MyHeritage Introduces cM Explainer™

 

MyHeritage Releases cM Explainer™ to Predict Familial Relationships Between DNA Matches with Greater Accuracy

Relationship prediction for DNA Matches is available for free both on the MyHeritage platform and as a standalone tool 

 

TEL AVIV, Israel & LEHI, Utah, March 2, 2023 — MyHeritage, the leading global service for family history and DNA testing, announced today the release of cM Explainer™, an innovative, free new feature that accurately estimates familial relationships between DNA Matches. For every DNA Match, cM Explainer™ offers a detailed prediction of the possible relationships between the two people and the respective probabilities of each relationship, determines their most recent common ancestor, and displays a diagram showing their relationship path. 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 standalone tool to benefit consumers who have tested with other DNA services.

 

MyHeritage is home to one of the world’s most robust and fastest-growing DNA databases, with 6.5 million customers. With outstanding support for 42 languages, MyHeritage has become the leading consumer DNA test in Europe. One key feature of at-home DNA tests like MyHeritage is matching to find relatives based on shared DNA inherited from common ancestors. 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.

 

Other relationship prediction tools typically suggest a range of possible relationships that is too broad to be useful, such as “3rd to 5th cousin”, or list many relationships with the same probability, leaving the user confused. MyHeritage’s cM Explainer™ simplifies the predictions considerably and reduces ambiguity by taking into account the age of each match and assigning a unique probability to every relationship. MyHeritage further reduces confusion by avoiding ambiguous relationship terms used by other tools, such as “first cousin once removed” (sometimes written in excessively technical codes such as “1C1R”), and instead replaces them with clear relationships such as “parent’s first cousin” or “first cousin’s child”, as the case may be. For example, in a DNA Match where there are 1,600 cM of shared DNA between two people who are age 35 and 40, MyHeritage will tell the user simply that the match is most likely a half-sibling with 90.4% probability, whereas a popular alternative tool states a 100% probability for the match to have any of the following possible relationships: grandparent, aunt or uncle, half sibling, niece or nephew, or grandchild, leaving the user baffled. This makes MyHeritage’s cM Explainer™ the most useful tool for relationship prediction of DNA Matches on the market, for novices as well as experienced genetic genealogy professionals.

 

cM Explainer™ was developed by MyHeritage in collaboration with Larry Jones, developer of the cM Solver technology. MyHeritage exclusively licensed this technology from Jones, and the company’s science team enhanced it further over a period of five months. Among the enhancements are an age algorithm that more accurately pinpoints specific relationships and calculates their probability, and a slick user interface that displays possible relationships and their probabilities. cM Explainer™ includes useful features such as the ability to filter the predictions by full and half relationships, and to display the probable most recent common ancestor(s) (MRCA) of a match, making it a force multiplier for genetic genealogy.

 

“Millions of customers rely on MyHeritage DNA to discover their family history and find relatives. cM Explainer™ makes it easier by removing much of the guesswork that was previously needed to analyze possible relationships to your DNA Matches,” said Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. “Together with Larry Jones, we’ve created an industry-leading solution for genetic genealogy that is only available on MyHeritage. cM Explainer™ joins our suite of innovative tools to help users better understand how they’re related to their DNA Matches.”

 

“Collaborating with MyHeritage on the development of cM Explainer™ has been thrilling,” said Larry Jones, inventor of the cM Solver technology. “I’m excited that millions of people will be able to use this feature to gain deeper insights into their matches. MyHeritage has a great product and a brilliant founder who is an inspiration to everyone around him. Brainstorming ideas with him was among the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in recent years.”

 

cM Explainer™ is a free feature and is available to anyone with DNA results on MyHeritage. It is also available as a free standalone tool for non-MyHeritage customers on myheritage.com/cm. MyHeritage DNA kits are available for purchase at myheritage.com/DNA.

 

About MyHeritage

 

MyHeritage is the leading global discovery platform for exploring family history. With billions of historical records and family tree profiles, and with sophisticated matching technologies that work across all its assets, MyHeritage allows users to discover their past and empower their future. MyHeritage DNA is one of the world’s largest consumer DNA databases, with more than 6.5 million customers. MyHeritage is the most popular DNA test and family history service in Europe. www.myheritage.com

 

MyHeritage

Sarah Vanunu

Director of Public Relations

Phone: 917-725-5018

Email: pr@myheritage.com  

RootsMagic Releases New Version 9

 RootsMagic has just released version 9. The following information is derived from their blog.

 We've just published our new, monthly video at Genealogy Guys Learn. It is "Being a Self-Sufficient Genealogy Library Patron" and covers library and archive organization and classification systems, using electronic catalogs and databases, incorporating Internet searches, working with library staff, using Interlibrary Loan services, and more. Subscribe at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/. New content is added monthly. For a complete list of our current video and written courses, please visit https://ahaseminars.com/cpage.php?pt=29.

