Please Grant Admins Access

This post is for anyone who is a member of any of my DNA projects, including surname projects researching the following surnames: Boylan, Caldwell, Carruthers, Farrell, Gleeson, Glisson, Maloney, Molloy, O’Malley, Ryan, Spearin, among others. However the same principles can be applied to anyone in a surname project who wants to grant limited access to the Admin managing that specific surname project.

FamilyTreeDNA have changed a few things on their website (due to the introduction of GDPR - the new European data protection law) and this includes how much access Project Administrators (like myself) have to your data. You can read all about it on this FTDNA Learning Centre page here.

In order to run my various DNA projects efficiently, if you are a member of any of my projects, I need you to grant me "Limited Access" to your data. This will allow me to see your matches and offer you advice. Most of you will already have "Limited Access" assigned automatically but here is how you can double-check.


First, sign in to FTDNA, hover over your name in the top right, and click on Privacy & Sharing ...




Next, click on the Project Preferences tab ...




Next, scroll down to the relevant DNA Project and click on the orange Edit button ...




From the drop-down menu, select Grant Limited Access in the box beside my name ...




Once you have done this, click on the green Accept button ...




Then click on the green Confirm button ...




And that's it - your project preferences will have been saved. You can go back in and change these at any time.





A complete list of what is and what is not viewable by Project Administrators for each of the three different access levels can be found on a separate FTDNA Learning Centre page here. In relation to my various Surname DNA Projects, I need to look at your Y-DNA data primarily, but also your autosomal DNA data (i.e. Family Finder). If you do not grant me "Limited Access", I won't be able to do the following:

• I won't be able to see what tests you have done
• I won't be able to see any of your personal pages (the ones you see when you sign in)
• I won't be able to see your Y-DNA matches
• I won't be able to see your SNP marker results
• I won't be able to see your Family Finder matches
• I won't be able to assist you with product upgrades
• I won't be able to assist you with some of the technical aspects of the website
• I won't be able to assist you in managing your results or webpage

So to help me to run my projects most efficiently, and to give you the level of help I would like to, please change your Project Preferences access settings to "Limited Access".

As always, please email me if you have any questions or need any help.

Maurice Gleeson

June 2018