Related surnames and variations are included, for example: ELEY, EALY, ELIE, EALEY, ELI, EHLE, EHLY, ELA, ELLEY, EHLI, ELLA, ELLIE, ELLE, ELLY, ELE, EHLEY, ELAY, EALLEY, IHLI, EALLY, ELYE, ELEE, EYLEY, EALLE, ELLAY, EHLA, EAHLEY, EAHLY, etc.

[Top]

Yes.  Only males surnamed ELY (or some variation), ones who presumably have a direct-line male ELY ancestry as shown in the chart below, can meaningfully participate in the ELY Y-chromosome DNA Surname Project.
 

Male ELY	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
Male ELY		Female		Male		Female
Male ELY				Female
Male ELY — test individual

If you are a female ELY descendant or if you are a male ELY descendant who is not surnamed ELY (i.e., not descended on a patrilineal line), you will need to find a male ELY relative who is a patrilineal line ELY descendant to be tested for you.

Not being in a ELY patrilineal line does not prevent you from being tested, of course.  You may want to join a different surname project (to take advantage of the reduced prices for project participants) or, if there is no project for your surname, to simply be the "first on your block" to have your surname tested.  You may even wish to start a project for your surname and be the group's administrator, as I am for ELY.

[Top]

Which tests you take depends in part on what you are trying to accomplish, and your Project Administrator will be happy to advise you depending on your needs. While all levels of testing are useful for something, I have standardized my projects on 67 markers as that seems to be the "sweet spot" for making unambiguous decisions about relatedness. How many markers you ultimately need to test depends in part on whether you have a common haplotype — especially R1b-M269 or I1-M253 — or a rare one, but of course, you won't know that until after you've been tested.

It's parallel to the situation with names, that is, identifying you is more difficult if you have a common name, like John SMITH, than if you are named Engelbert HUMPERDINCK. In identifying John SMITH, it helps greatly to know his middle initial and, better yet, to know his middle name. Adding more markers to someone's haplotype is parallel to knowing John SMITH's middle name to help separate him from other John SMITH's. Just as in paper genealogy, in genetic genealogy the more clues you have to someone's identity, the more confident you can be of the identification, and the more common the name and/or haplotype, the more clues you need.

From the standpoint of the project, we would ideally like everyone to begin with 67 markers, but you certainly have the option of starting with 37, then upgrading to 67, then to 111 — DNA testing on the installment plan. But the bottom line is, sooner or later, you will probably want all the markers you can get, and it's cheaper to do it at the outset. In that vein, the BigY-500 is the ultimate test, one you may wish to say money by purchasing at the outset. It includes the testing of not only known Y-DNA SNPs, but exploration for your own unique SNPs, plus up to 500 STRs, including the 111 of the standard Y-DNA STR test. If you work up to this level of testing in steps, it ends up costing you more. If you are seriously interested in your deep origins, not just in supporting your paper genealogy, the BigY-500 is the test to take.

[Top]

Not usually.  Your sample will be kept in cold storage for a guaranteed 25 years, so it will be available for additional testing.  It can be assumed that, over the next few years, more refined tests will be discovered.  Having your sample in storage will make it possible to have these tests done without submitting additional samples. If an additional sample is needed, FTDNA will send you additional vials to return without added cost.

[Top]

Yes, especially if you get an unexpected result.  But even if you get an expected result, one reason to test additional family members is to get them interested in their genealogy and identifying themselves with their ancestry.  DNA testing makes a wonderful gift to bring your family together.

But just as we are warned not to do our genealogy unless we can handle finding out something we'd rather not have known, anyone being DNA tested has to be prepared for an unexpected result because some 5 to 10 percent of people tested turn out — through hidden adoption or illicit paternity — not to be descended from their "paper" ancestor.  Such a result is known as an "NPE" (non-paternity event).  In the case of an NPE, the testing of cousins can pinpoint where the NPE took place. I describe the NPE's that have occurred in my projects and the degree to which they have been resolved on this web page.

While people today are generally open about adoptions, in the past an adopted infant was much less likely to have ever been told they were adopted.  Likewise, a wife's infidelity was more likely to be hushed up than to result in divorce, even if the infidelity was uncovered.  For these reasons, assume that an NPE occurred in distant generations, rather than near ones, and don't jump to any conclusions because you get one.  Still, consider the feelings of everyone in the family before bringing the NPE out into the open.  By the way, this is the real reason to keep this testing initially anonymous.  So, I recommend quietly testing yourself, first. Then, after you have the result, decide whether to share the news with your family (or your fellow genealogists).

