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 Stay at Home Sale: DNA kits are now available at the lowest price ever throughout April. 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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Source: My Heritage