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Update to Theory of Family Relativity™

  • By Esther
May 7, 2020
Update to Theory of Family Relativity™

If you’ve been trying to figure out how some of your DNA Matches are related to you and haven’t received any Theories of Family Relativity™ yet, you just might be in luck.

The Theory of Family Relativity™ leverages all the data available on MyHeritage, such as family trees and historical records, to provide you with plausible theories as to how you may be related to a given DNA Match. We run updates and refresh the data periodically, and we’ve just refreshed the data again this week.

MyHeritage’s databases have grown considerably since the last update, including millions more family trees and over 2 billion additional historical records (bringing us to a total of over 12 billion records). That means that there’s an excellent chance those of you who have been stumped or stuck on certain DNA Matches may receive answers and new insights about your ancestors and family relationships.

Theory of Family Relativity™ update by the numbers

The total number of theories has increased from 14,260,864 to 20,330,031 — a 42.6% increase.

The number of DNA Matches that include a theory increased by 42.5% from 9,964,321 to 14,201,731.

Sometimes we arrive at a theory through multiple paths, indicating a strong theory and providing additional supporting evidence. After the previous update, there were a total of 115,106,944 paths. This update increased the number of paths by 40.5% to 161,762,761.

The number of MyHeritage users who now have at least one Theory of Family Relativity™ for their DNA Matches has increased by 33.6%.

How to find out if you have new theories

 If we have found new theories for you in this update, you’ll see a banner about the Theory of Family Relativity™ at the top of your DNA Matches page. Click “View theories” to see all the theories we’ve found, both old and new.

This banner, indicating that you have new theories, will be available for a few weeks, after which you can access your theories by going to your DNA Matches page. 

Whenever a DNA Match has a theory, this will be indicated in the DNA Match card. You can also filter your DNA Matches to see only those with a Theory of Family Relativity™ by clicking on the Filters icon. In the first group of filters, select “Has Theory of Family Relativity™.” 

You will also see a “NEW” badge next to new theories that were just added. This indication will appear for 30 days. 

Theory of Family Relativity™ is a premium feature that requires a site subscription on MyHeritage (Premium, PremiumPlus, or Complete). Users without a subscription will still see all the theories that we found for them, but when they click on the theory to view the full details, some of the information will be hidden. Users who upload their raw DNA data from another testing service to MyHeritage and do not wish to purchase a subscription can pay a one-time fee of $29 per kit to unlock all advanced DNA features offered by MyHeritage, including Theory of Family Relativity™. Learn more about our subscription plans.

Conclusion

The Theory of Family Relativity™ can be a game-changer for people searching for new family members and genealogists trying to break through brick walls. It can help users instantly solve mysteries that may have been baffling them for months or years.

By the way, if you haven’t taken the MyHeritage DNA test yet, consider taking advantage of our Spring Sale: Order a kit now. 

We hope you enjoy the new update and can’t wait to hear about your new discoveries.

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Comments

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  • Benito Randy Dungan

    May 11, 2020

    Looking forward to finding my family tree, where my family comes from…

  • Margo

    May 11, 2020

    Why am I not seeing the TOFR banner?

  • Margo

    May 11, 2020

    Oops, I found it!!

  • Helen Gill Sellin

    May 15, 2020

    Thanks so MUCH for the update. I have been waiting 2? years to get ANY Theory of Family Relativity hints and I have a tree of 60000+. I would never have found the link for John Smith with my brothers. Keep up the good work.

  • Tjeerd Post

    May 20, 2020

    Family relativity is great however sometimes the links can be incorrect due to duplicated names or similar paths.
    Could you allow for a deny link or confirm type of feature??

    • E

      Esther

      June 23, 2020

      Thanks for the suggestion! We’ll take it into account for future improvements.

  • Frank King

    May 20, 2020

    It has been Brilliant so far in helping me, as my Knowledge of D.N.A is somewhat lacking. Finding the time to learn about D.N.A is a major task.

  • Paolo

    May 20, 2020

    A lot of people did dna on my heritage but they have no tree or they have just uploaded 2-3 relatives. They probably have a tree on another platform. If they Would upload their gedcom on MyHeritage there would be much better use of the dna matches

  • John Higgs

    May 20, 2020

    I must compliment My Heritage on the accuracy of their ethnicities matching. On receiving my DNA results I was puzzled to find a 0.8% Eastern match amongst my European and English background. Much research uncovered the fact that in the late 1600’s a freed slave from the East Indies married into my ancestry! And I was actually able to obtain the details.

