Wednesday 30 May 2018

GDPR / WorldFamiliesNetwork / WikiTree and DNA

Four letters that are creating challenges for the genealogical community and genetic genealogists in particular.

They cannot be ignored, they wont go away, but several sites and/or features we use are either changing or disappearing, directly or indirectly as a result.

Several posts of relevance:
DNAeXplained re GDPR implications and the demise of ySearch, mitoSearch and now WorldFamilies
WikiTree privacy changes thanks to GDPR
WorldFamlies Network - extract from the email to those Administrators of hosted projects there is included in the DNAeXplained blog above.
The changes to projects at FamilyTreeDNA will be the subject of a separate post.

For a dose of reality:
https://iconewsblog.org.uk/2017/08/09/gdpr-sorting-the-fact-from-the-fiction/

WorldFamilies Network (WFN)
This site has hosted Patriarchs and Result pages for several of the projects in the sidebar for many years:
Fairbairn, Runciman, Sinton, Dawe, Wight, McAdie, McKeich, Finlayson, Rowe,
all of which pages have now disappeared.
yDNA results will of course remain as part of the FamilyTreeDNA project result pages but will no longer be linked to their accompanying pedigree on the WFN Patriarch's page (which was only done with permission of the participants, and may, also have depending on the family, included links to he DNASurnames site this is the project diary for).

I recommend, strongly even, that you consider the use of WikiTree to preserve / publish at least the bare bones of your pedigree, and optionally use the WikiTree DNA facilities there to continue indicating that you have DNA tested.

WikiTree
Has removed DNA information from, and mark as "unlisted", anyone who has not themselves registered to use the site.
This impacts those people who manage profiles, and DNA test information on behalf of others, and all of us who use the DNA features to find DNA tested relatives for ancestors of interest as it has resulted in a loss of overall DNA tested information on many lines, regardless of whether or not any belong to anywhere near the EU.
So, if you wish to continue utilising the wonderful DNA features of WikiTree and receive a request to register for the site, please do so.
No further effort is required if you don't wish to contribute further but are comfortable being shown as tested, and connected to your pedigree.

Many links on the DNASurnames pages will need reviewing as a result of the above and will be corrected over time.

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