My Heritage Reviews

My Heritage provides a very substantial archive of varied historic records, which can be used to create large family trees. It also makes recommendations on potential ancestors based on other family trees, offering unlimited storage for premium plus members. 

The range of documents and reports available on MyHeritage is impressive, and the search is quick to perform. You can also narrow down search results by adding filters, or using a map to specify a particular area within which you’d like to search. Results are then categorized so that you can easily move through them and select the item you’re interested in.

MyHeritage now offers new users a free 14-day trial so that they can explore the features and functionality of the product before deciding if it's right for their individual needs. This is very reassuring and implies that MyHeritage are keen to provide an excellent user-experience, from beginning to end.

Upgrading is not too expensive, although we really think most people would want to opt for the Premium Plus package, as it allows unlimited access to reports, as well as unlimited storage. You can get a further discount by choosing a 2 or 5 year contract, but the minimum contract available is 1 year. This is not particularly flexible as it means that you’ll need to pay for 12 months even if you think your research might only take a few hours.

Documents include birth, death and marriage certificates, census reports, immigration documents and much more. If you’re unsure whether the site offers what you’re looking for, try performing a basic search and viewing the details of your results. With 35 free collections at your fingertips, including the BillionGraves collection, the €œScotland, Selected Prison Registers, 1828 - 1878€ collection, €œand the Biographical Summaries of Notable People collection, you should be able to discern whether or not MyHeritage is the kind of site you’re looking for.

Premium and Premium Plus membership offer enhanced matching services. Enhanced smart matching essentially allows you to confirm or reject matches, which then improves its matching attempts thereafter. Data is gathered from other family trees which share similar links to your own, which is a good way to easily find relatives you didn’t know about.

Building a visually engaging online family tree is easy. By using the free Family Tree Builder (FTB) desktop software you can also easily import a family tree from another genealogy program into the Family Tree Builder software, such as Family Tree Legends (*.FTL), Family Tree Maker (*.FTM/*.FTW/*.FTMB), Personel Ancestral File (*.PAF), Legacy (*.FDB), and by means of a GEDCOM file. You can read our detailed review of Family Tree Builder in our Genealogy Software category.

The online family site is intended to be a useful sharing platform for your family. As your family do not have access to the Family Tree Building software on your computer, you can use your online family site to share your family tree with other family members and let them edit your family tree online. The family tree in your online family site can easily be synchronized with the family tree in your desktop software and visa versa.

The site also offers a free mobile app which is particularly handy if you’re out and about, potentially visiting family, and want to update photos or information on a specific relative before you forget the details. This online, desktop and app-based functionality makes it easy to build and extend your family tree from any location.

MyHeritage have greatly improved the community features in recent years and they now rival some of the best in the industry. The MyHeritage website has been re-designed to encourage families to meet online, communicate, share, explore and preserve their heritage together. Collaboration between unrelated but like-minded users is also possible. This makes it a great hub where people can share stories and where genealogical research novices can gain valuable insights from more experienced researchers. Such online interactions between interested parties can uncover and help to document some gems of ancestral history which might otherwise have been lost forever to future generations.

My Heritage has a lot of documents and some good tools. The 1, 2 and 5 year membership packages are good value for money. So if you think your research will last a year, or longer, we recommend signing up for free, as a basic member, and performing a few searches to learn whether the site functions as you’d like, and whether it offers the kinds of documents you’re looking for.

Based on the positive reviews we have received over the past few years, MyHeritage certainly seems to have lots of very happy customers. Why not try it out for yourself?

Check out our #1 rated site instead! Why not check out Ancestry.com, our top rated Genealogy Site and winner of our prestigious Gold Award! You can also check out our Top 10 Genealogy Sites here!

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