Mar 14, 2019
News: Major Announcements Made at RootsTech 2019
Ancestry Announcements:
Historical records:
Ancestry just released over 5 million Mexico Catholic records and 1 million new France Census and Birth, Marriage, Death records and have several U.S. statewide projects underway, from New York to Hawaii. They also released US WWII Draft Cards from seven states. By early next year, the full set of WWII Draft Cards – all 33 million — will be exclusively available on Ancestry and Fold3.
MyTreeTags™:
“MyTreeTags™ allows you to add
tags to people in your family tree to indicate whether your
research on them is confirmed or verified, or to record personal
details, like “never married.” You can also create your own custom
tags to note that a person immigrated from Denmark or worked as a
blacksmith. You can even use filters as you search your tree to see
everyone with the same tag. MyTreeTags™ is one way we can
help you save time and enrich your ancestor profile.” You can join
the MyTreeTags™ and New & Improved DNA Matches beta
at https://www.ancestry.com/BETA
New & Improved DNA Matches:
“We have redesigned the DNA Matches experience to help you make
more discoveries, faster. Now you can easily sort, group and view
your DNA Matches any way you’d like. New features include
color coding and custom labeling offering you more control over how
you group and view the matches, quicker identification of your
newest matches and new ways to filter your matches.
ThruLines™:
“ThruLines™ shows
you the common ancestors who likely connect you to your DNA
Matches—and gives you a clear and simple view of how you’re all
related. When you link your public or private searchable
family tree to your AncestryDNA results, new chapters of your
family story may be revealed. ThruLines™ will roll out gradually to
all customers who qualify beginning today.”
MyHeritage Announcements:
AutoClusters
“A new
genetic genealogy tool that groups together DNA Matches that likely
descend from common ancestors in a compelling visual chart. This
easy-to-use tool helps you explore your DNA Matches more
efficiently in groups rather than as numerous individuals, and gain
insights about branches in your family tree.”
DNA Quest Now Accepting
Applications
“In March 2018 we launched DNA
Quest, a pro bono initiative in which we pledged to
donate 15,000 DNA kits to adoptees and those seeking to reunite
with family members who were placed for adoption. Within a few
months, all the DNA kits we allocated for this initiative were sent
out. Applicants opened up to us to share their emotional stories of
searching, their hopes for future reunions, and the sense of
belonging they felt thanks to their participation in DNA
Quest…Following the success of the initiative, we have decided now
to extend DNA Quest and donate 5,000 additional MyHeritage DNA
kits, for free, to eligible participants.”
Digitizing of
Israeli Cemeteries Completed
MyHeritage has completed a 5-year project of digitizing every
cemetery in Israel. It is now the first country in the world to
have almost all of its gravestones preserved and searchable online,
with images, locations, and fully transcribed records. They’ve put
up all this content for free, too.
FamilySearch
and MyHeritage Tree
Sync
(LDS members only)
Geni GEDCOM
Import
“We are pleased to announce the return
of the GEDCOM Import feature to Geni! This has been one of the most
requested features on Geni and we’re excited to finally make it
available to everyone. GEDCOM is a standard file format used to
save, transfer, and transport family tree information. Long-time
users may recall that Geni previously allowed users to start a tree
using their GEDCOM files, however we disabled this feature in 2011
to avoid duplication of profiles in the World Family Tree. Our new
and improved importer has been rewritten to import a few
generations at a time, continuing only on branches where there are
no matches to existing profiles on Geni.”
“You can now import a GEDCOM file as a new tree, a new branch if you already have a tree, or onto any existing profile on which you have full permissions to edit and add onto. No longer will you need to endure the slow process of adding each individual one at a time to the tree. Now anyone can quickly add trees which didn’t exist before on Geni, saving you valuable time and allowing you to focus instead on new research.”
The Theory of
Family Relativity™
“This unprecedented feature helps you make the most of your DNA
Matches by incorporating genealogical information from all our
collections of nearly 10 billion historical records and family tree
profiles, to offer theories on how you and your DNA Matches might
be related. If you’ve taken a MyHeritage DNA test or uploaded your
DNA results to MyHeritage, this revolutionary technology may offer
astounding new information on your family connections.”
GEM: Digging Deep into the Theory of Family Relativity™ with Ran Snir
Ran Snir is the product manager responsible for MyHeritage DNA products. He leads a really talented team of developers and engineers and designers to create and optimize DNA users entire journey. He led the development of the Chromosome browser for Shared DNA Segments feature at MyHeritage DNA, from concept to production and launch.
