23andMe is partnering with MyHeritage

Question

They should have partnered with WikiTree! 

I think that 23andMe users are going to be set up for disapointment.  23andMe is no longer going to host member trees on their site. They are giving members 6 month free memberships on MyHeritage.com to set up their trees. After 6 months they have to start paying monthly dues or "have free access"

During the 6 month period they have an unlimited number of people that they can put in their tree so most people are going to add their entire tree. 

WARNING: The catch is your tree is only free if you keep it under 250 people. If you go over you have to pay or you do not get access to your tree. 

I set my tree up on MyHeritage a few years ago but found it very awkward. I did not like the site enough to keep paying for membership. Now I have a tree that I do not have access to. I cant even look at it!

Since I have used 23andMe for testing they will now be refering to the MyHeritage tree that I have no access to. I find this very iritating! At least with Ancestry.com I can still access my tree during the periods when I am not a paid subsciber.

If we could get these testing companies to start refering to WikiTree just think how easy it would be to find our common ancestors. Will they ever catch on?

Comments

I have not used 23andMe even though I have a tree on MyHeritage.com. Do you know if this will affect someone like me? I have access to my tree(s) currently even though they are over 250 people in my tree.

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You will not be affected by the partnership However if your tree is over 250 people you will either have to delete some people or start paying a monthly subscription fee. Did you originally purchase a membership or get a 6 month trial?  

Eventually you will get cut off. My site says that it has expired and it is "grayed out" I doesnt let me access anything except the "Extend Now" button to renew my subscription.

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Neither. Mine is the free access. Don't have the money to bye anything.

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I was pretty excited about MyHeritage until they hit me up for money.  Then I got upset over some pictures I posted on their website. I immediately stopped using their services. I was giving them a lot more than I was getting back.

When I have a 23andme match with my test, I send them a link to my WikiTree surnames page:  http://www.wikitree.com/treewidget/Cooper-1/10 so that my auDNA match can look for surnames that might be familiar.  I usually send a link to my profile page too. Sometimes I have to be the one to initiate contact, but I still send links to my WikiTree pages.  

I wish they had decided to work with WikiTree too.  FTDNA is working closely with WikiTree.  Please check out our Global Family Reunion and WikiTree DNA Project on FTDNA:  https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/wiki-tree/about/results  I hope you will join us through your FTDNA account pages.  

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I never even bothered with trying to upload a gedcom to 23andme. I just posted a link to my WikiTree tree, in my 23andme public profile, and mentioned it in every response to any inquiries.

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Thank you, Darin. I hadn't heard yet that 23andMe and MyHeritage took this step.

I have had some conversations with people in the DNA testing industry. Most don't seem to get the significance of the single family tree, or how doing collaborative genealogy in a free and open way could help the DNA testing business in the long term.