MyHeritage: Family Tree & DNA 17+

Thoroughly engaging.

I started my search with some trepidation, I’d once tried to trace my lineage with a different site once before, but got no further than my own grandparents. MyHeritage makes it so simple to do by offering up many options and it does most of the searching for you. I’ve now traced my grandmother’s side (on my father’s side) back to the early 1700s in the highlands of Scotland and discovered some interesting facts along the way. For instance, my mother’s great-grandfather was German and changed his name when he got married and came to live in the UK. I’ve discovered I have relatives in Canada and New Zealand too.
It’s all great stuff and a lot of fun. I’m currently waiting for the results of a DNA test to find out where my ancestors originated and I’m getting quite excited about discovering new family members.
It’s a great app, easy to use and lots of fun. You really should try it.

Absorbing!

A great app, which generally works well in combo with the website.

I do wish there was more help on ‘how to use the software’. There’s loads of help on ‘how to find docs & links’ but for example, the Hints to add folk to your tree don’t help me to check the veracity of someone else’s research. But I want to see their evidence too, and not just click if it kind of looks ok. I’d like to be able to keep only (likely) blood relatives rather than hundreds of a distant cousin’s in-laws’ in-laws. And to move people or relationships more easily like when I found that the lady I thought was a g-g-g-Gran was in fact that my g-g-g-Grandfather’s 1st wife but I think I have to erase and then re-research all his children that aren’t hers (but are my blood relatives & potential info sources).

And please, developers, could you sort out the app glitch when replying to messages? If I reply, then want to check the original message to which I’m replying, my reply disappears forever. This is very frustrating! So I now use the PC to reply. Grr.

Otherwise, ace, and as said, completely absorbing!

Highly dubious practices & data misuse

After setting up a few family members and being diligent around trying to complete as much info as possible, I discovered MyHeritage sent an email to a family member pretending to be from me and inviting them to visit the website. The email my family member got was was from ‘MyHeritage on behalf of [my name]’ and if my family member replied, the return email address was just [my name] which means they had been able to prefix my legitimate, personal email address with their own name. I find these practices very dubious and I am not convinced these aren’t in contravention of GDPR legislation in UK and whether it is or isn’t, they are misusing my personal data and do not have my express permission to do. Complaints have gotten nowhere. UPDATE A member of VIP support contacted to resolve but still months later I continue to receive what I now regard as unsolicited emails as a result of the highly dubious practices they employ to hook you and your family in. I have now requested (again) that all communication to me is stopped.

Developer Response ,

Dear MyHeritage member,

Sorry to read your low star review. Issues of privacy are absolutely paramount to us here at MyHeritage. Your concern is absolutely understood and I will do all I can to help. I'd like to confirm that MyHeritage is in full accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law that enforces the removal of all information on online sites upon the request of the information's owner.

E-mails of invitation to your site can only be sent on your behalf by clicking on the invite button, given the e-mail address has been applied in their tree contact profile. A member of your site may get automatic e-mails from your site as well once they are a member and if they have allowed e-mails to be sent from your site in their own privacy settings.

The e-mail you are describing sounds as it could perhaps be fake or some time of misunderstanding. Again this is just a guess. I'd like to review it and investigate how this was sent. In order for me to understand why this was sent or if it was sent from MyHeritage, I need to locate your MyHeritage registered account and view what was sent to you.

Therefore, please e-mail me directly at rafael.vipsupport@myheritage.com so I may assist with this issue with high priority.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Sincerely
Rafael
MyHeritage