My husband; Kevin and I just got back from Oslo, Norway where we attended the first MyHeritage Live. We arrived on November 1st after a 16-hour trek from Edmonton to Toronto, Toronto to Copenhagen and then Copenhagen to Oslo. We stayed at the conference hotel; Radisson Blu Scandinavia which was a beautiful hotel in the heart of Oslo with the most amazing breakfast buffet (I gained 3 pounds between the buffet and the other wonderful food we discovered).
Kevin opted for a nap after we arrived and I decided to make my way to the lounge to see who I could meet. I met 3 lovely ladies; two from the U.S. and one from London. We decided that instead of each of us eating alone we would opt to eat together. Dinner was spent chatting about genealogy and DNA and I’m sure that Kevin was thrilled to join the group after he woke.
The conference began the next day with the registration package pick up and an informal get-together. This gave me a chance to catch up with old friends; Thomas MacEntree, Diahan Southard, Lisa Louise, and Lacey Cooke and many others.
The first day of the conference was kicked off with a keynote address from CEO and founder; Gilad Japhet. The thing I like about Gilad is that he’s a genealogist just like you and I and so he understands about the records we want and the DNA connections we’d like to make. So he’s always thinking about what could be done and where the industry could go in the future. I’ve gotten the impression before that often the things he speaks about aren’t just news to me but sometimes news to his staff. You can watch the keynote address HERE.
There were three tracks at the conference; one on genealogy records, one on DNA and one was hands-on workshops. I chose to bounce between the Genealogy and DNA.
You can find the links to the two tracks; Genealogy and DNA for each of the days below.
Genealogy Track
Included in Day 1 is Researching with MyHeritage SuperSearch™, A Guide to Scandinavian Records on MyHeritage, How to Find Your Family in Newspapers with MyHeritage SuperSearch™ What’s Next: The MyHeritage Genealogy and DNA Roadmap
Included in Day 2 is Newspaper Research Strategies Using MyHeritage, Matching Technologies: How to Discover Relatives Without Searching, An Introduction to Geni, Using MyHeritage & Learning with FamilyTreeWebinars.com , An Overview of European Record Collections on MyHeritage, The MyHeritage Mobile App: Exclusive Features, Closing Session
DNA Track
Included on Day 1 is Gilad Japhet’s address as well as MyHeritage DNA 101, MyHeritage DNA: Advanced Features, Success Stories: How MyHeritage DNA Brings Families Together, The Five Best MyHeritage DNA Tools, PANEL: DNA, Genealogy, and Privacy, What’s Next: The MyHeritage Genealogy and DNA Roadmap
Included in Day 2 is Why Take a DNA Test for Genealogy Research?, Genetic Insights From a Huge Collaborative Family Tree, MyHeritage’s Improved DNA Matching, Two Ways to Approach Your MyHeritage DNA Match List, How to Find Unknown Family with MyHeritage DNA, PANEL: What’s Next for Genetic Genealogy?, Closing Session
I enjoyed every session I went to but I have to say I especially enjoyed the panel discussions on both days and I like learning a lot from Prof. Yaniv Erlich in his talk about Genetic Insights from a Huge Collaborative Family Tree.
So what did I learn from going to the conference? I learned that in the field of DNA we are in exciting times. The things we will be able to do in the next few years with the use of science and computers will be beyond imagination and I can’t wait to see how it impacts myself and my own research. I learned and decided that I wanted to be a part of the upcoming innovation that MyHeritage plans to offer so in my downtime at the conference I upload a more up to date tree to MyHeritage and I transferred some of the other DNA kits that I manage.
I want to be ready as the new tools unfold. That’s what I think we have to do as a genealogist and genetic genealogist. Take advantage of every tool that’s available to us.. after a,ll I’m always looking for more cousins.
Your e-mail said MyHeritage transfers are free until December 1st, but the e-mail they sent me said as of December 1st, the policy changes so November 30th is the last day for the full free transfers.
Your e-mail:
If you’ve already had a DNA test then you can transfer your results to MyHeritage. Take advantage of this FREE service until December 1st. After that date you will still be able to transfer but you will have to pay to discover your ethnicity estimates and the chromosome browser. You will still receive your matches for free.
vs.
from MyHeritage
“This is a courtesy reminder that as of December 1st, 2018, our DNA Upload policy will change: DNA Matching will remain free, but additional DNA features will require an extra payment for DNA files uploaded after this date. See more details further below.”
Paul, Thank you, you are right. I will edit my article.