FTDNA Account Setup Help
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FTDNA Account: Edit your contact information
See also: FTDNA Learning Center Account Settings - Account Information.
From Account Settings, access Account Information | Contact Information.
PLEASE - Use the fields in your profile for the purpose for which they were intended!!
Do not stuff family trees and SNPs into the name fields. If you have done paternal line or maternal line testing, your haplogroup will show up automatically in your pop-up profile when your match clicks on your name as well as in your relevant project's table of DNA results.
The Last Name field should be CLEAN of garbage and contain ONLY your last name, so FTDNA can properly tally surnames and generate surname reports.
If you do not enter a name then your matches cannot find you by your name.
(1) - The middle name field is a great place to put your own name if you are supervising someone else's test. Example: James Francis C/O Jane Smith Jones
Safeguarding the privacy of all members is the main priority of the project. Unless they've been granted Advanced Access, project administrators cannot directly see your Contact Information.
Contact information set up this way is PROJECT FRIENDLY. Project administrators can look at the Member Information roster and immediately see who the tester is as well as who manages the account. It helps minimize the risk of data breaches commited by present and future administrators.
(2) - You can upload a graphic. Some people put a GEDMATCH ID there.
(3) - The primary email address field is shown by the checkmark below. Besides the name field, it is the only Contact Information that is visible to your project administrators.
Make sure your emails are up to date.
You can separate emails in an email field by a comma.
Example: johndoesdaughter@gmail.com, johndoe1@gmail.comFor your PRIMARY email use your own PERMANENT email. Please DO NOT make your work email the primary email. If you leave your job and you no longer use your ex-employer's email, communications with FTDNA and with the project will be severed, including your ability to reset a password if necessary.
Feel free to use your work email as a secondary email.
(4) - In the My Personal Story field, you can enter your GEDMATCH number, or explain what you are researching, or explain you are adopted. You can develop a brief narrative about your maternal line or paternal line or whatever you are researching.
PLEASE use this field to describe your most problematic research, especially if there is a known adoption / misattributed paternity in your pedigree. Somebody might recognize what you are researching and reach out to assist you!
There are now fields to fill in a tester's birth and death. Filling out this data is beneficial to FTDNA in the event you were to not log in to your account again, FTDNA is unable to reach you, you do not provide beneficiary contact information, and FTDNA needs to determine how to handle the account.
FTDNA Account: Edit your beneficiary
From Account Settings, access Account Information | Beneficiary.
Enter the name, phone and email of a sibling; son or daughter; niece or nephew or other person or organization who will manage your account should you be unable to.
