12 January 2018

MyHeritage improves DNA service

Until Thursday I was lukewarm about the MyHeritage genetic genealogy service. That changed when tweets started coming in:

@familyhisthound
MyHeritage has changed their algorithms for DNA matches so you may want to check out your matches. Also they've added a (woot, woot) Chromosome browser. #HoundontheHunt #DNA

DNA Discoveries @DNADiscoveries
Ohhhh... @MyHeritage seems to have found me a "few" more matches... 
More joy from @MyHeritage - a chromosome browser :)

And this on my Facebook feed:

Blaine T. Bettinger‎ to Genetic Genealogy Tips & Techniques
Be sure to check your MyHeritage matches today! As first announced by Irene Morgan early this morning, MyHeritage has significantly changed (and it appears improved!) their matching algorithm. A quick review of my matches suggests that this is a MAJOR improvement. Kudos to MyHeritage!

[EDIT] - Via Lloyd Pfeilitzer DeVere Hunt and Marco Graf (thanks!) - A Chromosome browser with downloadable segment data is now available in the match page!

MyHeritage now shows I have 3,900 matches. One identified as 3rd to 5th cousin with 25.8‎ cM shared in 2 segments, one 18.2 cM. Looking at the tree I found our common ancestral couple  - we're 3rd cousins. The sister of the matching person,was already in my tree.

The range of shared autosomal DNA for 3rd cousins is 0 - 217 cM with an average of 74 cM. Although 25.8 cM is less than half the average we weren't in the 10 per cent of 3rd cousins sharing no autosomal DNA.

Clicking on Review DNA Match gives shared ancestral surnames, shared DNA matches (in common with), a pedigree chart display, ethnicity for you and your match, and a chromosome browser showing shared DNA segments.

That match has only about half the shared DNA of my best match. Don't dismiss matches lower down the list without investigating the surnames in common. Chances are the Smiths and Kellys won't be identifiable relatives so try your less common surnames.

Do you have data at MyHeritageDNA? Did you check since the change? If you did please share your experience.

2 comments:

Helen Billing said...

I had uploaded my raw DNA from FTDNA, as well as my husband's, long ago and not found much of any use. I have checked again today and the transformation is remarkable. It is much much better. Not only does one get matches in common, one gets a chromosome browser and an easy way to download the matching segments, which will be useful for those using DNAPainter. Off to contact that match of 173cM with no tree!

Elizabeth Kipp said...

Likewise, there are more matches at My Heritage for my six kits up there but thus far all were already known to me. The addition of the chromosome browser though is great news. A number of my ancestry matches have uploaded to My Heritage and now I can see where they are matching me. Since I am in the process of phasing my grandparent's autosomal DNA this has been a great addition. I rather think that there isn't a lot of change in the matches that were known to me already. But some of the ones that I wondered about do not appear to be as prominent in the lists. I have not worked my way through the thousands of matches that are there now though however.

The chromosome browser is definitely a good addition and I will make good use of that.