FamilyTreeDNA partnership with MyHeritage

Apologies, I've been a bit tardy with this one! From Daniel Horowitz at MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com), concerning a new collaboration between MyHeritage and Family TreeDNA (www.familytreedna.com):

I’m delighted to announce the launch of a new collaboration between the two companies. This collaboration, which includes integration between the MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA websites, enables FamilyTreeDNA customers to transfer their family trees to MyHeritage, and to continue building them on MyHeritage. FamilyTreeDNA users can now easily transfer their family trees to MyHeritage for free, after providing consent on both FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage.

This collaboration expands the two companies’ longstanding partnership, and will provide FamilyTreeDNA customers with access to MyHeritage’s robust suite of genealogy tools and features, many of which are not available on FamilyTreeDNA.

This strategic decision allows FamilyTreeDNA to focus on its expertise in DNA testing services and reporting, while providing its users with access to the powerful family tree tools and technologies offered by MyHeritage.

To facilitate this collaboration, MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA have developed a technical integration that now enables FamilyTreeDNA users to seamlessly transfer their family tree data to MyHeritage. This process is voluntary; however, transferring the tree data to MyHeritage is encouraged, as FamilyTreeDNA will officially sunset their family tree builder on September 9, 2024. At that point, all family trees on FamilyTreeDNA will become read-only. It will still be possible to transfer trees from FamilyTreeDNA to MyHeritage after this date, but this functionality may not be available forever, so the sooner the transfer is done, the better. Access to DNA results on FamilyTreeDNA will remain unchanged.

For further details visit https://blog.myheritage.com/2024/07/new-collaboration-with-familytreedna/.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Heredis 2024 family tree software now on sale

Fom the family tree software company Heredis (https://www.heredis.com):

Introducing Heredis 2024 and the Family Chronology!

Immerse yourself in your family's history with the Family Chronology!

• A new document to easily visualize your ancestors' lifespans (and there's even more to it)!
• Compare the lives of several ancestors or groups of persons in your family tree in a single glance, then picture their overlapping lives to figure out who knew whom!
• Find out how old they were when their children or grandchildren were born, to give just one example.
• Place your ancestors in the context of their time period.
• Group your chronologies by places of birth: you will easily identify ancestors who may have crossed each other’s path!
• This document also highlights potential gaps in your genealogy: you'll be able to spot missing dates for major events very easily.
• Put the spotlight on specific surnames in your genealogy by grouping them together.
• Easily identify all those who are not related by blood to the primary person.

More Heredis 2024 features:

• The Mixed Wheel, which can display all your ancestors and descendants,
• New options available for all the wheels,
• The option to rename your media,
• The option to choose from various date formats in your documents,
• Data protection,
• Easier transmission of your genealogy files from one device to another,
• Plus, of course, over 50 improvements and fixes!

 

And to celebrate the release of Heredis 2024, your mobile application is available at 50 % off!

Till October 1st, 2023, download the Heredis 2024 app on your tablet or smartphone and enjoy a 50% discount.

This new version has been updated to meet the requirements of the latest operating systems. It also includes several improvements:

• The ability to enter source citation in basic and comprehensive modes: assign the same source to 2 different citations for events and facts.
• The same source can be associated several times with an event or a fact.
• Import or export with the new compressed format (.hmwz) to open files from a 2023 or 2024 version and from all platforms.
• Better default language management.

 

For further details visit https://www.heredis.com - a trai version of the new software version is available.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

MyHeritage launches cM Explainer and colour coding for family trees

Two announcements from MyHeritage which may be of interest.

Introducing cM Explainer™ to Predict Relationships Between DNA Matches With Greater Accuracy

One of the most important benefits of taking a DNA test is the matches that you receive. DNA Matches reveal many relatives you never knew about before, based on shared DNA inherited from common ancestors. However, the relationships to your DNA Matches can be confusing. This results in many users not understanding how they are related to most of their DNA Matches, which holds them back from using the matches to advance their family history research and make new discoveries.

Today we’re excited to announce the release of cM Explainer™, an innovative, free new feature on MyHeritage that estimates familial relationships between DNA Matches with high accuracy. This helps overcome the challenge of understanding relationships to DNA Matches. For every DNA Match, cM Explainer™ predicts the possible relationships between the two people and the respective probabilities of each relationship, estimates who their most recent common ancestor(s) could be, and displays a diagram showing their relationship path.

DNA Matches are characterized by the amount of DNA shared between two individuals, measured using a unit of genetic distance called centimorgans (cM). cM Explainer™ is unique in the way it uses both the centimorgan value as well as the ages of the two individuals (if known) to fine-tune its predictions, making MyHeritage the only major genealogy company to offer relationship prediction at this level of granularity and accuracy.

cM Explainer™ is fully integrated into the MyHeritage platform to shed light on any DNA Match found on MyHeritage, and is also available as a free standalone tool to benefit individuals who have tested with other DNA services.

For more on this, visit https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/03/introducing-cm-explainer-to-predict-relationships-between-dna-matches-with-greater-accuracy/.

