I can’t tell you how excited I am to see FTDNA and WikiTree come together to share something that is so near and dear to all of us, our DNA. Katy Rowe-Shurwanz wrote a wonderful blog about all the how-tos. You can find her post over on FTDNA’s Blog. There is a part of this that is bigger than most people realize, and that is the effect this will have on DNA Group Projects at FTDNA and at WikiTree. Everything else is being discussed elsewhere, but this needs it’s onw dedicated post. Thanks Janine for the nudge at the Council meeting!
“You may also be interested in creating a space for your Group Project on WikiTree. You can read more about that option on this page. These spaces are not connected to the main tree and conform to all of FamilyTreeDNA’s privacy requirements.” – Janine Cloud from the DNA Group Project Administrators Newsletter
DNA Group Projects at WikiTree, you say? Yes.
Back in September 2020 I started puttering around with the Templeton DNA Group Project. I knew two of its administrators, Jack and Ron, who worked with me at the beginning of my now-published Irish Templeton DNA research. I also worked with Jay Norwalk, a published Scottish Templeton DNA researcher and administrator of the Scottish Templeton DNA Group project. I talked Jay into merging the projects, and from there, I ran with administering both projects as one.
One of the big things right off the bat was to take a spreadsheet table that Jack and Ron had worked on and add more information to it. Truly so much new information that it became the reason to start a DNA Group Project for the Templetons on WikiTree.
How The WikiTree DNA Group Project, Project Got Started
How on earth could I describe everything that the Templeton chart is, on FTDNA? I couldn’t. But I could create a Free Space page on WikiTree. The Templeton DNA Group Project on WikiTtree was a place I could explore lineages, talk about the differences between the Scots and Irish Templetons genetically, and link to a deep dive, courtesy of Ron Templeton, into the Irish Templeton Origins in the Dal Riata.
I could link to this paper from Ron, or to any of the other pages created for the Templeton Name Study on WikiTree. I could link to Templeton Profiles, and images and…
After working the Templeton DNA group project for a while, I realized that since the only free space to work this kind of stuff had been a casualty of the GDPR every one of my fellow Group Project Admins might need a place as well. That is how the DNA Group Projects, Project came about. Created within the DNA Integrators Project, a sub-project of the DNA Project on WikiTree, the DNA Group Projects project is where DNA group Project Administrators find information and ideas for creating complementary space for their projects. Greg Clark (WikiTree DNA Citation Maker and many more apps) and I worked out how Group Project Admins could, if they chose to, dump all of the project EKA and associated Kits to a project page. I created a Template for Admins to use to start their projects, and then I showcased this at the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference.
DNA Group Projects have come in, with 31 up and running at this point in time. I have a feeling that after the WikiTree | FTDNA integration gets out there that the number will rise. No worries, we have project volunteers at the ready to answer questions.
DNA Group Projects on WikiTree Examples
You’d think I would be jumping at the bit to show you the Templeton DNA Group Project, but I am not. I am going to show you the product of the North of Ireland Family History Societies’ boots on the ground work done when they discovered I might have Islandmagee genes! They let me know after one of my presentations, on Three Templeton Brothers Form Carolina – Jumping the Pond.
The two biggest DNA Group Projects, The Irwin and Campbell, as well (I have a Campbell in my lines, so this one is in because I believe in self-promotion):
WikiTree and Family Tree DNA
Brian has so much in the project, I can’t show you anything but the Contents table.
Interlinking can’t be discussed enough. All those ancestors with the Gaulding | Gaulden | Gauldin Surname spelling are just dying to be added. (Head nod to Jim Brewster at FTDNA for that pun.) While working on another Blog post, I reviewed John Gaulding’s DNA Descendants and discovered TWO possible testers for a line that would hopefully make the early lines of Gaulding’s look a lot less like silly string. I have already reached out to one possible tester, but no word yet.
Remember, you can add as much or as little as you want. Take a look at the Group Projects Category page to see what others have done and shout on G2G (the Genealogist to Genealogist WikiTree Forum) if you get stuck!
i have been working on native american i have afamily tree that goes to 1102 Pitts family