MyHeritage



Since 2003, the online website titled MyHeritage has made the creation of a digital family tree very simple for its users.  By just starting simply with one’s immediate family (parents and siblings), their names and birth dates, a person can add additional information, photos, videos, records, documents, etc to build their family tree.

The best part is that an individual can distribute their family lineage and hopefully connect with others who share a common ancestor.  By linking to distant researchers a great deal more can be learned of grandparents, great uncles and cousins.

The basic services are free to users and you are allowed about 250 relatives on each tree created with 500 MB storage of photos, videos and documents.  Even creating the tree is made simple with a selection of fonts and tree designs to select from along with instructions. By having more than one tree, it helps when a person is also doing research on a spouse’s family, two different trees can be used.  There are also paid subscription upgrades which allows increased numbers added to the tree. Premium level allows up to 2,500 ancestors with 1,000 MB storage for $6.25 a month and PremiumPlus has unlimited number along with unlimited storage for $9.95 a month.

To create a tree the free software used is Family Tree Builder.  Additional features can be added for a fee to create a more elaborate, detailed family tree.  A good feature with the Family Tree Builder is that either offline or on their secure online site a person can build and add to the family tree.

With a tree begun, MyHeritage has Smart Matching which will inform the user when anyone else has a similar or likely match to their own ancestors.  This is the way to connect with previously unknown cousins or other relatives.

However, MyHeritage is not only about creating family trees, but has also a vast database from multiple sources.  There are over 5.7 billions records of different types available to help the researcher.  Some of the databases added include GenCircles (has over 160 million ancestors, with more than 400 million public records in the Family Tree Legends Records Collection), Kindo and OSN Group (resources for any European research), FamilyLink / WorldVitalRecords (a vast database with billions of census, birth-marriage-death records) and Geni (a family tree sharing source with over 100 million ancestral profiles).

They have also partnered with FamilySearch.org (The Church of the Latter-Day Saints in Utah) and with BillionsGraves which works at gathering photos of ancestral headstones around the globe.  This MyHeritage genealogy site has 80 million users with 28 million family trees.

MyHeritage has an app for iPad, iPhone and Android mobile devices so people can view and edit their family trees anywhere.  Overall, a very good online website to assist any level family history researcher.

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