DNA Groups - DNA Donor Information

This page is primarily for Y-DNA Donors of the Reeves DNA Project. It explains the information shown on the Root Page of our DNA Groups within The Reeves Project (TRP) wiki and the simple steps we would like each of you to take to help us.

You do NOT need to be a TRP member to help us, but we'd very much encourage you to come and join us to further our collective Reeves research.

Background

The Reeves Project (TRP) works in parallel with the Reeves Y DNA Project hosted at Family Tree DNA (FtDNA) to document our Reeves families. Many of the same folks help out with both the Reeves DNA Project and the wiki at The Reeves Project (TRP). That works well, but does cause The Reeves Project (TRP) one significant issue. The facilities for the Reeves DNA Project are provided by FamilyTree DNA (henceforth FtDNA) and as administrators there we have to abide by their Group Administrator Policy. This places various obligations on the Reeves DNA Project admins, including maintaining the anonymity of DNA Donors beyond the DNA Project. This means the admins can't take the information you've shared with us and the others within the Reeves DNA Project at FtDNA and post it here at The Reeves Project.

Now whilst we'd be the first to support confidentiality and security by default, the real value of a DNA project is only unlocked if the participating members are prepared to open up a little and share. And we do that sharing principally within TRP.

This page attempts to explains what information TRP displays on the Root Page for each of our DNA Groups and what we need you, as the DNA Donor or as the individual who manages somebody else's DNA sample, to do to help us.

DNA Donor TBA

If you have not yet changed your FtDNA account status to "Release = Yes", then all we can show is the number of your DNA kit. You need to make this change within the "Account Settings" for your account over at FtDNA.

Before you go and make that change, please also take time to read the post pinned to the top of the Activity Feed over at the Reeves DNA Project at https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/reeves/activity-feed and make sure you've also made those changes.

DNA Donor Name

If your FtDNA account has a status of "Release = Yes" then the Root Page of our DNA Group within TRP will show your INITIALS, but not your name. This is to comply with FtDNA's requirements introduced in mid-2018 for pseudonymous information. As noted above, the real benefit of a DNA project such as ours can only be realised if the participating members are prepared to open up a little and share.

TRP needs your explicit permission to replace your initials with your name. All we need is a simple e-mail.

• If you are the DNA Donor you'll find guidance on the content of that e-mail here.
• If you managed a DNA sample on behalf of somebody else please see this page.

The process is the same for both, but the information we request differs based on your situation. If you manage multiple DNA samples, we need you to give TRP explicit consent for each. To keep our administration simple, we need one e-mail for each DNA kit you manage, please.

If your DNA results were posted prior to mid 2018, we will have previously named the DNA Donor, subject to "Release = Yes". We would still encourage you to give TRP explicit consent as described above, particularly if you manage a DNA sample on behalf of somebody else.

Interested Party

On the Root Page of each DNA Group in TRP there is a fourth column "Interested Party". This is where we record the name of the individual managing a DNA sample, but we only include this information if that individual is also a TRP Community Member in their own right. The option to be named as an Interested Party is included as part of the consent given by individuals managing a DNA sample.