As for what this testing could reveal medically, an STR test is not testing genes, it's testing the "junk" DNA between the genes. I know of only one medical condition that can be revealed with standard Y-DNA STR testing: a major deletion. If a large section of the Y-chromosome has been lost, it will include both genes and the STR markers between them. This absence of markers is evident in a standard STR test. The genes lost are involved in sperm production, and their lack renders the individual infertile. It seems to me something the individual would want to know, but is probably something he wouldn't want others to know. I'm administrating 20 projects for FTDNA with a combined membership of over one thousand, and since 2004, I have had only one member with this condition. In other words, it's very rare, and you shouldn't expect to have it — and if you do, you are probably already aware of it.

[Top]

There may be some urgency involved with testing your family's senior members.  For example, my father was 86 years old when I paid for his testing. He even joked with me at the time, "Oh, you want to get this done before I die."  Well, yes, actually, and I'm relieved that his testing was completed because he has since passed away.

[Top]

Yes.  Typically, one would first join their surname project, then, once results are returned, join one or more appropriate haplogroup, regional, or ethnic projects.  There's a link in the menubar on your member page (myProjects > Join a Project) that will allow you to request membership in additional projects. There is no cost for joining additional projects.

[Top]

No, your Y-DNA test cannot help you with your mother's ancestry.  Your Y-chromosome came from your father, and only from your father, so Y-chromosome DNA testing will be of no help in elucidating your mother's ancestry.  To research your mother's surname, you will need to get her father or one of her brothers or paternal uncles or nephews on behalf of your line.  I know this limitation is frustrating, but it's precisely because the Y-chromosome is handed down only from father to son that makes it useful to genealogists. To test yourself for your mother's line, you need to use mtDNA testing and autosomal-DNA testing (FTDNA's Family Finder test).

[Top]

Taking the sample is simple and painless, just read the directions carefully and don't hurry.  The kit arrives by mail and contains plastic sticks — rather like small toothbrushes, without the bristles.  You take the sample by rubbing the inside of your cheek with the stick, then dropping the detachable tip into a vial.  You take the samples at least eight hours apart.  Then put the vials in the provided mailer and return the kit by mail.

[Top]

THIS SECTION IS IN NEED OF REVISION due to changes in the FTDNA user interface, though all the priciples remain the same. Update pending.

You establish your level of privacy by the way you join and the options you select.

If you want complete privacy, you should not join a project, but simply order and pay for your testing on your own.  That way, your identity and results are known only to you (and to FamilyTreeDNA, obviously).

If you join a project, the project administrator knows who you are (i.e., has access to your full name and contact information), but only your test data, lineage, and surname — not your given name(s) — will be placed in public view on the project's web sites.  The administrator will not reveal your identity to anyone, not even to other project members or administrators.  That doesn't prevent you from revealing yourself, just that neither FTDNA nor I will do it.

By signing the Release that comes with your kit, your name and email address will be shared with others tested at FamilyTreeDNA whose results match yours (and vice versa), but your name and email address will still not be displayed at the project web sites nor be released by the project administrator.  Signing the Release is a condition for joining my projects as it is unfair to refuse to share your results with others when others are sharing their results with you.  If you don't want to be the contact person (i.e., if you don't want to be emailed by contacts), we can substitute your family genealogist or me as the contact person.

To have your results show up on the project's test results page, please go to the "Privacy & Sharing" tab on your member page at FTDNA and, under the heading "My DNA Results," heading, answer the question, "Who can view my DNA results in group projects?" by changing the answer to, "Anyone." Unless you do so, your results will not display on the project's Results page, and sharing of results is a requirement for membership in my projects. This sharing applies only to your results and lineage, not your identity. You, your parents, and, if living, your grandparents will remain anonymous, unless you choose to reveal them in the GEDCOM you upload to your Family Tree.

Please note that the FTDNA database is not searchable or browsable, not even by project administrators, much less by the general public, which has no access to the database. Public access is entirely limited to FTDNA clients being put in contact with other FTDNA clients who are a genetic match.

If you want to get the most from your testing, then share the most, that is:  join a project, sign the Release, allow "Anyone" to view your results, and upload your results to Ysearch (see next FAQ).