Happy Learning!

Drew Smith's New Book Has Been Published

Drew Smith's new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy has been published by Genealogical Publishing Company. 

Synopsis:

The question all beginners in genealogy research ask themselves is, “Where do I begin?”  “Should I join a commercial subscription service like Ancestry.com?” What if I don’t find what I’m looking for on the Internet?” “How do I organize the information I’m gathering along the way?” Fortunately, this guide answers all those questions and engages neophytes with a book that takes an entirely fresh approach to the subject.

Author Drew Smith has organized the chapters according to the actual process used in genealogical research: Start with yourself, then move on to living family and relatives, and then move backward in time, generation by generation. The question all beginners in genealogy research ask themselves is, “Where do I begin?”  “Should I join a commercial subscription service like Ancestry.com?” What if I don’t find what I’m looking for on the Internet?” “How do I organize the information I’m gathering along the way?” Fortunately, this guide answers all those questions and engages neophytes with a book that takes an entirely fresh approach to the subject.

Author Drew Smith has organized the chapters according to the actual process used in genealogical research: Start with yourself, then move on to living family and relatives, and then move backward in time, generation by generation. Each chapter describes a time period and the kinds of records available for that era, allowing beginners to learn about new types of records just as they need them.

The guide is divided into two parts. Part I (“For All Generations–Preparing to Research”) discusses such things as relationships between family members, naming practices,  genealogy software, how to review existing research and the basics of DNA testing. Part II (“Generation by Generation—Doing the Research”) begins with a discussion of the major genealogy websites, and then explains the most important record categories for all generations from the present day back to the colonial era. There are also chapters devoted to searching for the origins of American families in the records of Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, and non-English-speaking nations.

This book is written in a clear and charming style. It makes ample use of consecutive Internet screenshots to take the mystery out of online searching. And it is written by an expert genealogist and teacher who is equally conversant with traditional search methods and the digital world. There is no other book like it.

About the author: Drew Smith is the genealogy librarian at the University of South Florida Libraries in Tampa. He is co-host of The Genealogy Guys Podcast and host of the Genealogy Connection podcast. Mr. Smith is a founder and administrator of The Genealogy Squad Facebook Group with over 53,000 members. He writes a regular productivity column for the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly. describes a time period and the kinds of records available for that era, allowing beginners to learn about new types of documents just as they need them.

Audrey Collins Dies

This morning, we just received the sad news that our very dear friend, Audrey Collins, died over this past weekend. Audrey was a key individual at The National Archives (TNA) in the UK. I first met her when I served as Program Chair for the 2003 Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Orlando, Florida. She subsequently assisted Drew and me with coordinating our visit to the TNA by a tour group in 2005.

Audrey was an authority on research in England, especially at TNA. She was charming, humorous, generous, and loving. We will forever miss her.

MyHeritage Publishes Huge Israel Immigration Lists Collection

Just Received from MyHeritage

Family History Library and Centers Change Names

 

For Immediate Release 10 January 2023

 

Family History Library and Centers Change Names

 

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—FamilySearch announced new names for its flagship Family History Library located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and all local and regional family history centers worldwide.  The library will now be known as the FamilySearch Library and local and regional family history centers will now be FamilySearch centers. The name changes will better align local centers with FamilySearch’s expanding global brand.

FamilySearch is known worldwide for its popular free FamilySearch.org website and state-of-the-art family research and discovery facility in Salt Lake City. Lesser known are its more than 5,000 local centers where visitors can receive individualized help and utilize web-enabled computers to access other premium family resources—all for free.

Watch “Your FamilySearch Center”.

“FamilySearch is a global brand with free local FamilySearch centers in most countries to help individuals make fun, personal discoveries about themselves and their ancestors. Center patrons can receive in-person help, and access millions of additional historical records online. The more you learn about yourself and the history of your family, the more your sense of who you are is deepened, and the more relationships and communities are strengthened,” said Steve Rockwood, CEO of FamilySearch International.

In addition to FamilySearch centers, there are nearly 1,800 affiliate libraries (public libraries, museums, universities, and archives) that have privileges to limited-access FamilySearch databases. There will be no name change for the FamilySearch affiliate libraries. 

People around the world are more and more interested in family, their familial origins, and making family connections. FamilySearch is uniquely positioned to serve this demand through its growing network of local FamilySearch centers, discovery experiences, help services, and vast, ever-expanding online collections of genealogical records.

Find and share this news release in the FamilySearch Newsroom.

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About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 5,000 family history centers in 129 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.