Dear Members ,

Shortly, a new Co- Administrator will be assisting us with this project at FTDNA and you will be asked to give her access to your results in order for her to help you with your research. At the time I adopted this project a number of years ago after it had been abandoned by the previous administrators I did ask members to allow me access to your results in order that I might help you with any queries that you might have regarding your DNA results, however to date quite a large number of member results are still inaccessible to me.

Could everyone please check your permissions listed under PROJECTS - Abercrombie and ensure that I have at least LIMITED access so that I can see your results  properly in the project. Many of these are inaccessible to me, and might also be inaccessible to your new Co Admin- Amy Abercrombie (King). Please visit the following link in order to understand fully the Administrator permission process.

Hereunder please find the WELCOME emails previously sent to all new members, in case you have misplaced these previously. I hope to hear from you shortly if you have any queries whatsoever regarding the project. See my email address at the end of this message.  (Alexandrina Murray - Project Administrator)

WELCOME ABOARD! And thank you for joining the Abercrombie surname  DNA Research Project:  If you have any queries regarding any matter, please contact me at the following email address. alexandrina.murray@gmail.com

If you are a male who has recently joined our project because you have transferred your raw data results from Ancestry dot com; 23 & Me or My Heritage for free; please note that it is the YDNA test only that is the Gold Standard for males seeking their exclusive Abercrombie Father-Line . Please order a YDNA test of at least Y37 markers at some stage in order to find your Abercrombie  Father-Line exclusively. Any autosomal test that you transferred here will find Abercrombie relatives from all lines in your tree going back only 5 generations approximately, however these Abercrombies' may NOT be your Father-Line at all. Often these are relatives related to you on inside lines of your family tree instead. Only the YDNA test will link you to your Father-Line of Abercrombie relatives, back into antiquity.   Please contact me via email if you would like further details of links regarding this topic.

Also, please read more about our project here on our homepage .

If you are a new FTDNA Member and have recently ordered a test Kit after joining our project, please handle the collection instrument very carefully when the Kit arrives. Try to keep it sterile at all times and do not let any other person touch the tip of the instrument that you rub on the inside of your cheek, otherwise their DNA will interfere with the result.

Return the Kit asap for best results as the lab is often quite busy and the sooner the Kit is returned the sooner you will have your results. Generally these results take at least 1 month for the first batch to arrive back if these are Y-DNA tests , and then approximately a further 2 weeks for the rest of the results to filter through from the laboratory located in Texas USA and previously  at the University of Arizona. This wait is extended considerably over the festive season rush during December & January. Family Finder autosomal tests usually return more quickly than Y-DNA tests with the Mt-DNA tests and BigY generally taking the longest.

All Kits are held in the Lab for approximately 25 years and you might be able to upgrade at any time using this sample without having to order a new DNA Kit. However some samples degrade over time, therefore if you would like to contribute a new updated sample to be held in storage, please contact FTDNA staff in order to request that a new sample be posted to you.

Here is the link to our homepage which describes our project: Note that as well as YDNA Father-line tests for males, we also encourage participation in our research project from Abercrombie females, and related male FTDNA Members who have Abercrombie ancestors on their inside lines , and who have tested via Family Finder autosomal DNA or transferred their results from other Labs to FTDNA for free. These members are grouped under yellow banner headers on our Y-DNA results page if they are males who have also undertaken a YDNA test, along with their Family Finder autosomal test.

If you upload your Gedcom family tree software file- if available, to your tree via your desktop login at FTDNA- please include both husband & wives names if possible- birth marriage and death dates and especially where they lived as far back as you are aware. Death dates are especially important, so if unknown please place a date plus 'about' into that death date field otherwise the software involved will revert your entire tree to private- not-viewable- because  it appears that the relative may still be living.

Next: please place your most distantly known ancestors' names into the distant ancestor field to your web-space at FTDNA.  In order for me to help you with this, and for me to be able to view your results for matching purposes you should adjust the Project Administrator setting under PRIVACY SETTINGS to LIMITED ACCESS or ADVANCED- FULL ACCESS if you desire more in depth help as discussed above. Here is the explanation help page link regarding this topic.

A current setting of Minimum Access does not allow me to help you , or to Group you within the project properly. Limited Access allows basic access whilst Advanced Access allows me to help with trees and contact details etc as well. As these settings have various available permissions, please contact me for further in depth information regarding this process if you are unsure.