Speaking personally (not as a representative of FamilyTreeDNA), I frankly do not see the need for privacy.  To demonstrate just how unconcerned I am, I have placed my mtDNA results online at my website and put my FMS (Full Mitochondrial Sequence) online at GenBank (EU979542).  You should be much more concerned about someone knowing your Social Security number or reading your bank account number off your checks or your credit card numbers off your sales slips.  (And I'd much rather have someone know my DNA test results than my weight!)  I do have these caveats:  I recommend keeping the fact that you are being tested quiet until you've seen the results because, if your results uncover a hidden adoption or illicit paternity, you may want to limit with whom you share that information.  I made certain I was an mtDNA match with a first cousin before I "went public" with my HVR1+HVR2 results; and I got a clean slate from a medical analysis of my FMS before I uploaded the results to GenBank.  With regard to Y-DNA testing, my father has passed away since being tested, so I have de-privatized his name (scroll to the right to see the lineage).  I didn't see any reason to keep his identity secret in the first place, so I certainly see no reason to keep it secret now.

It bears mentioning that once the Y-DNA haplogroup and modal haplotype have been determined for your progenitor, your haplogroup and matching (or near-matching) haplotype are therefore also known by anyone who knows you descend from that progenitor, whether you even get tested, or not. There is nothing left to keep secret, so why make a big deal out of privacy? (The exception possibly being in the case of an NPE, though even then, the best policy is to reveal it, so you can resolve it.)

As for your FamilyFinder results, no one is going to see them, unless you deliberately download them from FTDNA, then upload them to a public database (e.g., GEDmatch) — and it, too, has a Privacy Policy. No one will see your results or discover your identity, unless you allow them to do so. If you want to get the most out of your FF testing, I recommend doing so, but otherwise, there is no way anyone can access these — not even project admins.  You have to be logged in to your member page at FTDNA as the owner of the kit to download raw FF data.

See also FamilyTreeDNA's privacy policy.  Your privacy is further maintained by Federal Law:  see the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) summarized on the FTDNA web site. FTDNA also subscribes to the Safe Harbor program protecting personal information for those in the European Union and Switzerland.

[Top]

Ysearch.org was a publicly available and searchable Y-DNA STR database on the internet, sponsored by FTDNA, but open to anyone regardless of where they were tested. This database has been taken offline.

[Top]

Results from STR (Short Tandem Repeat) testing should correlate with results from SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) testing.  In other words, haplotypes should correlate with haplogroups, and they do.  Therefore, in most cases your base haplogroup can be deduced from your haplotype.  In cases where the prediction of the haplogroup from the haplotype is weak or equivocal, FTDNA will do a "backbone" SNP test (without charge) as part of its "haplogroup assurance policy."  This policy means being STR tested at FTDNA assures that you will know your basic haplogroup with certainty, without the added expense of a backbone SNP test.

Deep SNP testing determines your haplogroup subclade and is offered by FTDNA usually without having to submit another sample.  This determination (and, thus, this testing) is not a requirement for participation in the project, but I hope you will consider doing it, for a number of reasons.

One reason is simply to "contribute to science."  Everyone who undergoes both STR and SNP testing is contrbuting to the databases that allow these correlations to be made and is contributing to the success of researchers engaged in reconstructing human origins.  And then, there's your own curiosity.  I'm fascinated by the progress being made, and I find it far more meaningful to know that I'm part of the process of discovery and advancement.  If you want recent history to come alive for you and your children, do your family's genealogy.  If you want human history and earth history to come alive for them, have the family DNA tested — and once you have your test results, join the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project (a few easy clicks on your FTDNA member page).

On the practical side, haplogroups are a logical way to organize a Y-DNA STR project because people in different haplogroups have a zero probability of being closely related, so breaking up Y-DNA STR surname projects by haplogroups is simply useful.

[Top]

FamilyTreeDNA is a for-profit business.  The surname and regional projects based at FamilyTreeDNA are administered by volunteers (I'm a retired zoologist/paleontologist whose hobby is genealogy).  This arrangement is parallel to the mailing lists at RootsWeb.com and the message boards at Ancestry.com, which are administrated by volunteers, but owned by a for-profit business.

[Top]

No.  The sample belongs to you.  Your sample is kept in storage at FamilyTreeDNA for 25 years, in case you wish to have more tests run (without having to submit another sample) — or you can have the sample destroyed if you so direct.  Your test results are made public on the Results page of your project's web site free of charge, which means there can be no incentive for anyone to try to sell the data. You can, subsequently, direct FTDNA to remove your data from public view and/or have it removed, entirely, from their server; but having once been displayed to public view ("published" in the legal sense), your data are in the public domain and cannot be retrieved from public knowledge. It never was the case that your identity was displayed with your data, so your identity has not become public, just your disembodied test results.

[Top]

FamilyTreeDNA offers a variety of tests and services.  Please see descriptions of products at their web site:

FamilyTreeDNA Products and Prices

While I do my best to keep this FAQ up-to-date, the FTDNA web site is always the final word on prices.

