Cousin Finder™: Now Available for All Individuals in the Family Tree

Earlier this year we introduced Cousin Finder, which makes it easy to find and connect with other MyHeritage members who are your blood relatives — without taking a DNA test.

We’re happy to share a useful update to Cousin Finder: now you can view Cousin Finder results not only for yourself, but for any individual in your family tree. This means you can see a list of blood relatives of a specific family member.

Cousin Finder is based on Smart Matches and finds only those people who are related to you through common ancestors. Since launch, Cousin Finder has become a favorite among family history enthusiasts, helping to uncover long-lost relatives, strengthen family connections, and open new avenues for research.

Cousin Finder is available on the MyHeritage website on desktop, and on mobile web browsers.

Visit MyHeritage to try Cousin Finder now

Cousin Finder, DNA Matches, and Smart Matches

Many people take a MyHeritage DNA test to learn about their origins and connect with new relatives. DNA Matches are especially valuable because they make it easy to discover blood relatives, contact them, and use the information they share to grow your family tree.

But not everyone has taken a DNA test. That’s where Cousin Finder shines. It offers many of the same advantages as DNA Matches — finding cousins, contacting them, and uncovering new details — without the need to take a test. For those who have already taken a DNA test, Cousin Finder adds value by revealing blood relatives who haven’t been tested but do appear in family trees on MyHeritage.

Cousin Finder also provides a new take on Smart Matches, which can sometimes feel overwhelming because they surface such a large volume of information. Instead of showing every match, Cousin Finder focuses only MyHeritage members in other trees who are directly connected to you through shared ancestors, making the results more pinpointed and easier to act on.

Thanks to the new update, you now have the ability to:

Discover blood relatives of a specific ancestor or family member
Learn exactly how they are related to the individual you selected
Contact others to learn more about a specific branch of the family
Add new relatives or information to the family tree

This update is especially useful when running Cousin Finder for people who don’t share all the same ancestors with you, for example, your spouse, child, or more distant relative, because it can reveal new sets of cousins.

Whether you’re trying to fill in missing details, solve a family mystery, or simply explore your heritage, seeing Cousin Finder results for the individuals in your tree can open new doors to discoveries you might otherwise miss.

What our users are saying

Users have praised Cousin Finder as “brilliant” and say it “saves so much time.” Many have shared how it helped them identify relatives they didn’t know were on MyHeritage, solve long-standing mysteries, and reveal photographs and documents that had been hidden for decades.

Viewing Cousin Finder for individuals in your tree

To view Cousin Finder for another person in your tree, visit that person’s profile page. You can access the profile page from the left panel of the tree and click the “Profile” icon.

Accessing the profile page from the family tree

On the profile page, scroll down to the bottom right and click “Michael’s Cousin Finder” in the “Additional actions” card, marked below in red.

Accessing Cousin Finder™ for individuals in the family tree

Cousin Finder will then scan your matches to find other MyHeritage members who share a common ancestor with this individual. As soon as it’s done, it will display a list of the relatives it found, sorted by proximity, i.e., those who are most closely related to the person will appear first, followed by more distant relatives.

Cousin Finder™ on the MyHeritage website

Each relative is displayed on a card. The card provides useful information to help you understand the relationship between the two people, including the names of their common ancestors. This can help you decide whether to contact them. If you decide to get in touch, click the Contact button to send a message via the MyHeritage Inbox.

Just like with your own Cousin Finder results, you can sort and filter the list to focus on the individuals most relevant to your research, whether by relationship, alphabetically, or to focus on a specific branch of the family. For a detailed breakdown of the Cousin Finder report and all the insights you can gain, please see the announcement blog post.

Click on the relationship on the right side of the card to open the Relationship Diagram, which displays the path connecting the two people.

Click any node in the diagram to show more information about the person.

Cost

Using Cousin Finder is free. Taking some additional steps, such as viewing the full relationship path in the Relationship Diagram, contacting relatives, confirming Smart Matches, or extracting new information to your tree — requires a subscription.

Summary

Cousin Finder now makes it possible to discover and connect not only with your own cousins, but also with the cousins of the individuals in your family tree. This added perspective can reveal new branches of your family, highlight relatives you may otherwise have missed, and deepen your understanding of your family’s history.

Try Cousin Finder today from any profile page in your tree. New relatives might be a click away!

The post Cousin Finder™: Now Available for All Individuals in the Family Tree appeared first on MyHeritage Blog.

Source: My Heritage