Part V: Sharing your Y SNP results with other projects

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  1. How can I share my Y SNP results with other analytical venues?

    FTDNA has many haplogroup projects. In addition, a number of experienced project administrators are developing haplogroup projects beyond the venue of FTDNA. That way they can integrate FTDNA results with results from other labs.

    A good place to start looking for those sharing opportunities is among the FTDNA haplogroup projects. Those administrators can advise you of what you'll need to provide for further participation.

    If you find a project of interest, the administrator might ask for VCF or BAM file of your Y SNP results.

  2. What is a VCF file? A Variant Call Format file is a genomics industry standard file for storing genome data variations.

    FTDNA automatically and freely generates a VCF file as part of your Big Y results. It contains a summary of the contents of your BAM file.

  3. What is a BAM file?

    A BAM file is a genomics industry standard file. It is a compressed binary version of your genome with a Sequence Alignment Map, or SAM. The SAM is a format for reading the genome against a reference sequence.

    The BAM file in very large. It used to be freely available from the Big Y test upon request. Effective November 1, 2019, FTDNA changed its operations so that the BAM file was available for a $100 charge. The reason was because of the cost of storing large BAM files, which relatively few Big Y testers request. (FTDNA was able to reduce the price of Big Y testing by $100 as a result.)

    Testers who had ordered Big Y prior to that date in return have in their order history "Download Raw Data", which entitles them to one free BAM file request.

    If you open a YFull account with a VCF file you can "upgrade" the account for free with a BAM file, if it is available to you.

  4. What is YFull? YFull is an interpretative lab located in Russia. The lab is working very closely with a lot of FTDNA haplogroup project administrators with whom you may be familiar. YFull is doing cutting edge analysis, integrating advanced Y SNP data from several sources. This lab publishes their TMRCA calculations in their own SNP haplotree, so it is well worth adding your data to their database.

    5. When project members go to the trouble and expense of doing FTDNA's Big Y test, we recommend spending another $49 USD and opening an account at YFull. Your data at YFull could be enormously helpful.

    As of January 2020, you can open your YFull account with the VCF file automatically produced as part of your Big Y results, or with your BAM file. If you do not want to spend the extra $100 on the BAM file, the VCF file would be better than nothing at all.

  5. What is Big Tree? Alex Williamson's Big Tree is another good website that attempts to date TMRCAs. And it is free.

    Follow Big Tree's instructions and download your BED and VCF files from your Big Y results as a ZIP file to upload to Big Tree.

  6. What is Scaled Innovation? Rob Spencer's Scaled Innovation is a terrific website that dates SNPs and contains many of the same features as these FTDNA tools; SNP trees, maps, etc. The author of this page relies heavily on it to develop project website content.

  7. How do I get my BAM file? You can get your BAM file for free if your results were in prior to November 1, 2019. If they came afterwards, you are ordering the BAM file as a separate product.

    Under Big Y Results, click Download Raw Data.

    Click Generate BAM. Log off and check back after about 48 hours. Your BAM file should be ready for download. FTDNA will provide the shareable link.

    That shareable link has an expiration date, so you'll need to act quickly. When you upgrade your account at YFull, you'll copy and paste that link into the URL field when you upgrade. You can also share that link with other haplogroup administrators who would like a copy of your BAM.