5 Ways to Make Progress with Your Genealogy Even When You’re Sick

I had it all planned out. The bathing suit, the sunscreen, and the shades. A beautiful place was waiting for me and my family with open arms… and then that awful virus came along and ruined all my vacation plans!

What a bummer. But if you’re a positive person like me — and not only in the medical sense — you know that you can always find an uplifting side to everything! Even if you are already stuck in bed or in quarantine, you too can make the most of your time by making some progress with your genealogy research. In this post, I’ll show you how.

The MyHeritage mobile app is a perfect solution because you can take it anywhere — whether that’s out and about or the comfort of your bed! It’s very simple to install and so easy to use, too. There are so many things you can do on the app that only require a few taps, but can help move you further along in your quest to discover the adventures of your ancestors.

Here are a few that I recommend:

1. Review your Smart Matches and Record Matches

Home screen of the MyHeritage app

So many matches, so little time. Well, now that you’re stuck at home, maybe you can take this opportunity to tackle that list of matches and see if you can find anything interesting there. Just head over to the “Discoveries” section of the app by tapping the corresponding button on the home screen or on the app menu. All your matches and discoveries will be right there waiting for you in one feed. You can also filter to view just Smart Matches, Record Matches, or Instant Discoveries by selecting them from the app menu under “Discoveries.”

2. Check your DNA Matches

DNA Matches aren’t something to check just once: new DNA kits, family trees, and historical records are being added to our database every day, and who knows what might have appeared since the last time you checked? Now is a great time to take a look at that list and see if there’s anything new. Perhaps you got a new Theory of Family Relativity in the most recent update, or an interesting new match has appeared in your list.

Want a fun puzzle to solve? Pick your top 5 matches and try to discover how you are all connected!

3. Improve your photos

There’s a reason the MyHeritage photo tools are so popular: they’re addictive, and so easy to use! Work through your list of photos and repair, colorize, enhance, and animate them. Maybe even create some new DeepStories for your ancestors. If you have the energy to bring out some photo albums, you can even scan and upload new ones — the built-in scanner on the app makes it easy to scan photos directly to MyHeritage from your mobile device. All of these features can be found in the “Photos” section of the app.

MyHeritage even just made tagging a lot easier: now you can tag a loved one in multiple photos in one go with Photo Tagger! Tagging your photos improves your family tree and makes it easier to identify who’s who in your family photos, and Photo Tagger makes it really easy to do right from the MyHeritage app.

4. Connect with your loved ones!

When you are ill, it’s important to be surrounded by loved ones — in a figurative sense, of course, if you are contagious. If your family members are checking in on you and wishing you well, it may be a great opportunity to ask for information about family history. Ask them to tell you family stories, or answer questions. If they’re delivering some soup or flowers or chocolates, ask them to drop off family photo albums, too. You can even flip through the family album together on a video call so you can ask who’s who and get more information about them.

Use video chat to review photos with your family members

5. Document your own story

Even if you don’t have kids yourself, someone, someday will be interested in hearing your story — especially as it relates to historic events. If you’re sick with COVID, future generations may be fascinated to learn about your experience with the virus that wreaked so much havoc in the early 2020s! Write down your thoughts and memories, take photos, and save it all somewhere that will be easy for future generations to access.

If you made a great discovery while stuck at home, share it with us… but most importantly, get well soon!

Marie Cappart fell into the genealogical cauldron as a child and is the MyHeritage Country Manager for Belgium. She is a historian (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and a professional Anglo-Belgian genealogist based in Brussels. Passionate about family histories, always looking for more information about her own and other people’s ancestors, author of the “Guide de la Généalogie en Belgique” (Jourdan 2017), RootsTech ambassador and historical consultant for several Belgian and international media, she also teaches courses and coaching worldwide and is passionate about genetic genealogy.