Keep Calm AncestryDNA Changes Aren’t The End Of The World
You may have read Ann Swayne’s blog post regarding the upcoming changes to roles of users of the AncestryDNA site. To read the blog click HERE.
There’s no need to panic it may make setting up an account for an elderly person have a few more steps but it doesn’t have to change the access you have.
Let’s go through what the blog states (read carefully);
- Every adult who takes a DNA test is the Owner of that test. But as the owner of the kit you are able to assign rights to the account and give various levels of access; Manager, Collaborator, and Viewer.
- If you manage your own test, you will see your role on the test change from Manager to Owner within the next several days. Self-explanatory. So nothing changes for your own kit.
- As of July 18, 2017, our process for activating multiple DNA kits will provide DNA test takers enhanced control over their information by limiting activation to one test per account. The only caveat to this is that parents of minor children will be able to activate more than one kit to their account. For the rest of us, it means that if you are testing someone else in your family you may need to help them set up their account. At that time after explaining the process (I’m sure you were doing so before) you can confirm with them to set yourself as the Manager of the account.
- f you are a customer who currently manages multiple DNA kits in your account you’ll continue to have access to those DNA results and there’s no action for you to take. If you’re like me and have many of your families kits in your account, nothing changes. If you want you can give ownership to the person who tested (if they want it) and remain as the manager. Or you can just leave it the way it was.
What does all this mean? Well, it does mean that when you are setting up an activation for a member of your family that doesn’t want to deal with DNA that you will have to create an account for them and Yes that is another step but is it really that big a deal? Not really. At that same time, you will be able to set yourself as the Manager of the account. Options for giving access to a test can be found on the Settings page accessed from on your DNA Results Summary page.
As the Manager, you are able to reply to inquiries about that DNA and also attach the DNA to your tree. Even as a collaborator you can link to the DNA to your tree. As the Manager, you will still have the drop down on your own account where you see all the accounts you have been given access to.
No there isn’t a fee for setting up an account or for being a manager of an account. Creating an account is free and means providing your email address and creating a password. If you purchase a DNA test and wish to receive no further emails from Ancestry after your purchase, you can unsubscribe from email. So that family member who doesn’t want to deal with it doesn’t have to.
You can see from the table below what each level of access means.
So you see there is nothing to worry about. Yes, there may be another step involved, and you may have to set up an email account when setting up an account for an elderly relation, but ultimately you can get the same access and view the kit the same way.