  • Lissa petry

    May 20, 2020

    My husband grandmother Grace Hannah Cowell Petry Post was adopted we think it was a family members baby but Jesse and Martha Cowell registered her as there daughter at about 3 months at the towanda pa court house then did adoption papers just before she was 18
    I figured they wanted to make sure no one took he inheritance away from her so some of the family knew who she belonged too.

  • Jeff C

    May 20, 2020

    There should be a way to ignore connections to trees with incorrect people or relationships.

  • Ethel Kirschner

    May 20, 2020

    I would like to find an easy way of tracing just the paternal or maternal sides of a family as a way of finding a missing relative. In my case, a missing grandfather on my father’s side.

  • Dixie Aguilar

    May 21, 2020

    I have my DNA from you all, my grandson lives with me n Im so anxious as he is to learn his own on his fathers side.

  • William layton

    May 22, 2020

    I want to find the Christian names of my mothers mum and dad

  • Gwendoline Joubert

    May 22, 2020

    Looking for my brother Stephanes Bosch family

  • Sarah adams

    May 22, 2020

    One person I can’t get is my great granny ancestors she was born apparently in kells co meath or Monaghan that was on her cenus 1901in Belfast Her birth name was Annie skillen or Killen in 1861 I want to know who her mother and father were and if any siblings She died in Belfast 19th March 1908 She give birth to a daughter my granny in 17th August 1885 Belfast 64 bann st her name was jemina Henderson but there is no record of a marriage certificate between Annie and Henry Henderson. Henderson was the birth name of Rachel Parker who married David Parker 31 July 1872 Can You Help Me Find My Ancestors Please Only The Right Ones Will Do Thank You

  • Carol Gray

    May 22, 2020

    I am looking for family history

  • Stephanie Mitchell

    May 24, 2020

    I was adopted . Any suggestions on what I do. I was born in California with sealed adoptions. I’m 60 years old now. Still don’t know who I really am..

  • Ann Louise Chandler

    May 31, 2020

    Go, Dagney! I am proud to see you flaunting your abilities, not the your disabilities, as you hit 107. Since my youth, when I found I had two great-grandmothers, my father’s grandmothers, lived to be 97 and 102, I have wanted to reach 100. I’m still just a youngster, only 88, but I am so glad I have enough knowledge of computers to write, correspond, Zoom, and do a million other things on my computer. The hours go by so quickly when I am on my CP I find myself at 3 PM, still in my pajamas and not even noticing I’ve skipped lunch. Usually is a call to use the bathroom that wakens me from my fascination with technology. My tech-man is my fourteen-year-old great-grandson, Samuel. He’s very knowledgeable. He amazes me, how fast his mind is, and how easily he learns things. I’m delighted to live fairly close to him now, instead of across the country, as I did until last fall.

    I want to get the young people involved in tracing their family, but it will be a tough search. Their ancestors were not famous. Some never held a job. Two were street-people who lost contact with their families. We sometimes can go back one generation, but often hit roadblocks there. One grandmother was raised in an orphanage in New Jersey. We do have her maiden name, and may be able to find her, eventually, but it’s not like people who have people with more documentation in their lives, like military or employment records. I doubt these people ever were the subject of newspaper articles. They probably lived in rental properties, if they had a stable home. It only makes the search more of a challenge, but my time is running out. I have only about 12 years left. I have been doing genealogy for about 55 years. Before that, I simply saved old letters and other correspondences in a big box. I’m glad I did that! I moved frequently, but always moved that box with me.

  • Anthony Martin van Gent

    June 1, 2020

    I would like a copy of my birth certificate.

  • Sherry brown

    June 17, 2020

    Looking for my son who born on March 16 1981 in kentville Nova Scotia he was named Patrick Thomas

  • EP

    Elaine Plummer

    January 8, 2021

    Hello I’m Elaine Plummer I was a member of MyHeritage. I was desperately looking for my biological father U knew nothing about. Except he must have been visiting the island of Jamaica met my mom . I was born in the Island of Kingston , Jamaica W.I Now livi g in the States. I would really like e to know who my father is even a cousin by my father side. But to no avail. I was born in March 1960. I would think with millions of people getting a DNA testing I would sure to find a relative . Unfortunately it did mot happened . I’ve nothing to work with . I just know he must have been a visitor in the island . Can genealogy help ?