Friday 12 January 2018

Kudos to MyHeritage

The MyHeritage Year in Review blog post of 26 Dec 2017 contained this statement:

You can count on MyHeritage DNA to continue to grow rapidly and improve in accuracy and features. We are working on a major revamp of the matching algorithms which will correct old problems, add a preliminary Chromosome Browser and put accuracy at an unprecedented high level, and this will be released in early January 2018.  

It is now 11 January 2018 and they have already come good on the promise to revamp the matching algorithms (but not as far as I can see, a Chromosome Browser - but see update below).

The problems I reported earlier, my own 2nd cousin not appearing in my matches, and the predicted 2nd cousin on Ancestry and FamilyTreeDNA that was missing on MyHeritage are both now fixed.
As has one I'd not reported to them and only discovered this afternoon - a match that wasn't real but showed as reasonably strong, (45cMs approximately, 5 segments) now shows as "not related", as suspected.
Also fixed, a predicted relationship of father/daughter now rather more accurately showing as siblings!

Support was on the ball too, sent me a message advising me the update had happened, and asking for my report on whether or not my issues had been solved.
Yes.

Update:
Within a hour or so of my posting the above the promised chromosome browser was also there, with an ability to download the segment details for that individual match.
Along with a message from MyHeritage pointing me to their blog post about the improvements:
https://blog.myheritage.com/2018/01/major-updates-and-improvements-to-myheritage-dna-matching/

The match lists have grown immensely to be far more in line with those from other companies, instead of rather sparse and suspect before the upgrade.

As I've popped in our local Genie society newsletter for our DNA group news:
MyHeritage is definitely now a major player in the genetic genealogy stakes, and should deserve more consideration than Ancestry given the Chromosome Browser.

My preferred strategy should I be starting out again now would be to:
Test FamilyFinder at FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) to get a sample on file there available for the more specialised tests FTDNA also offer that the other companies do not - and provide hassle free communication with matches.
Then transfer that FamilyFinder file to MyHeritage to fish in that pond too - as well as GEDMatch of course.

If you've already tested at MyHeritage, that test can be transferred to FTDNA for free
https://www.familytreedna.com/landing/atdna-landing.aspx

Read Roberta Estes' post on Ancestry/FTDNA transfers before making up your mind about transferring an Ancestry test to FTDNA (they can't go the other way):
https://dna-explained.com/2017/12/04/testing-strategy-should-i-test-at-ancestry-and-transfer-to-family-tree-dna/

Don't forget GEDmatch - that cousin you've been looking for could be on any of the sites, so you should be on as many as you can too.



1 comment:

  1. MyHeritage has also bowed to pressure to fix the inconsistencies about who can contact their DNA matches.
    It was indeed rather odd that those transferring in could, but those who tested with MyHeritage, and didn't have a subscription, couldn't.

    https://blog.myheritage.com/2018/01/contacting-dna-matches-is-now-free/

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