FAQ
Corca Laidhe yDNA Regional Study
FAQLast Updated: June 16, 2022 (simplification)
READ BEFORE CLICKING JOIN
Prospective members who have any questions ABOUT THE PROJECT after reading the materials here should email Susan at corcalaidhedna @ earthlink.net. If you expect us to see your email and want a reply, copy and paste the exact phrase CORCA LAIDHE PROJECT into the subject line of your email. Otherwise it will be deleted as spam. Emails must be BRIEF. Do NOT send attachments. Other than for project members, we do NOT advise on your own DNA results by private email. Search FTDNA for relevant surname and haplogroup projects or check our LINKS.If you have not already done so, read the project Overview, Background, and Goals pages before reading this page.
This page describes eligibility requirements in more detail; lists the steps that should be taken in your FTDNA account prior to clicking JOIN, and the instructions that must be followed upon clicking JOIN. For the latter, see FINAL PREPARATION STEP below.
You are NOT necessarily expected to know exactly (village or townland) where your earliest known paternal line ancestor came from in the British Isles.
Summary of Requirements
✔ Surname. The tester's last name must unambiguously be in our list of surnames. If you are a Y DNA match to someone with a Corca Laidhe surname and you do not have a Corca Laidhe surname, that does not make you eligible.
The surname must be unambiguous; the project does not make exceptions (name changes, adoptions, etc) for name changes.
✔ Y DNA Testing. A Y DNA STR test of 37 markers or more is required upon enrollment, and SOME experience in reading, interpreting and handling your results. See details below.
✔ Interest Level. Members should have an innate interest in the history of the Corca Laidhe region (roughly the south part of Munster, the southernmost province of Ireland), otherwise they may lose interest and leave the project.
✔ Research Experience. Members are expected to have SOME experience with genealogy record sources and to have researched their paternal lines, even if only back two or three generations. If your research is "stuck", that's okay.
Your FTDNA account should document what you DO know about your patriline.
✔ Familiarity with FTDNA Account. You should know how to edit your family tree and account settings in your FTDNA account, or be willing and able to learn to do so. Written and illustrated instructions are included below.
- ✔ Account Contact Information are set up in a project-friendly manner.
- ✔ LIMITED access granted to the project administrator (normally DONE at project enrollment).
- ✔Opt In to DNA matching (normally DONE when you send your swab back by mail).
- ✔ Set up Earliest Known paternal ancestor, including the mapping of GPS origin coordinates to the best known location.
- ✔ Opt In to share out your Y and ancestral results with the project.
- ✔ Share Origins data with matches.
- ✔ Provide at minimum a project surname paternal line in your family tree, with names, dates, spouses, and places.
- ✔ Share family tree with matches.
- ✔ FINAL PREPARATION STEP: Provide the project administrator the necessary written permission in the JOIN text when you click JOIN.
Privacy Concerns
All FTDNA project administrators sign agreements to not disclose your personal information. This project is NOT an exception.
The project's Y results are accessible under Y DNA Results of the left sidebar. Your data is tagged with a FTDNA kit number, anonymizing your results. This is what the world sees when they visit our FTDNA website, and this is the state of Y results typical of *most* FTDNA projects so this project is NOT an exception.
What IS different is that that you are EXPECTED to share your anonymized results so they can be reviewed by other interested parties.
What we DON'T publish What we might publish Your name
Your date of birth
Your address/email
Your phone number
Your photographName of your earliest known paternal ancestor
About what year the ancestor was born
Where the ancestor is thought to have come from
The haplogroup representing the ancestor
A colored shape on a map representing the ancestor
For examples of what we are publishing, see:
- FTDNA Corca Laidhe Results
- Corca Laidhe haplotrees on our external websiteFor examples of DNA map graphics similar to what we may one day publish, see:
- Cork Ireland project mitochondrial DNA study
- Irish DNA Atlas Study published in Nature
Final Preparation Step - JOIN Window Text
Project members must submit permission for their ANONYMIZED data to be utilized for project purposes WHEN THEY CLICK JOIN.
If you are not willing to do so, you need not read any further. Thanks for your attention anyway, and good luck with your research endeavors.
If you wish to participate in this study...
After reading this page through, make sure your FTDNA account is in order. Then COPY AND PASTE THE FOLLOWING TEXT INTO THE JOIN WINDOW when you click JOIN:
The Corca Laidhe Y DNA Regional Project is hereby granted permission to utilize my ANONYMIZED Y results, paternal line family history and paternal line origins in published research on Internet websites, published papers, and talks and conferences that are not affiliated with FTDNA. If I am not the tester I am authorized by the tester to contribute his data to this study. 37 or more STR markers have been tested at FTDNA. I have read the project FAQ and have completed account readiness requirements to the best of my ability.If you are requesting help in setting up your account, COPY AND PASTE THE ADDITIONAL FOLLOWING TEXT INTO THE JOIN WINDOW when you click JOIN:
I need help getting my family tree and account ready for this study and agree to grant the Project Administrators ADVANCED access immediately upon joining, so they can assist me with preparation.
