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MyHeritage Updates Theories of Family Relativity

Roberta Estes

If you have taken a MyHeritage DNA test or transferred there, quick, check your results because you may have new Theories of Family Relativity! I do.

MyHeritage introduced Theory of Family Relativity for their DNA customers in February this year at RootsTech. I wrote about the introduction and how to use and evaluate Theories here.

Theories of Family Relativity, sometimes abbreviated as TOFR, first looks at your DNA matches, then their trees, and provides you with theories as to how you share a common ancestor.

These are called theories for a reason. They utilize your tree and other people’s as well. Sometimes multiple trees have to be used to connect the dots if you or your matches tree isn’t extended far enough back in time.

My normal cautions about trees apply here. One of the great things about theories, though, is that if there are different “paths” suggested by trees, TOFR shows those multiple paths and allows you to evaluate for yourself.

Evaluation is crucial – which is why they are called theories.

Multiple DataBases Contribute to Increased Theories

MyHeritage utilizes trees and other information from multiple databases and then ranks their probability of being accurate. Databases include:

  1. MyHeritage records
  2. 45 million trees at MyHeritage
  3. FamilySearch trees
  4. Geni trees

In their blog article, MyHeritage provides additional details such as:

My Theories

In February, I had 51 Theories. This week, MyHeritage refreshed TOFR again and now I have 26 more for a total of 77.

Of these new 26, 24 are accurate. One connects me to the wrong son of my ancestor, and one is inaccurate – but I know why both are wrong.

The second inaccurate theory is because most trees include the wrong mother for my ancestor Phoebe Crumley. Her mother was Lydia Brown, not Elizabeth Johnson. I performed extensive research, including mitochondrial DNA testing, and proved that Phoebe’s mother was Lydia, not Elizabeth. However, wrong trees are plentiful and have been propagating like weeds for years now in many databases with no documentation.

This is why evaluation is critical.

I particularly like that theories aren’t just provided blindly, expecting you to just have faith, but each “link” is evaluated and given a confidence ranking.

Using Theories

He’s an example of how to use theories. You can find them by clicking on the purple View Theories banner or under DNA matches by utilizing the Tree Details filter.

If you have a new Theory, it will be labeled as such so you don’t waste time looking at Theories you’ve already processed. I write a note for every match I’ve reviewed in the notes box in the upper right hand corner.

Theories are important, but don’t overlook the information in the green box. If the theory turns out to be not exactly correct – the additional information may still be the link you need.

View the theory by clicking on either the View Theory link or the Review DNA Match button. Your theory is the first thing you’ll see below the match itself.

The theory is presented with the detail available when you click on View full theory.

In this example, my first cousin tested and entered at least a partial tree. TOFR created 5 different “paths” based on combinations of trees as to how we are related.

I’m displaying Path 3 where the link has a 93% confidence ranking. To view that comparison, click on the green intersection button and additional information between the two trees used to create the theory will display. In this case, it’s me with no additional information, but Path 1, below, shows the link between two trees at our common grandfather level.

Now if I click on the green intersection button, I see a lot more information, based on the information in both trees, shown side by side comparatively. The more information in the trees, the more information MyHeritage has to use when constructing these Theories.

I love this tool!

Even my Theories that aren’t completely correct provide me with hints and other people’s information to evaluate. I can almost always figure the rest out by myself.

Better yet, given that I paint my matches with known ancestors at DNAPainter, I now have 26 more matches to paint, AND, if I look at my shared matches with these people, I’m sure I’ll have even more. I may never surface for air!

Many people are very likely to discover new ancestors, especially people who are newer to genealogy!

Beware though, and verify, because these connections are hints and theories, not gospel.

How Do You Get Theories?

Maybe you don’t have Theories and want some. How can you encourage the system to generate Theories?

  1. Confirm the match without doing anything else which does not import any information from the other person’s tree.
  2. Confirm, at which time you will be given the option to import field by field, if you so choose.
  3. Under the Confirm box, click the dropdown and select “Save to Tree” which imports everything from the other person’s tree for that match into your tree. I do NOT recommend this option, certainly not without reviewing what they have in their tree and their sources.

Getting Started

If you want to play, you have to test or transfer. Here’s how:

Have fun!!!

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Disclosure

I receive a small contribution when you click on the link to one of the vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

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