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Connect and collaborate
with genealogy enthusiasts.

Get answers to genealogical questions and break down brick walls that traditional genealogy alone cannot.

Group Projects give you the opportunity to connect with others who have similar interests and research goals, share information, and expand your search beyond simply matching another tester.

BE PART OF A GROUP PROJECT

Work with others to explore genetic heritage.

Projects do more than help the membersā€“they have the potential to help:

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Types of Group Projects

FamilyTreeDNA Group Projects usually focus on a common geographic origin, surname, or ethnic heritage but may also be based on other aspects of a paternal (Y-DNA) or maternal (mtDNA) lineage.

How to join a project

Already tested or have an
account with FamilyTreeDNA?

Sign in to your account, and search Group Projects that relate to you.

Have not tested yet?

Become a FamilyTreeDNA user by taking a test or uploading your autosomal DNA data.
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ADOPTEE GENEALOGY PROJECTā€‹

A starting point for adoptees and people with unknown parentage.

This is a Group Project whose administrators have spent years honing their skills in using DNA testing to facilitate finding unknown parentage. Administrators and members alike share tips and techniques for getting the most out of your DNA testing investment.

GROUP PROJECT ADMINISTRATORS

Guiding you every step of the way

FamilyTreeDNA Group Project Administrators are unpaid volunteers who are interested in the genealogy and history of a particular surname, haplogroup, lineage, or geographic region. They have tools to compare your results with the rest of the Group Project and can facilitate communication between members.

Image of a woman on a laptop, surrounded by speech bubbles from two people sharing their DNA testing insights.

Have questions? We have answers.

Here are the most frequently asked questions about FamilyTreeDNA. If you have additional questions, feel free to visit ourĀ Help CenterĀ or reach out to ourĀ Customer ServiceĀ team.

Group Projects offer a message forum called the Activity Feed to help communicate with other project members and share genealogical information. Many groups include helpful links to relevant third-party sites such as genealogical and family associations and informative wikis. From the Group Project page, you can also compare your Y-DNA and mtDNA results with other members and find the contact information for your Group Administrator. Due to privacy concerns, the amount of information shared about other project members is limited, though the administrator(s) can act as intermediaries if you wish to contact them directly.

We do not restrict the number of projects a customer can join; however, it is important to note that while FamilyTreeDNA does not impose a limit to the number of projects one can join, we will not tolerate customers joining multiple projects with the purpose of data mining or finding information that is not relevant to oneā€™s personal ancestral origins. FamilyTreeDNA reserves the right to remove people from projects at its sole discretion or if it feels that a participant is abusing the system in a way that may infringe another participantā€™s privacy.

Joining a project does expose some identifying information about you to the project volunteer administrator. It may also expose non-identifying information about you through the projectā€™s Public Project Website.

The project volunteer administrator can see your results and some of the information listed in your myFTDNA account such as your contact information. The project volunteer administrator will not be able to see your password. You will be able to edit the access level given to Group Administrators in your account:

  1. Sign in to your kit.
  2. On the navigation bar at the top of the page, hover your mouse over your name and Kit No. in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
  3. Click Account Settings.

Projects often set up a website on which member results are posted. How these results are identified is up to the project volunteer administrator. Results are often listed by the participantā€™s oldest known ancestor, kit number, or last name. You may wish to discuss what information will be available on the projectā€™s website before joining a project.

Project participation will not limit your ability to discover matches in the entire FamilyTreeDNA database. In fact, fellow project members have expanded Y-DNA 12 matching to allow for a GD of 1. In other words, those who match you on both 11 out of 12 markers and 12 out of 12 markers will appear in your match list if you are both in the same project.Ā 

In addition, on your matches pages in your FamilyTreeDNA account, you can filter your matches by Group Project.

Make sure you try different spelling variations of the surname or region youā€™re looking for. If a region had a previous name (example: Prussia for Germany), try searching by that previous name as well. If you still cannot find it, apply to start your own Group Project!