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I decided to give My Heritage a try several months ago and I am quite happy that I decided to do so. The software used for creating my family tree is very easy to use and very thorough in its content.
I definitely like the Smart Matching feature. It allows me to find matching individuals in other family trees, as well as their ancestors and descendants, which can be useful as additions to my tree. My only "complaint" about the Smart Matching is that rejected matches will reappear in new searches. It would seem to me that a rejected match should disappear from the list and not be offered to me again in future searches. This is only a minor annoyance, however, and does not detract from the overall value of the Smart Matching feature.
The ability of the software/site to search various other repositories of records (census, birth, death, etc.) and offer possible matches to individuals in the tree is also quite useful, although it is somewhat frustrating to click on a possible record match only to learn that a payment (annual data subscription) is required to access the record and determine if it is really a match. Most, if not all, of the records are publicly accessible for no fee, BUT it would take a tremendous amount of time and effort for an individual to dig out the facts from the massive number of records, so paying My Heritage to do it for me and save me the trouble does make a lot of sense. I don't currently have a data subscription, but I plan to obtain one in the very near future.
I had one opportunity to contact Technical Support - just with an "out of curiosity" question about how the record matching takes place and not a problem with the software or the site. The response was timely and very thorough. It left a very good impression with me that if I ever do encounter performance issues with the site or software, I will receive effective support.
The software is free, installs without difficulty, and is easy to use. A prospective user should understand, however, that there are some costs involved if you decide to upgrade from a standard family site to a premium or premium plus site, as well as the data subscription costs. If you are serious about your family tree research, the costs are well worth the benefits.
Try it - you will like it!!
In summary, I would recommend My Heritage to a friend.
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