This is a companion post to the video I created on my YouTube Channel.
If you read my blog last week then you know I’ve started a new series (playlist) on my YouTube Channel called “Let’s Explore DNA“. This week I added another video and it’s all about MyHeritage, Theory of Family Relativity. You can watch it HERE.
Theory of Family Relativity™ was launched by MyHeritage in 2019. What it does is it analyzes billions of data points from across all of MyHeritage’s family trees and historical record databases to calculate plausible theories about how you might be related to your DNA matches. Pretty cool huh?
On June 29th MyHeritage did another update to the theories and it had a huge impact. The MyHeritage blog tells us these numbers.
- 25,636,711 Theories of Family Relativity™ were added
- 328,439 kits that didn’t have any theories previously now have at least one
- 233,297 additional users will have at least one theory following this update
These were just the new theories they didn’t update any theories that existed already.
The reason for the update is because kits are being sold and uploaded, trees are being added and millions of records are being added that make additional theories possible.
I had two previous theories, but with the update, I got one additional one.
- Dad had four and got one new one (which I didn’t get)
- Mom had three and didn’t get any new ones
- Only one of Mom’s brothers got a new theory, but I realized that between the three brothers, I had three theories that I hadn’t looked at before
The fact that each of my mom’s brothers has theories that I haven’t worked on is exciting because who doesn’t like a bit of detective work. Also, because many of my matches and those of my uncles are distant (low centimorgan matches), sometimes they each get different ones, so when I’m able to dig into the tree and the records and confirm the match, it really helps expand my tree.
When you confirm your theory, it’s a good idea to add a note to your DNA matches profile; at least, that’s what I did. It’s so important to use the tools that the website offers us to organize our matches.
To get a theory at MyHeritage, you must have tested at MyHeritage or uploaded your raw data file from another site to MyHeritage. You can do that HERE.
You also need a Premium, PremiumPlus, or Complete plan on MyHeritage OR have paid the one-time unlock fee for advanced DNA features (for uploaded DNA data only).
All of the kits that I have at MyHeritage were uploaded. When you pay that $29 US that unlocks your matches, you also get additional tools such as the Chromosome Browser, Autoclustering, and Ethnicity Map. So all the benefits are well worth either testing at MyHeritage or uploading your kit there.
I hope you take a moment to have a peek at my video HERE (I’m having a blast) and let me know what your theories look like and whether they helped you discover new lines you didn’t know about.
Note: My apologies to MyHeritage for using the term Theory of Relativity rather than Theory of Family Relativity…I find it to be a bit of a tongue twister sometimes.
[…] If you’ve tested your DNA with MyHeritage or uploaded your results there, you’ll want to read the blog post and watch the video. […]
Thank you. I was afraid that if I rejected the 4th theory, that it would reject all of them, and I didn’t want to risk all of them being reject. Thank you.
One of my DNA matches had 4 theories attached to it. 3 of them were “probable” but the 4th one was not accurate. My question is: If I don’t accept all of the theories do I eliminate the 3 that were probable? I don’t want to accept that 4th one that I know is not accurate, and I know how that person added people to her tree, which was without research. So, is it possible to accept 1 theory at a time and then reject that 4th one?
Sharon,
When you have a match that has more than one theory according to the FAQ at MyHeritage; “For multiple theories, once you have confirmed at least one of them, you will see “confirmed” in the DNA Match card. If you have rejected one of the theories, the next one will move up the list and be displayed on the DNA Match page by default.”