Getting the Most out of the Southern Smiths DNA Project

• The Southern Smiths DNA project is a volunteer project; we are not paid by FamilyTreeDNA. Be patient at times waiting for results on the Southern Smiths pages.

• A requirement of the project is that you supply a pedigree (direct line up to your earliest known *sourced* ancestor). If you have been contacted several times without supplying one, you will be removed from the project. This does not remove you from FamilyTreeDNA, but, again, only from this project. If you wish to rejoin, you certainly may, but you will, again, be required to supply a pedigree. Why is this? Because it helps others who come to the site and wish to compare notes to see if your line at all matches up with theirs. If you already belong to another Smith project, we only require your earliest sourced ancestor and a reference-we will put a link to your primary project.

• Check your email in your personal FTDNA pages. If it has been changed or you are changing it, please change it in your personal pages and also send me a note letting me know the old and new email AND that this is for the Southern Smiths project.Please check that you can email yourself from your kit number emailer. If there is a problem or you have changed your email, let me know at webmaster at   halcyondays.com -DEFINITELY include your kit number

• In correspondence regarding the Southern Smiths project, please always use your kit number. Sometimes people have multiple emails or it is another person other than the kit taker who corresponds and it helps us find and sort out the correct kit by email. Also, because we have a *blind* emailer on the kit numbers on the results pages, helps keep that correct and up to date.

• Please review the pedigree worked up for your kit. If there are errors or you have been able to take your line further back, please contact me with your changes, with proofs.

• Requests for the site: Would like you to supply a scanned photograph of your earliest ancestor in your line. I will put it on the DNA results page. 

• Also would like a very short list of where your line went; that would be something like John Smith b 1900 NC>AL>TX. Why? I get queries regularly from website readers who are trying to figure out if YOUR line matches up with theirs. This will help. See the report WentWhere for examples.

• We rely on you to let us know if you see any errors or discrepancies. Because we have added additional features to the chart, occasionally an error will creep in. Please let us know. Also, because we fully expect that, due to your own research and sharing, you may find some kits that you'd like to be grouped with-send an email telling which kit(s) and why.

• Always call up FTDNA and ask for an explanation of your results. If there's something particularly interesting or noteworthy, such as an distinctive marker, please send us an email telling us about it.

• We have some notes fields intended for short descriptions that may help others to see if your family is their family. Again, intended to be a sort of "Most Wanted" short field-if you have extensive information on a family, suggest you upload it to Ysearch.org or your own website and send us the link, which we will put with your results.