I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE...

[Bob Spiers]

I have subscribed - correction re-subscribed after something like 12 years - to My Heritage. Something I said I would never do again and my antagonism and aversion to MyH has been posted on the Forum many, many times. Who would have believed it...few, including me!

Despite no longer a member of MyH I had allowed a cut down Tree to remain if only to attract relevant matches; except they were seldom relevant. Indeed I invariably discounted any originating from the USA (and one of those I later regretted as they contacted me anyway), but few proved of any great significance. That is until two or three -almost in succession - proved positive treasure troves of new information. One proved to be a fantastic match to my Irish ancestry, and then someone familiar with my paternal grandparents family.

I had long discounted joining (or re-joining) and never thought I would ever change my mind so bad was my first experience with MyH many years ago (and oft recounted in the Forum). A couple of things finally changed my mind, one was a small (did I say small) windfall from matching 4 numbers on a Lottery Lucky Dip, the other being absolutely stymied when trying to follow up on the new Irish information, because MyH -not surprisingly - required me to take out a subscription. Their final offer of a 12 month heavily discounted subscription (a Premium one) was covered cost-wise by the windfall. I know it is an auto renew (at full price) offer, but there is time enough to decide whether the decision to re-join was worth the outlay, even knowing MyH does not like cancellations of subscription. But I am up to that if necessary.

It is early days of course and I have loaded a Gedcom . First appearances are certainly far removed from years back when it was, I truly believed, a travesty of a Genealogical website. It now has a much more professional look about it. Time will tell and I will report back on how I fare. This will give you time to get over the shock of my re-joining MyH.

 

[Tim]

 

[Bob Spiers]

and double Eek

 

[Bob Spiers]

I should have made it clear that the matches prior to re-joining were DNA based, comparative with my Ancestry DNA results. The seeming irrelevancy of the occasional matches (mostly -but not always - American) I could rarely fathom, and even rarer attempting any form of contact. In the end the exceptions proved the rule and I sensed I was possibly (only possibly) cutting my nose off to spite my face. So I ate humble pie and re-joined. As Tim rightly suggests

 

[Bob Spiers]

​

Not slow in coming forward MyH greeted me with their Tree Consistency Checker, advising I had 407 such in my newly posted Gedcom Tree. It turned out that 384 were based on the fact that some born before 1910 were not shown as deceased. I realised it applied to periphery characters (spouses and other family members) picked up from Censuses with death dates yet to be explored, or ignored. Tribal pages anticipates such things and asks me to confirm still living, deceased or unknown. MyH offered an auto correct for each to be marked as 'deceased' which I carried out. All but 3 of the remainder were Baptism before Birth anomalies, also quickly corrected. I dealt with the remaining inconsistencies and finally received the comment..."Great work, no consistency issues found".

I admit to enjoying the DNA matching information, not because the main ones revealed were new, but because now with a subscription I can carry out a two way dialogue and explore their Trees in detail. Previously I had resorted to exchanging emails, so I messaged them to advise I had now subscribed as they will also benefit from viewing my own Tree in MyH.

So far so good but have to learn my way found their method of working as they obviously do some things quite differently to Ancestry or FMP.

 

[Sue_3]

I'll be interested to hear how you get on. I have a few close DNA matches on MyH but have thus far been able to contact them and establish our connection without a subscription ... so far so good? I do have a LOT of matches on MyH that I cannot currently explain, but they are not, as yet, ones that I feel might add to my current understanding of my trees. Maybe one day I will be tempted to explore further? I have yet to pay the £35 to get full access to my cousin's DNA results, but will do so as soon as I have the time to properly explore them - for now I have other priorities.

 

[Sue_3]

BTW I recently joined The Genealogist by combining a small windfall with a special offer publicised here. I have yet to break down any brick walls as a result but the map explorer feature is amazing ... it's almost worth it just for the entertainment value, to be able to overlay various maps and records to get a view of how a place, even a specific house if the records allow, has altered over time.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Re ongoing comment on (re)joining MyH, nothing of note to report but have been pleasantly surprised to receive DNA matches, most of which have yielded little, but have messaged a couple of contacts that might yield something if they deign to reply.

However I was intrigued by the number of none DNA matches MyH found until I realised have received many were actually comparing my later Gedcom Tree with my 'Basic' Tree originally set up for DNA comparisons. I quite liked the original set up which involved naming individual grandparents, and having MyH detect descendants and offshoots, all of which I was able to confirm as factual. So this left me with Tree BS 1 (Basic) and after joining and uploading a Gedcom -BS2 (Full). (I thought this would replace the original Tree, but clearly not)

This was old MyH to a 'tee' as they encourage a myriad of Trees and rarely remove old ones. In the end the penny dropped and I realised that I was receiving matches for BS1 compared with BS2. How stupid was that (to me at any rate) so I set out to remove Tree BS1 and came up against a myriad of 'are you sure' notices until finally the Tree was removed; but have a sneaky suspicion the Tree still exists in its Data Base.

Still early days and their newsletters and add on features are of interest so will continue to monitor and report.

 

[Helen7]

I set out to remove Tree BS1 and came up against a myriad of 'are you sure' notices until finally the Tree was removed

That's interesting, Bob.

