During RootsTech, MyHeritage announced two new tools. One, AutoClustering, is an automated clustering method based on the Leeds method and was created by my new friend, Evert-Jan Blom. The second is the Theory of Family Relativity tool. Although I have DNA results on MyHeritage, I haven’t used them much in the past. But, I’m excited about both of these tools and they have drawn me into looking at my MyHeritage DNA matches. Through this research, I’ve been able to add some new matches, and their direct ancestors, to my tree.
Viewing Matches on Theory of Family Relativity
You can find your “Theory of Family Relativity” by going to DNA Matches under the DNA tab. Then, in the purple box, click on “View theory.”
My results show I have 33 theories which are shown 10 at a time.
Example: 1st Cousin
Let’s start by looking at my closest match: a 1st cousin. The list gives you the information shown below:
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- name, age, location, and a contact button
- estimated relationship
- DNA Match quality
- Shared DNA by both percent and cM
- Shared segments in cM
- Largest segment in cM
- Appears in a tree with X people managed by X
- Predicted relationship according to the Theory of Family Relativity
- Ancestral surnames common to you and DNA match
- Number of Smart Matches between your two family trees
- Ancestral places common to you and DNA match
If you click on “View theory” [see arrow], you can see the simple chart for this first cousin shown below. On the left, it shows the path from me to our common ancestor: my grandparents. On the right, it shows the path from my DNA match to our common ancestors. In the top left, you can see the statement that “this path is based on 2 MyHeritage family trees, with 94% confidence.” This DNA match is my first cousin. (I love the look of these charts which, of course, look better without all the privacy marks!)
Example: 2nd Cousin
Let’s look at another example which is for my 2nd cousin, Kim. If we, again, click on “view theory,” we can see MyHeritage’s suggestion as to how they think Kim and I are related. You can see they show a 98% “match” between our two trees and that we both show Andy Stewart and Bessie Merrill as our grandparents. To the left of the “98% line” is information from my web site; to the right of the line is information from Kim’s web site.
If you’ll notice in the upper left corner, this is “Path 1” of their suggestions. They actually have 5 possible paths for our relationship. So, let’s look at another path: Path 2.
In Path 2, above, the information on the left side of the “100% line” is from my tree, and the information on the right side is from Kim’s tree. Although the first path only showed a 98% confidence, this path shows a 100% confidence.
Path 3 is based on 3 trees and also has a 100% confidence level. Path 4 is similarly based on my tree, Kim’s tree, and a private tree and is also at a 100% confidence level. But let’s look at Path 5.
Path 5 looks at 3 trees: my tree, Kim’s tree, and the FamilySearch Family Tree! I have not worked much with this tree and need to take a closer look at it. Again, each “line” shows 100% confidence so this path has a 100% confidence level.
Example: 4th Cousin
Of course the image showing how a 4th cousin, Marie, connects to me is a bit more complicated. But, again, I love the visual!
This example shows a 77% confidence level and is based on 3 trees: my tree, another member’s tree, and Marie’s tree. You can see two of the trees are showing our common ancestors as Mary Ann Reuter and Anton Korbach, but we don’t have the information exactly the same. I think this is why the first line shows an 84% confidence rating. And, even though I hid part of the information, you can see the middle tree and Marie’s tree have Marie’s mother, Barbara, entered slightly different. (There is a 2nd path for this relationship.)
Some of the matches show “medium confidence” or “low confidence.” After working with them, I feel pretty confident in all of the medium confidence matches and the unmarked confidence matches (which I believe are “high confidence”). I’ve decided not to work on the low confidence relationships at this time.
Your Turn
Have you tried MyHeritage’s Theory of Family Relativity? If so, what’s been your experience? I’d love to hear from you!
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