as benefit to other members and the project as a whole.
Please note we have very limited resources and we subsidize Y-STR tests which we think will benefit more than one project member who has paid for their own test. We will subsidize only 37-marker tests and may grant only a partial amount of the cost.
The request for member financial assistance must be accompanied by a paternal lineage tree reaching back to no later than 1850 (1851 for the British Isles). Candidates will be contacted by us for further information. Deadline for requests each year is November 30.
A special initiative out of the project general fund is building participation in the British Isles. It was made possible through the generous donations of members. If interested, please write one of the admin team.
PROJECT ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM
* LALIA manages, edits & publishes the BLOG called Taylor Topics DNA. Contact her, LaliaW at aol.com, if you'd like a topic presented.
* JOSH takes on special programs and is also a co-admin of the Cooper DNA project.
* GEORGE & JUDY provide valuable advice and perspectives.
* MARLAINA is our matching guru, reviewing results and making matched groups of them according to our standards.
* LEIGH is administorator emeritus ad gives us the ebenfit of her advice.
* RALPH is lead administrator; his e-mail is rt-sails@comcast.net.
MATCHED GROUP MEMBERS:
(We've got 59 unique family groups (AKA, "clusters"), plus one matching the Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype, another for one marker off from WAMH, and one for the ":"Niall of the Nine Hostages" haplotype.
Tell your GROUP STORY/HISTORY
IF your DNA markers (25 or more) match exactly or nearly so to another's set of markers you will be placed in a family unit of Taylors and given a GROUP number. When this happens we welcome your group's collective story or history to be sent in to us so that can be placed on your group's page.
Our new site gives us more room for our trees and you may also view your GROUP PAGE. At the top we show the kit#s of those in your group and a LINK to each member's personal tree and contact information. In the middle section we provide space for the history of your group on your group page. At the bottom you'll see the general (modal) pattern of DNA markers for your unique group.
You are invited to get together with group members and write your (collective) story. Anything interesting about a specific ancestor or an ancestor's adventures or what makes your group special or what are your brick walls. You’re the experts on your group. Please do not include any information about living members. Once you send in your story, it will probably be edited by the team. Make it brief, interesting and helpful to possible new members of your group. It can be added to and edited as new information is uncovered. You may read the stories written for Groups 01, 03, and 07 to get an idea of what we are suggesting.
We suggest you jot down ideas and look on your group page to get your members' contact information. Share your story with them and create a group effort, then send it in to us. Ralph Taylor [ rt-sails@comcast.net ] will receive the story and post it. I hope you're excited about this new dimension of our Taylor project!
Here's your group page (Just replace the xx with your group number):
http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~taylorydna/groups/group_xx.shtml
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
To help us assess the job we're doing, we've dopted five objective performance indicators for the project:
1. Project size in relation to other projects. (We're about the 28th largest surname project.)
2. Project penetration in relation to the frequency of the surname and in relation to comparable projects.
3. Project resolution, vis-a-vis comparables: Percent who've tested at least 25 Y-DNA marrkers.
4. Project activity, vis-avis comparables:
a. Percent of members who've named an earliest (most distant) ancestor &/or submitted a tree.
b. Percent of members who've viewed their page or the FTDNA website w/in the past 24 months.
5. Matches & lines vis-a-vis comparables:
a. Percent with one or more matches within project.
b. Number of Y-DNA lines identified relative to number existing.
We believe these indicators will help steer us to being the best (if not the biggest) DNA surname project. For the latest performance report, visit http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~taylorydna/status.shtml.