Also; all members may join the excellent Scotland or Ireland Projects. A Haplogroup defines your position on the human phylogenetic tree (tribe); if any members within your respective matching kinship genetic cousin group have undertaken advanced SNP or National Geographic Geno 2:0, BIG Y, or other deep clade test proving their Haplogroup, you may join that appropriate Haplogroup project accordingly.  If you are of English background then please join the England (Norman) DNA Project

Some members with Flemish origins have been invited to the Scotland / Flemish , Flemish in Scotland Project run by Scottish Academics. If you know your historical links to be Flemish = Dutch or from Belgium and surrounds including Friesland, you can join this project.  Dutch/Flemish links have been considered so you might also like to join the Flanders/Flemish Project as well, if you have paternal links to these areas or have been haplogroup tested and shown to belong to a probable Flemish haplogroup. Any member found to be descended from the Irish Kings group (Ui Neill) should join their dedicated M222 project. All projects are free to join at FTDNA. Please let me know if I can help, and I shall be able to initiate this procedure on your behalf.

Also; if I have not already done so on your behalf, you should log in and enter your 'Most Distant Ancestor' (even if it is only as far back as your Abercrombie Grandfather) information into the required field, available from the little wheel symbol on the right hand upper corner of the entry page under my profile= genealogy. This will display on our results spreadsheet for those who have undertaken a YDNA test.

If I have done this on your behalf you will notice that I have included the wife of your male ancestor as this makes search results for queries relating to your ancestors in Google, a distinct possibility. If anyone on the internet who is related to you, does a search for your shared ancestors- then they will always include the full maiden name of the wife if known , and also the place. The room for this information is limited so be brief.

ie: William Abercrombie 1730-1815 Aberdeen + Mary Lees  

 A Google search for "william abercrombie" "mary lees" in inverted commas would then find this couple. This is an excellent way for you to attract prospective relatives to order a Kit and join our Abercrombie Project at FTDNA.

I can help you with this, so if you would like me to enter this information for you, please email me the details and set the Kit to ADVANCED ACCESS (after visiting the Help Guide Link above) until I have finished entering the data for you.

Don't forget to log in with your Kit Number & the password that you have chosen and explore your personal web-pages on FTDNA as there is a large amount of valuable information available that you can access which will educate you regarding the testing procedure & the results. Once you have uploaded your family tree as a Gedcom or created it yourself via your online desktop at FTDNA I can possibly research further for you if your ancestors were Scottish.

Your results are set to PRIVATE as the default-  so if you are male  with Y-DNA results pending, or female with Mt-DNA results pending, please log into your account and adjust the PRIVACY settings so that the results will display anonymously as PUBLIC on our Result web-pages. If you need instructions as to how to do this please contact me. Further in depth instructions are also available on the following web-site. DNA EXPLAINED    Your Kit number as well as allele values and distant ancestors are all that show on public results pages. No member names whatsoever are listed, so your results are anonymous. Please only enter the names of your very distant ancestor into the relative field. No recent grandparents or great grandparents etc.

LOGIN HERE: http://www.familytreedna.com

Your personal private profile pages are the point of access for you to find your various matching kinfolk, and also to learn about the testing process. For males, the dropdown box on the YDNA results page, will give you results at Y12, or Y25 or Y37 or Y67 or Y111 depending on which test you have ordered. Use the drop down box arrow to locate all the various levels of matches for your YDNA test. At the same time you can regulate the number of emails that will be sent to you from FTDNA staff regarding matches and also switch on or off inclusion in helping Law Enforcement with cold cases, unless you are a European citizen whereby inclusion in matching is switched off automatically. Please explore these pages in depth and then contact me if you have any further questions.

YOUR PERSONAL TEST information and resources are on your "MyFTDNA PAGE",  at www.familytreedna.com

Log in at FTDNA using your kit number and the password FTDNA sent you.

Provide EARLIEST KNOWN PATERNAL ANCESTOR by clicking on "Most Distant Ancestor" under "Manage Personal Information" and then "Genealogy".  This information will be included with your results on the next update of the Results Page.  

While we welcome those who have taken any DNA test at FTDNA (YDNA, Family Finder, or MtDNA), only the YDNA test results are posted on the Results Page.  Surname Projects use YDNA test results to find matches, as YDNA is passed down from father to son, just as the surname is passed down.   If there is no YDNA test in this Surname Project to represent your family line, we encourage you to find a male to YDNA test to represent your line in the project. All project members are encouraged to provide a Family Tree, no matter which test you took.

Please note that this project as now been administered by Alexandrina Murray since May 2018, adopted from World Familes administrators.

So in summary; In order to group your results appropriately the Administrator needs to view your results within the project. Please adjust the Administrator settings under Privacy Setttings to Limited or Advanced Access.

With regards to all,

and once again WELCOME to the Abercrombie Surname Project!