A few days ago I also took out a heavily discounted subscription to MyH. I entered the names of my parents and grandparents as a 'starter' tree but later uploaded a fuller Gedcom (the same as my Ancestry tree linked to my DNA test). Like you, I thought my first tree would be overwritten, but I saw that I now had two trees there, so I deleted the first one. This was removed straight away with a minimum of 'are you sure' notices (maybe just one to confirm).

No new DNA matches or indeed non-DNA matches yet, and indeed no new 'hints' that I didn't already know about. However, I do like the Tree Consistency Checker, even though this reported two instances of a 'fact appearing after death' which turned out to be the Probate date! There were also reports of 'inconsistent last name spelling' but these just reflect the difference in spellings I've encountered in the records. But it did show up one inconsistency I hadn't previously noticed.

I have yet to explore the 'add on' features in any depth, but a quick search for my brick wall Irish great-great grandfather didn't yield anything useful. Still early days, though, and I too will report on my experiences of this site, good or bad.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Like you, I thought my first tree would be overwritten, but I saw that I now had two trees there, so I deleted the first one. This was removed straight away with a minimum of 'are you sure' notices (maybe just one to confirm).

Yes I suppose we should have thought of that but you just assume it will happen. Perhaps my original Tree had been on there for a few weeks and I had had 'matches' recorded against that caused so many 'are you sure' notices.

I too liked the Tree Consistency Checker and ignored those including the spelling inconsistences and admit one or two were of interest and I am glad they were pointed out. Strangely enough I have had an 'Irish' DNA match report which I am currently exploring even though I cannot make out where it applies. I have contacted the Tree Manager because information provided is sketchy at best and I believe applies at 3 or 4 x grandparent level where my own information is also sketchy. Fingers crossed something comes of it.

 

[CarolB08]

Have you noticed the new features on My Heritage, they now have colour coding in the trees and a cm matching tool which looks like its going to be very handy, but I keep loosing the ethnicity matching bit, or maybe its just me??

 

[Bob Spiers]

Have you noticed the new features on My Heritage, they now have colour coding in the trees and a cm matching tool which looks like its going to be very handy...

Yes was reading about it only this morning in an email from MyH and additionally promoting the "cM Explainer"TM that (quote) predicts relationships between DNA Matches with greater accuracy (unquote). Quite a lot to take in and haven't fully digested yet, but could be interesting even if only half as good as they appear to claim. Intended to integrate with MyH DNA test matches but available as a 'standalone' tool for comparing DNA results from other services, providing you have a MyH subscription.

but I keep loosing the ethnicity matching bit, or maybe its just me??

Sorry not sure what you mean but am still a bit rusty when it comes to using the facilities of MyH but will get around to it in time.

 

[CarolB08]

It's fine Bob I worked it out in the end , I think they moved it when they added the new features, what I am talking about can now be found on the right hand side of your list of dna matches . Its a button called "review, dna match" and if you scroll almost to the bottom of the page that comes up you get the information I was talking about.

 

[Bob Spiers]

View attachment 2322 View attachment 2323 It's fine Bob I worked it out in the end , I think they moved it when they added the new features, what I am talking about can now be found on the right hand side of your list of dna matches . Its a button called "review, dna match" and if you scroll almost to the bottom of the page that comes up you get the information I was talking about.

Yes I now follow Carol, and will have to familiarise myself with checking out my own MyH/Ancestry matches and see what the new DNA tools have to offer. Interesting how their new 'cM Explainer' now takes into account respective ages along with shared DNA; time will tell if that helps.

 

[peter]

Interesting how their new 'cM Explainer' now takes into account respective ages along with shared DNA; time will tell if that helps.

It certainly should help - we've been making use of this information for a long time at Ancestry, where the member's approximate age is often shown in their profile. It certainly helps there.

Even if the other person's age is not shown explicitly, if the other user has a tree you can usually deduce whether they are from a younger generation from the number of parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents whose details are hidden (usually because they are still alive, or were when the tree was compiled).

 

[Sue_3]

By the way, today I was able to use The Genealogist to find a family in the 1891 census that I couldn't find in that census on any other site, which was very useful to me in confirming the details of a family linked to my husband's ancestry. In short, one of hubby's great grandfathers married their cousin. Luckily it was that man's second marriage and they had no children ... so it won't muddle up the DNA!

 

[Bob Spiers]

By the way, today I was able to use The Genealogist to find a family in the 1891 census that I couldn't find in that census on any other site, which was very useful to me in confirming the details of a family linked to my husband's ancestry.

Well done The Genealogist and although I have dabbled with it twice (a bit like MyH) have found it quite underwhelming considering its cost and what it has to offer (of interest to me I should add). However to be fair I do admit to enjoying its interactive Maps (I believe called Map Explorer) as mentioned in another post.

 

[Sue_3]

On the other hand, yesterday I was detained by an unexpected find on the 1851 census on The Genealogist that eventually turned out to be an incorrect transcription. However, the image wasn't terribly clear and it was useful to research the family to be certain that they were not mine. I am finding it of value to have a different set of transcriptions and also remain entertained by the Map Explorer!