About us
PrivacyMembers of this project can share pedigrees, test results and kit numbers without revealing their identities.People who know your kit number can not log into your FTDNA account without a password. Since FTDNA does not store credit card, etc. information, the only information that those who know your password can obtain is what you gave FTDNA, e.g., your name, phone number and email and street addresses, and the names and email addresses of people whose test results are similar to your own. Since thousands of your cousins may have the same genetic signature as you, even those who know your name can not use your test results against you in any way, e.g., to prove paternity or that you committed a crime. Even if you make your identity and entire personal genone public, using the results of your DNA tests to discriminate against you may be illegal. See http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=z7RbIUmbGsg&feature=related |
MutationsHarmless mutations make it possible for us to determine our Genetic Distance (GD) from each other and from our ancestors. Otherwise DNA testing for genealogical purposes would be useless. Diana Gale Matthiesen is a retired zoologist/paleontologist. Her hobby is genealogy. She wrote the following wisdom. "...at 67 markers, you can expect roughly one mutation every seven generations... two mutations within three or four generations is not uncommon ... Note that these distances (0 to 3) are from the model haplotype for the family. The distance between two individual descendants can be twice that and still constitute a good match... Instead of basing the meaning of genetic distance on a calculation so dependent on a constant mutation rate that isn't constant, base it directly on the data. Both the pedigrees and the DNA test results are real, so use them to tell you what genetic distances really mean — which, of course, leads us to the issue of why having your members' lineages is so important and why I double-check, as best I can, the genealogy of my surname project members." See http://dgmweb.net/genealogy/DNA/y-dna-projects/TMRCA.shtml andUnderstanding the Time Predictor at https://www.familytreedna.com/faq-tip.aspx |