Setting up your FamilyTreeDNA Personal Page

You will need to log into your FamilyTreeDNA account. Go to http://www.familytreedna.com. You should see the login fields at the top right hand side of the screen.

Enter your kit code and password.

Log into your account and look at the left hand side of your screen. You should see a link to your User Preferences area.

The first item is email notifications. This determines whether or not you receive group emails for the project. We ask that you select yes. This will assure that you are informed of project updates. The decision is entirely up to you though.

Save your settings. You may now set up your account for match notifications.

This impacts several parts of your account. First it determines whether or not you receive emails about new matches. It also changes your visibility in the mtDNA Matches area as well as the My Maps tool.

Once you are logged into your account, look at the left hand side of your screen. You should see a link to your User Preferences area.

If you have a common set of HVR1 mutations you may wish to keep HVR1 notifications turned off. You can always turn it back on when you are logged into your account.

Save your settings.

1) Your mtDNA lineage follows your mother's mother's mother's mother's mother's mother's mother's line. If you have filled this in correctly, there will not be a male name in this box! Although women pass their mtDNA on to both their daughters and sons only their daughters pass it on to the next generation.

• child
  • mother
    • maternal grandmother
      • maternal great grandmother
        • maternal great great grandmother

This then is the woman who should be recorded in our FamilyTreeDNA Maternal Ancestry field.

Once you are logged into your account, look at the left hand side of your screen. You should see a link to your User Preferences area.

Scroll down until you see the area for “Displaying the Most Distant Known Ancestor”

For mtDNA you need to fill out the “Maternal Side.” If possible use the following format.

Given Name Maiden Name; Date; Place

• Example: Mary Low; b. 1750; New Jersey
• Example: Antonina Ferro; b. c. 1825; Sicily

Because space is limited you may need to abbreviate part of the information. Full geographic information is the most important thing to include.

• Example: Contessa Entellina, Palermo, Sicily

3) Save your changes. You are now ready to set your maternal ancestress's geographic coordinates.

Once you are logged into your account, look at the left hand side of your screen. You should see a link to your User Preferences area.

Scroll down until you see the area for “Displaying the Most Distant Known Ancestor”

For mtDNA you need to fill out the “Maternal Origin.”

Next go to the Getty Thesaurus http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/tgn

Enter your maternal ancestor's location in the search area.

Click search.

The first result in the list is for the state of New Jersey. Select it.

The coordinates are shown in two formats.

Coordinates: Lat: 40 00 00 N degrees minutes Lat: 40.0000 decimal degrees
Long: 075 00 00 W degrees minutes Long: -75.0000 decimal degrees

It is very important to use degrees.

Lat: 40.0000 Long: -75.0000

Back on your FamilyTreeDNA page add the coordinates.

Be careful to include the ”-” when working with longitudes in the western hemisphere. Save your changes. You are now ready to upload your GEDCOM.

A GEDCOM is a family tree file in a standard format. It can be imported and read by most genealogy software packages.

The mtDNA H Haplogroup Project does not endorse any one package. These examples are provided to demonstrate the basic steps of a GEDCOM file.

Open your copy of Family Tree Legends. Browse to yourself.

Go to the File Menu and select “Export to GEDCOM File.”

Adjust the settings so that a standard GEDCOM is exported. Save to the file someplace where you will be able to find it.

You are now ready to upload to FamilyTreeDNA.

Open your copy of Personal Ancestral File. Browse to yourself.

Go to the File Menu and select “Export to GEDCOM File.”

Adjust the settings so that a standard GEDCOM is exported. Save to the file someplace where you will be able to find it.

You are now ready to upload to FamilyTreeDNA.

Log into your account and look at the left hand side of your screen. You should see a link to your GEDCOM - Family Tree area. You will now see an area to pick your GEDCOM file from a location on your hard drive.

Find the GEDCOM file that you created.

It will load onto the FamilyTreeDNA system.

Adjust the privacy settings and find yourself on the name list.

Your file has now been added.

You may use the ” View your pedigree chart” link to see how your tree will look to your matches.

Your account is now set up.