We mentioned MyHeritage.com a few weeks ago. They have this great tool called Theory of Family Relativity
Other services send these types of emails, too. Places where we upload or have our DNA analyzed all send us match emails. Places where we have our family tree do the same thing. MyHeritage match emails show various kinds of data from various sources, not just from their own data. For example, in a recent email we had fifteen matches. Several were from records at MyHeritage like census and burial records, but there were several from other family tree sites, too. They showed potential matches with folks in trees at Geni, Filae, and FamilySearch in just the one email.
The matches in the emails show data from our tree on the left and possible matches from the other source on the right. They also show the additional or different data from the match in the other tree. Like this:
Like the email says, there is a more complete death date as well as spouse information that we did not have. That is a good deal more information than we have. That one was for my wife. The next one is my family.
We often try to follow our lines straight back as far as we can, but it is important and often helpful to work horizontally. All the siblings in this potential match can be so helpful in fleshing out the tree. The last example is again from my wife’s line. When you look this far back (Aug 1592) at least in England, records are fairly limited. We actually have this data thanks to some really great people in the UK who work with Dorset records. They put together a twenty page report on my wife’s Dorset heritage complete with sources, photos, and document images.
It is interesting to see a match on this name with the additional information that we do not yet have in our tree.
Checking Sources
Of course, as with any new information, we have to check the sources. We have standards to uphold and adhere to. We will verify the data before we confirm it in our tree. That makes our record keeping very important and of course provides greater certainty to the names, dates, and events we record in our tree.
The Record Match emails we receive from various sources are incredibly valuable. MyHeritage seems to go a step further as they discover matches across services. Technology like this is really useful, and we are thankful for it.
Let us know if we can help you
If you need any help finding your ancestors, just let us know.
