It’s like using hand tools vs. power tools. Sometimes you need to purchase the right tool for the job.
VERSUS
MyHeritage offers several plans for customers:
- They offer Family Tree plans for people who just want to build their tree on the site
- They offer Data Subscriptions for people who just want to search the historical records collections
- They offer DNA tests for a fee and tools are free with their test OR DNA transfers/uploads and their complete set of tools for a fee
- And they offer The Complete Plan which bundles all these and is the best deal.
Read 5 reasons to use the Complete Plan
1. The MyHeritage Complete Plan gives you access to a Different Community – the MyHeritage site is available in 42 languages (compared to Ancestry with 7). This invites a broader community. About half of MyHeritage users are from Europe, far more than the competitors. If you have European ancestry within the last 4 generations, you have a better chance of connecting with these European family trees and DNA matches with MyHeritage.
Below is an example of my first four Polish cousins and each one has built a tree at MyHeritage – because MyHeritage is in so many languages, people from many places get involved on this site and engage and build trees. (I’ve obscured my cousins’ photos and first names for privacy reasons.)
2. The Complete Plan gives you access to all MyHeritage Collections. They have great historical collections with Smart Matches (tree to tree), Record Matches (tree to historical record), full individual portrait extraction from yearbooks, newspaper images are included with the index, and they offer name consolidation from city directories so if you’re looking for John Smith in the 1900 city directory, they’ll automatically give you each city directory he’s in. They also search public domain books which can be time consuming to do on your own.
3. The Complete Plan gives you access to all Photo tools including enhancing features, colorizing features, Deep Nostalgia (brings photos to life with animation) and allows unlimited photo uploads
4. The Complete Plan is just that, complete—MyHeritage doesn’t upsell users per collection (i.e. they don’t upsell you to a sister site for newspaper images, etc). The Complete Plan is their best Tree Plan AND their Data Subscription and gives you access to all historical records, unlimited family tree size and multiple trees, free DNA transfers from other test sites, access to all advanced DNA features (pedigree charts, Shared DNA, Autoclusters, Chromosome browser, Theory of Family Relativity), all photo tools (colorize, enhance, Deep Nostalgia), Tree Consistency Checker to improve the accuracy of your tree, Smart Matches (tree to tree), Record Matches (tree to historical record), & free Family Tree Builder software with reports, interactive maps, & more
Here’s an example of my favorite DNA tool, the AutoClusters — it’s a great tool to help identify common ancestors for your DNA matches, especially those who don’t have a tree associated with their DNA 🎉 It still takes work, but they’ve automated the process of organizing matches by common ancestors, which is a huge help.
5. With MyHeritage you should never feel like you’re being thrown into the ocean and have to learn to swim on your own. With or without a subscription, they have amazing tutorials (in multiple languages) to get you started on the site. Check out their How To Video Tutorials, DNA Tutorials, and many other tutorials in their Knowledge Base. And (please don’t think I’m trying to upsell you to a sister-site, this is a sister-site, but there’s a FREEBIE here), MyHeritage owns Legacy Family Tree Webinars (LFTW), which is a separate subscription site, and LFTW offers hundreds of webinars on MyHeritage collections, tools, and services and most of these are FREE on this sister-site. For example, Blaine Bettinger is a popular DNA presenter, and his webinar, Mapping Your DNA Matches on MyHeritage, is FREE on this sister-site.
For these 5 reasons and more, MyHeritage is the right tool for the job. It’s like using a power tool instead of a hand tool. You’ll get your best results if you build or upload a tree on their site. You can leverage the strength of their collections, automated searching, and DNA tools to break through your genealogy brick walls.
And, as always, best with your family history research, however you’re getting it done!
Affiliate Disclosure: I recommend products and services that I use and I have an affiliate relationship with MyHeritage. Some links on this website are affiliate links and I will earn a commission at no additional cost to you. I personally use the MyHeritage Complete Plan and am happy to recommend it. You can also read the OnGenealogy Disclosure page.
How do I download my DNA results so that my son can help me to understand them.
Two options for getting your son’s help analyzing your matches are:
1. Go to DNA, DNA Tools, Autoclusters, Generate, and generate an Autoclusters report that will be emailed to you. You can then forward this Autoclusters report to your son. If he has also DNA tested at MyHeritage he will likely share many of these matches and can look at these individuals in his own matches to assess how you are related (through which common ancestors). I’m doing this with my aunt’s Autocluster report.
2. If you want your son to be able to analyze all your matches, he either needs to be at your computer looking at them or he needs to manage your DNA. See this article at MyHeritage. I believe it’s a service violation to allow people to have your login credentials (for security reasons) but you can ask MyHeritage.
Best of luck with your DNA match analysis!
Alyson