FTDNA Account and Family History Preparation
The following instructional information utilizes data on a third party website (not FTDNA's) in order to better illustrate FTDNA's account features. Any links taking you to that website will have a light gray colored background like this box.
Y testing needs to be done at FTDNA so your results are integrated into the database and are fully enabled for matches.
A minimum of 37 markers is required. Transfers of SNPs from elsewhere and straight transfers of STR markers without upgrades at FTDNA are not sufficient.
See part III of the DNA testing FAQ for basic help in navigating and interpreting Y STR results.
Transfer of Sorenson dataIf you have access to old Y DNA data from Ancestry.com or from any lab that used the Sorenson 33 or 46 marker test, you may transfer it to FTDNA. A straight transfer is not sufficient. In order for it to qualify for the project, you must order a transfer+upgrade product and do a swab from FTDNA so that your results will be better aligned with FTDNA's test and so that you'll be enabled for matches in FTDNA's database. See: Transfer DNA and also the $58 transfer+upgrade Y products.
If your transfer+upgrade produces less than 37 markers you will need to perform a Y25 to Y37 marker upgrade at FTDNA to be eligible for the project.
Advanced SNP TestingThe project is relying increasingly on Big Y, the SNP discovery test. The project wants men interested in and committed to more extensive Y testing and are willing to take Big Y, the SNP discovery test, given the optimal financial circumstances. Yes, we know it is expensive. Hopefully, there will be future sales, and competitive pressures to push the price down. We suggest saving up for it over time, and ask friends and relatives who want to give you a gift to contribute to your testing "kitty". Without any prior Y STR testing, $10 a week set aside over 52 weeks will be more than enough to cover Big Y and still have spare money. If you have already have tested some Y STR markers, you'll need even less. Hold on to that testing kitty for the next good sale opportunity. Big Y testing will also complete your STR marker testing and extend your STRs beyond 111.
See part IV of the DNA testing FAQ for a further discussion of Y SNP tests at FTDNA and why Big Y is preferred.
Contact Information should be set up in a project-friendly manner.
See external help: Set up contact information.
If you enrolled after May 2018, you grant LIMITED access to the project administrator(s) as a condition of enrollment so you do not need to take further steps. Please do NOT alter this setting.
If there is still a problem:
See external help: Grant access to administrators.
Normally when you send back your swab you sign a form allowing FTDNA to process your results and release them for matching. So you probably do not need to take further steps.
If there is still a problem:
See external help: Opt in to matching.
This includes mapping GPS coordinates. See external help: Set Paternal Ancestor data.
See external help: Share Your Y Results.
See external help: Share origins data with matches.
See external help: Create, upload, share family tree.
Additional Project Information
Susan's and Martha's emails are available off our FTDNA website, in the left column.
If you expect us to see your email:
Copy and paste the keywords CORCA LAIDHE PROJECT into the SUBJECT LINE of your email.
If you are a project member add your FTDNA Kit Number to the SUBJECT LINE.
Emails without the keywords in the subject line will probably end up in a spam folder and get deleted.
Effective in 2019, the project will no longer send out detailed announcements via bulk emails. Instead, brief bulk emails will be sent out notifying members to read the NEWEST announcements on the BULLETIN tab of the Corca Laidhe FTDNA site. Prior communications on the BULLETIN tab will be stored under the UPDATES tab so members can conveniently review prior project announcements in one place.
Members must log in to their FTDNA accounts and visit the Corca Laidhe FTDNA website in order to be able to view the BULLETIN and UPDATES pages. Click ABOUT in the left sidebar to access Members-Only pages.
An annual project bulletin is published in the autumn, around the end of October - early November, to coincide with the start of the annual year-end DNA sale. It is announced by project bulk email. Mid-year announcements - normally about in-year DNA sales - are posted in the Activity Feed.
The Activity Feed is the preferred method of communication among members.
This study accumulates data slowly over time. The project administrators do not actively recruit for the study. Expect work and progress to BE SLOW. Expect long periods with NO communication.
The project does not normally give away free Y37 tests at genealogy and DNA shows, because participants are not at those times prepared to participate.
During major sales, the project will fund $150 towards qualified members for their Big Y test, subject to fund availability. Eligible participants should be available to properly reswab as needed.
In addition to the project requirements listed above, there are other qualifications that must be met. Chief among them are:
- compelling genealogy evidence of County Cork ancestry back to the tithe books or earlier (the geographic boundaries might expand over time)
- surname under Hereditary Proprietors of the Corca Laidhe are given top priority
- evidence of native - rather than plantation - ancestry
- participation in the project with your Y STR results for a minimum of one year.The project will provide further details to participants as needed.
Prospective members who have any questions ABOUT THE PROJECT after reading the materials here should email Susan at corcalaidhedna @ earthlink.net. If you expect us to see your email and want a reply, copy and paste the exact phrase CORCA LAIDHE PROJECT into the subject line of your email. Otherwise it will be deleted as spam. Emails must be BRIEF. Do NOT send attachments. Other than for project members, we do NOT advise on your own DNA results by private email. Search FTDNA for relevant surname and haplogroup projects or check our LINKS.