I do not recommend the bundled tests (prices in red) because it's cheaper to purchase the tests separately.  When joining the project, please first order a Y-DNA test, followed later with a Family Finder or other tests.

Your surname project admin recommends the tests highlighted in bright yellow.  In most circumstances, males will need 67 markers to be confident a match isn't coincidental*.

*If your haplotype is rare (i.e., distant from the modal haplotype in an uncommon haplogroup), you won't need to test as many markers as someone whose haplotype is common (i.e., close to the modal haplotype for a common haplogroup). The problem is, you won't know which yours is until after you've tested — and, by definition, the majority of people will have a common haplotype.

It's ultimately cheaper to purchase the maximum markers from the outset.  Upgrading the number of markers in stages reduces the initial sticker shock, but will cost more in the long run.

And, of course, don't forget to check the subsidies offered on the ELY project's home page.

[Top]

Yes, if you were tested with any company using the Sorenson laboratory to run their customers' tests (viz., SMGF, GeneTree, or Ancestry), you can have your 33- or 46-marker results transferred to FTDNA.  The Transfer fee will give you an account at FTDNA and give your project administrator access to your results, allowing the results to be displayed at the project web site.  However, the transfer fee, alone, will not give you haplogroup prediction or allow you to receive automatic match notifications.  To enjoy the full benefits of being a project member at FTDNA, you need to be retested at FTDNA.  The retesting is done at a considerable discount (compare above prices), so I highly recommend doing so — and from the outset.

[Top]

Some people have no difficulty uploading a GEDCOM to their FTDNA account, while others fail despite repeated attempts. If you are in the latter category, experience has shown me that the method outlined below does work.  (I'm assuming you are using standard genealogy software that will export a standard GEDCOM.)

To begin with, do not try to extract a subset of your existing database.  Create a new database expressly for this purpose.  While this may seem to be a waste of time, it doesn't take nearly as much time as you will waste trying — and failing — to get a subset of your existing database to upload.  The new database should have the following attributes:

Make certain the first person you enter in the database is the test subject, so they are ID No. 1 in the database (and, thus, @I1@ in the GEDCOM).  Also make certain they are marked as the root person in the tree.

Enter only 15 generations, including the test subject.  FTDNA will not display more, so there's no point in including more.

Enter only these five items:

name, birth date, birth place, death date, death place

Do not skip adding locations.  Locations are important in helping your matchees decide whether an ancestor may be related, which may influence their decision whether or not to contact you.

Do not use "upper" characters, such as ø, ß, ü, etc.  They will likely display as "garbage."  I presume there will eventually be a fix for this, but not as of the last time I checked.

Include only your ancestors (viz., parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.), no other kin.  Do not include siblings, aunts, uncles, children, additional spouses (step-parents), or adoptive parents — include biological ancestors only. This tree is not your entire genealogy, it is your patrilineal line genetic ancestry only. If you are genetically related to someone via your Y-DNA, this tree has to intersect with theirs at some point (i.e., you must have a common ancestor in your pedigrees in order to be related). Don't make their search of your tree harder by including genetically irrelevant kin they have to wade through. If you want your full genealogy online and you have no web site of your own, I recommend My Heritage, which is affiliated with FTDNA.

With regard to privatization, I don't see the need for privacy here.  Your pedigree is not on public display and cannot be downloaded, so the only people seeing it will be your genetic matches.  I have given my full name as test subject and the full names of my parents and everyone else.  To make certain everyone showed up, I deliberately set the Living Flag to "No" for the entire database before exporting it.  If you don't want someone to show up, then set the Living Flag to Yes before doing the export.  Do make certain the Living Flag is set, one way or the other, if you want control over the individuals displayed.  Otherwise, FTDNA's software will decide, and you may get unexpected results for people who don't have a death date.

Lastly, even if you do not know your ancestry (e.g., you are adopted), please include a GEDCOM with your name as test subject and with a father and mother named, "Adoptive."  That way, your matchees won't waste your time and theirs emailing you to ask for your pedigree or to urge you to upload a GEDCOM.

Whatever effort it is to create this special "lean and clean" database is likely to be well repaid in how small the file is and how easily it uploads.  Likewise, how easy it is to edit and re-upload as your knowledge of your patrilineal line improves.

If you continue to have difficulty, I can only recommend you contact FTDNA, directly, because if you follow the above, you've avoided all the reasons I know of why the upload might fail.  That is, I've yet to have a file created as I've described above to fail to upload.

[Top]