Introducing Color Coding for Family Trees

Adding color coding to your family tree can make it easier to navigate. At MyHeritage, we previously implemented color coding in Fan view of the family tree, as well as in the Family Tree Timeline. Today, we’re happy to announce the addition of color coding for family trees across the two main views of the tree: Family view and Pedigree view. This addition is both visually appealing and makes it incredibly easy to understand your family tree at a glance.

We’ve also made several new product enhancements to help you better understand the relationships in a family tree. These include the addition of an icon indicating a blood relationship in the left profile panel, and the ability to view the relationship and the relationship diagram in family trees where you aren’t a member. We’ve also added color coding when viewing the family tree of a Smart Match or DNA Match, so you can better understand how you might be related to the site manager or DNA Match.

For further details visit https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/03/introducing-color-coding-for-family-trees/.

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

FindmyPast adds TreeSearch facility

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has finally added the ability to search other people's family trees on its platform. For details on its new TreeSearch function, visit https://www.findmypast.co.uk/help/articles/4426084676637-what-is-tree-search-.

Note that "You can use Tree Search for free when logged into your Findmypast account via the site menu or directly from your family tree builder. To view search results in more detail, you will need an active, valid subscription or a 14-day free trial."

To find the search function, from your family tree page click on an individual so that his or her details pop up on the left hand side panel - you'll see a new box there inviting you to 'Search trees'. If you find a connection, you can message the individual who hosted it. 

There is a also a dedicated search page at https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-family-tree.

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

MyHeritage introduces a Family Tree Timeline

From MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com):

We’re happy to introduce a new feature on MyHeritage: the Family Tree Timeline. The Timeline is a visual representation of one individual from your family tree, that you select, and his or her direct ancestors. The lifespans of these individuals (from year of birth to year of death) are mapped on the same axis to allow you to see them in relation to each other, which can provide refreshing insights into your family history.

The Timeline is a bright and attractive display, with each branch of the family displayed in a different color. The Timeline shows the ages of your ancestors at various points in their lives: how old they were when they had children, how long they lived, and how their lifespans overlapped with those of other family members or major world events. The Timeline can be downloaded and shared easily with your family and friends.

For the full story visit https://blog.myheritage.com/2022/03/introducing-the-family-tree-timeline/

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

RootsMagic 8 is now on sale

The latest version of the popular RootsMagic family tree software programme, RootsMagic 8, is now available to buy from www.rootsmagic.com, and is styled as 'the biggest upgrade in our company history'.

From the site, these are listed as some of the new features:

Latest Technologies
RootsMagic has been rewritten to work with the latest operating systems and genealogical technologies, including native support for MacOS. This foundation ensures that we'll be able to support future technologies and amazing new features.

Simpler Navigation
The new main window lets you switch between different screens (people, sources, places, tasks, media, etc.) without losing your place. The new "Couple View" and expandable "Descendants View" give you new insights into your families.

Easier Editing
You may now have more than one person's edit screen open at a time. You can also use other software features while the edit screen is open. All of a person's information is now accessible from their edit screen. You can even view switch to the edit screen of any family member and then instantly switch back.

Searching at Your Fingertips
Lists of data now have their own search box, allowing you to quickly find matching items. Advanced searching tools have all been grouped together into one easy screen.

Save to Modern Formats
Reports and charts may be saved in newer, more compatible formats including Microsoft Word .DOCX, Microsoft Excel .XLSX, and .SVG.

New Wallcharts & Fancharts
Wallcharts have been rebuilt from the ground-up, giving beautiful new features and coloring as well as one of most-requested features- fancharts.

Reusable Source Citations
Reusable citations let you create a citation once and then attach it to multiple people or events.

Streamlined Tasks
To-do items, correspondence lists, and research logs have been brought together into streamlined "tasks". Tasks are easily attached to peope, sources, media, and more while being quickly searched and filtered.

Better Places & Mapping
The Place List is now reversible and can directly show you all the events where the place is used. People and events can be quickly edited from the Place List. The Map View shows you the location of each place and any desired group of people

A fuller, more detailed list is available at http://wiki.rootsmagic.com/wiki/RootsMagic_8:Whats_New

The programme costs US $34.95 - but you can download a trial version before you purchase. Further details, and screengrabs, are available on the site. RootsMagic also has a blog post on the new version available at http://blog.rootsmagic.com/?p=3508.

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

MyHeritage introduces fan view for family trees

From MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com):

Introducing Fan View for Family Trees

We’re delighted to announce the release of Fan View ⁠— a new view for your family tree on MyHeritage. It joins the 3 views already available: Family View, Pedigree View and List View.

Fan View provides a useful and attractive visualization of your family tree. Similar to Pedigree View, it includes a root individual and their ancestors for several generations, without siblings, spouses, or anyone else who is not a direct ancestor. Fan View looks like a fan chart that many genealogists are familiar with. But it’s interactive! Which means you navigate in it, view more information about any individual, and even add more people to the tree using it.

For a full run through of the feature, visit MyHeritage's blog at https://blog.myheritage.com/2020/02/introducing-fan-view-for-family-trees

Chris

You can pre-order my new book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 (out April). Also available, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.