New “Share” Features at FamilyTreeDNA Blur Match Information and Make Sharing Easy

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Have you ever wished you didn’t have to blur or otherwise redact each name and other sensitive information in order to share your DNA match results? Or maybe you’d like to share fun Discover pages? Well, you got your wish!

FamilyTreeDNA has introduced a new “Share” feature in two locations. The first Share feature is available in your personal account after signing in, and two additional features can be found in Discover.

  1. “Share Mode” on your personal page obfuscates the names and photos of your matches.
  2. “Share Mode” in Discover obfuscates the names and photos of your matches on your Match Time Tree.
  3. “Share Page” in Discover shares publicly available pages to social media or provides a sharing link for you.

These are extremely easy to use and help immensely, allowing you to share screenshots on social media and with family without revealing the names of your matches.

I’ll show you, step-by-step, how to use all three.

“Share Mode” in Your Personal Account

When you want to enable Share Mode, you just toggle it on.

Sign in to your account at FamilyTreeDNA.

Select Account Settings beneath your name in the upper right-hand corner.

Under Privacy and Sharing, toggle Share Mode to “ON.” Default is “OFF.”

Sharing turns itself back off each time you sign out, so you’ll need to do this each time you sign on and want to share.

To see the results, let’s take a look at my match page. Sharing works the same way for Y-DNA matching, mitochondrial or Family Finder.

Not only does Share obfuscate your matches’ names, it also blurs their picture, and your information as well, at upper right.

This is wonderful for presenters!

Using “Share Mode” in Discover

On your dashboard, for either Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA, select “Discover Haplogroup Reports” in the appropriate section.

Discover has two ways to share.

You can share your Match Time Tree, or other pages – using different tools.

Only one Discover page, the Match Time Tree, contains potentially sensitive match information. There’s a “Share Mode” for the Match Time Tree that blurs private information.

However, you may want to share your other Discover reports on social media. “Share Page” provides a quick and easy way to share any publicly available page.

Let’s look at both of those options.

Discover “Share Page”

Every page in Discover, except for the Match Time Tree and Globetrekker, has a “Share Page” icon at the top.

You can share any Discover page on social media (except as noted below), whether you’ve clicked through to Discover from your dashboard, or you’re using the public version of Discover.

In this case, I clicked on “Share Page” to share my Haplogroup Story page to Facebook. On your social media platform of choice, or by sharing the link, your friends can click through to see the page you’ve shared – minus your name and photo.

Please note that there are four Discover pages that either do not share or will display reduced information when using “Share Page,” as follows:

  • Globetrekker is an amazing animated video of your ancestors’ trek across the planet which is reserved for FamilyTreeDNA clients who purchase the Big-Y test or the mtFull, full sequence mitochondrial DNA test. Globetrekker does not use the “Share Page” feature, and is not yet released for mtDNA Discover.
  • Ancient Connections uses the “Share Page” feature, but only publicly displays a few ancient DNA haplogroup matches. Several more are reserved for testers who have taken either the Big-Y or mitochondrial DNA full sequence test, and click through from their dashboard. In a kit I just checked, two or three displayed when shared publicly, but the tester had more than 20 when clicking through his dashboard.
  • Notable Connections uses the “Share Page” feature and functions like Ancient Connections.
  • The Match Time Tree does not use the “Share Page” feature, which populates to social media, but there is a “Share Mode” option which blurs your matches’ sensitive information, similar to your personal page. After blurring, you can take screen shots to share.

Discover Share Mode for the Match Time Tree

The Match Time Tree on Discover is an extension of matching – meaning that your matches are placed on the Time Tree with names of tester-provided Earliest Known Ancestors (EKA) and their country of origin listed.

To view your Match Time Tree, click through to Discover from your FamilyTreeDNA dashboard, then select “Match Time Tree.”

You need to enable “Share Mode” within Discover, even if you had it enabled on your personal page. Toggle “Share Mode” to ON at the top of your Match Time Tree page.

Enabling “Share Mode” obfuscates the names and photos of people on your match list, who now appear on your Discover Time Tree in their proper place. You’re there too!

To share this page publicly, you’ll need to take a screenshot – so please don’t forget to enable “Share Mode” within Discover before doing this.

Benefits of Sharing

The best thing we can do for DNA testing, speaking broadly, is to encourage additional testers who are excited about what they can discover.

Sharing our pages and discoveries on social media is a great way to generate excitement.

Who do you know that might be excited to discover that they share an ancestor with Leo Tolstoy or maybe “Wild Bill” Hickock, even if it’s hundreds of years ago?

How about discovering that an Ancient Connection is a Viking man who was buried in Shestovista, Ukraine about a thousand years ago, and you two shared an ancestor about 1900 years ago? Might that provide a clue about your genealogy? What was the life of your ancestor like?

Or, maybe your friends and relatives would be excited to view the path their ancestors took, marching across the map, until their ancestor arrives on the globe where their haplogroup is most recently anchored?

Trying to get Uncle John or Aunt Mary to test? What kind of information would they think is cool?

A scientist I know especially loves the Ancient Connections that extend far beyond the reach of surnames.

One of my ancestral lines has an ancient DNA match just 9 kilometers from the town where they are rumored to have originated in France. Along the ancient Roman road. How else would I have EVER made this discovery?

The more people that test, the larger the matching pool – and the better for all genealogists.

Thank you to FamilyTreeDNA for introducing “Share Mode,” which makes sharing matches with other researchers effortless, and for “Share Page” within Discover, which makes sharing publicly a breeze!

Who can you share and collaborate with?

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