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My Heritage Improved Cousin Finder
- Thread starter JohnR65
- Start date
Is that because THEIR trees are wrong, or because MyHeritage have used information from third-party trees to weave together the connection (much as Ancestry does for Common Ancestors)?
A lot of them are completely wrong; added to that they use owner's who haven't been on the site for 2 years or more-no point contacting them! There are no options to accept or reject them either, just a long list of 'matches'! They appear to use an ancestor's name and match it with similar ones. It takes a long time to sort out the good from the bad.
Because?
A reply from MH Support:
Firstly, it's important to know how Cousin Finder™ works. This feature is based on Smart Matches, it compares your family tree with other family trees on MyHeritage and tries to find matches based on the information you have available.
Cousin Finder's accuracy depends on both the information you've entered into your family tree and the information from other family trees.
You can use this feature on a person from the tree you're associated with, as well as on another person of your choice from that tree. You can refer to this article for more information and detailed instructions on how to use Cousin Finder:
What is Cousin Finder™ and how do I use it ?
Firstly, it's important to know how Cousin Finder™ works. This feature is based on Smart Matches, it compares your family tree with other family trees on MyHeritage and tries to find matches based on the information you have available.
Cousin Finder's accuracy depends on both the information you've entered into your family tree and the information from other family trees.
You can use this feature on a person from the tree you're associated with, as well as on another person of your choice from that tree. You can refer to this article for more information and detailed instructions on how to use Cousin Finder:
What is Cousin Finder™ and how do I use it ?
Having an online tree IS using the site. Why on earth should they log in if they don't have anything to add? If someone tries to contact them they'll get an email.
What matters is not whether they log in for no reason, but whether they log in when there is a reason.
Do you really need a MyHeritage subscription to respond to respond to a message? I don't know of any other site where that is necessary.
That doesn't exactly answer my question. I don't have a subscription but I can still reply to emails from DNA matches (I can send them too). However I don't think I've ever received a message from someone who isn't a DNA match for me (or one of the tests I manage).
It seems a lot of MH tree owners got MH as a gift for one year and never resubscribed. MH is telling me that I have all these new cousins and to send the new cousin a message to check it out. In my opinion now it's a waste of my time and effort as very few reply to my messages and I've told MH exactly that, so they in their wisdom have added a month to my sub! It seems to me that anyone who put their tree on MH 8 years ago is unlikely to respond to messages.
If what you're now saying is that people who have posted trees on MyHeritage could reply to your messages, but don't, that matches what many people have said about Ancestry.
However if they are unable to respond because they don't have a current MyHeritage subscription, that's completely different. However I'm not sure that we have established that is the case, and it's crucially important to know the answer!
Finally, whichever site you're using, the chance of getting a response depends very much on the content of the message you send and whether you follow it up with reminders. I have received responses from some Ancestry users after 3 years, but only because I have sent occasional polite reminders. Not everyone who takes a DNA test, or uploads a tree, is at a stage in their life where they can afford to give genealogy the level of priority that we do. I wish I had begun my research earlier, but if I had done I would have struggled to find the time.
I always send a message to alleged cousins on both Ancestry and MH but seldom get a reply especially if they haven't been on the sites for more than a year; I send follow ups too but it's totally frustrating and disappointing when they don't reply.
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On the one hand you have low expectations of getting a reply, on the other hand you find it "totally frustrating and disappointing when they don't reply". This sounds a little incongruous to me: perhaps you're a glass half-empty person?
Personally I'm delighted when cousins respond - no matter how many years it takes - and I don't experience any frustration or disappointment when they don't, because there are thousands of other cousins out there.
G6JPG (John)
LostCousins Member
Peter definitely a glass half full person!
I tend not to send a message if its both a low DNA match and they haven't been on for a while; for the DNA side especially, I suspect that means they're someone who got the DNA test as a present and aren't really interested. For other reasons for communicating, I tend to look at how long since they were there and don't if it's ages, especially if the reason for communicating is a crass error on their part.
But I have had communications after years - I even have one or two contacts (I think in some cases, not sure yet whether they're cousins) with whom I communicate (sometimes both ways!) after such intervals!
I tend not to send a message if its both a low DNA match and they haven't been on for a while; for the DNA side especially, I suspect that means they're someone who got the DNA test as a present and aren't really interested. For other reasons for communicating, I tend to look at how long since they were there and don't if it's ages, especially if the reason for communicating is a crass error on their part.
But I have had communications after years - I even have one or two contacts (I think in some cases, not sure yet whether they're cousins) with whom I communicate (sometimes both ways!) after such intervals!