You may have been doing some genetic genealogy for a while. And you may be getting up in years
because that happens to all of us. So have you been wondering what can you do with your DNA
when you pass on? Today we're going to answer that question at least for one website. When we think
of passing on our inheritance, we usually think of things like money, houses, maybe even cows
(if we're talking about the 1700s). But today, DNA is one of those things that we can pass on also,
and I want to go over some of the ways that you can be able to keep that legacy going for future
generations. Now option one, I think, is the easiest because other than a quick email, there's
not much you need to do. And that is simply give your relatives that are interested in genealogy
your username and password. Now, this hinges on the fact that you have some relatives who
might be interested in genealogy which for some families, you may not have that. In that case,
maybe there's a friend that you're willing to give that information to as you're getting on
in years. Now the reason why this is really simple is because by having your username and password,
they have access to your account. one thing you may be concerned about before then is is you
may not want them to have access to your account until you pass away. So that's one consideration.
Another consideration is check out the terms of service for the website you're using
to determine whether or not you actually can be giving people your username and password.
Now I doubt that many of these websites are going to do an investigation to see who exactly is using
that username or password. Just recognize that by doing this, in some cases, you may actually
be violating the terms of service. And if that is found out, they may actually cancel your
account because of that. So check on that before you just give out your username and password.
Now there is a second option that you can do, and that's really something that's just new
here in the last 20 years because before then we really didn't have that problem. And that is
identify your beneficiary in a will. Now the will being a legal document. This would allow
the person who you designate to then go to the company to get access to it.
Now, unfortunately, because this is so new, there's not a lot of case history as far as
what is allowed what is not allowed. So whether or not a DNA company is going to actually provide
that access to your beneficiary might not be as cut and dry as you think. But what this does do is
it does provide a legal basis for that person to be able to access that. And finally, option number
three, this is something that FamilyTreeDNA does, and they've actually done this for several years,
if not their entire existence. And that is, they allow you to fill out the beneficiary information
on FamilyTreeDNA. You get to designate who can have access to your DNA after you pass away.
Let me go over to FamilyTreeDNA and show you how to do this so. Here we are on the
FamilyTreeDNA website. I've just logged in, and I can click on my name up here and go over to
Account Settings. Now it is going to give me all the information I've put in, and in particular,
there is the beneficiary information. By clicking on that, you can see that you can put in the name,
the phone number, and the email, now the name and the email are required. The phone number is
optional. So, in this case, I'm going to put in my wife. And I'll put in our company's phone number.
And I'll put in our company's email. And as simple as that, I now have that beneficiary
information saved. I can go through, and I can change that at any time or delete it if I want
to. And this is one thing that I would recommend is probably once a year. You want to go in and
just check to make sure that you have the phone number correct and the email correct. It might be
that somebody's no longer using that email. or it might be that the beneficiary you designate
has already passed on themselves. And you want to designate someone else, so there are three ways
that you can designate a beneficiary. And if you want to learn more about how to use FamilyTreeDNA,
then why don't you watch this video up top. But if you're interested in something else
about genealogy, then watch the video down below. Be sure to hit that like button and
join FHF Extra for even more information. and join Family History, Fam, Family History Family, no