Surname Projects to include females

[varlene]

Family Tree DNA states: "Surname projects can use Family Finder to better define branches in a family tree. By using Family Finder testing, close Y-chromosome and mtDNA matches without traditional records may be assigned to a pedigree with greater confidence. Even more exciting, surname projects may now bring female cousins into the project as additional evidence."
-- It is exciting that female cousins can enter into the surname projects which traditionally have been open only to males. I am looking forward to the possibility of finding my Cassidy roots and hope that Family Tree DNA will move ahead with this as quickly as possible. I would like to encourage others who feel the same to let Family Tree know.

[rivergirl]

As a project admin, I have no idea how family finder is going to work within a surname project. I have enough trouble getting the men to provide a lineage, let alone sort out matches from famiy finder..
Females are quite welcome in my surname project, but I will leave it to the individual to sort out family finder matches.

[sabram]

As a female who's never been able to enter a surname project until now, I would love to be able to use my FamilyFinder results to enter.

But I see issues. I have a lengthy paper trail with about 90 total surnames. Obviously some of those ancestors are quite remote from me. Would an administrator really want me to join his project because I had an ancestor with the project surname in 1600--but not more recently? And do I really want to be participating in 90 projects? And surely I have some non-paternity events somewhere in my line, which would not only confuse matters for that surname but for every surname further up the line.

I really, really would love to join a project or two. (Joining 90 sounds a bit daunting, though!) But I'm not sure how to do so in a way that would be meaningful for the project or the people who are already participating in it. If anyone has any insights on how to use FamilyFinder results meaningfully in a surname project, I'd love to hear them.

[tewilder]

Check the FAQ on Family Finder projects. They are not being thought of in the same way. The proposal is to take some ancestral couple and find their descendants. Also there is a limit on how far back they can be. The historical reach is not nearly as far as the STR based projects.

The other difference is that people could be in an additional project for each set of ancestors that had a project.

But someone has to set them up and run them. I haven't seen any yet.

[smallaxe]

I can see a real benefit to females being included in the surname projects of spouses along their maternal line, even way back. For example, in colonial Virginia, I have an ancestor who married Elizabeth. We're pretty sure of her surname, but cannot pin down which family of that surname she was from. We think she was the daughter of a particular couple, but there is no paper documents to confirm it. If a maternal descendant of that couple was part of that surname's project, and a maternal descendant of Elizabeth was in the surname project for the family she married into, we could compare the mtDNA. If was completely different we would know our suspicion is wrong. If it matched, especially if there were also mtDNA from maternal line descendants of the wives of the other possible couples, and they didn't match, it would be very strong evidence of Elizabeth's parents where paper has no answer for us.

[ccbennett]

Some of us men tested for the Y side and were given projects to help understand this new world. The MT side of this is way different and a totally different way of doing things.
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