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MyHeritage is the leading global platform for family history discovery. It enriches the lives of people worldwide by enabling them to uncover more about themselves and where they belong.
With a suite of intuitive features and innovative products, MyHeritage creates a meaningful discovery experience that is deeply rewarding. Users build family trees and discover new information and relatives through advanced matching technologies and billions of historical records from across the globe. MyHeritage also offers an affordable at-home DNA test revealing an ethnicity breakdown across 79 ethnicities and 2,114 geographic regions, and AI-powered features to repair, colorize, and animate old photos.
The MyHeritage platform is enjoyed by tens of millions of people around the world who treasure and celebrate their heritage. MyHeritage offers full privacy controls and is available in 42 languages.
MyHeritage Reviews Summary
MyHeritage is generally well-regarded for its user-friendly platform and extensive database, which many customers find invaluable for tracing their ancestry and connecting with relatives. Users appreciate the regular updates and the powerful search capabilities that facilitate discoveries. However, concerns arise regarding customer service, particularly related to billing issues and the difficulty of reaching support. Some users have reported feeling overwhelmed by the volume of information and have encountered challenges in verifying data. Overall, while the service is praised for its features, improvements in customer support and communication are necessary to enhance user satisfaction.
This summary is generated by AI, based on text from customer reviews
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My first call was with the sales department and I was under the impression that the every-day tech support wouldn't provide the same experience. To my surprise, the support expert who assisted me was both knowledgeable and pleasant, although the questions I presented were somewhat complex.
Overall and moreover after this last call - I'm very happy that I've purchased a membership on this site.
My Heritage is an amazingly helpful program with great genealogical resources available. Live help is available if needed. Definitely worth checking out at MyHeritage.com
Because customs declaration was filled out wrong (!) in China, I had to pay 140 Euro additionally for my few kits to German customs. The company refused to give money back. That was just the start.
The results are total crap, I got poor 4 numbers of someone's phantasies for 99 dollars + customs fines?! I know I am Eastern European for many-many generations, but according to the test I am much more Baltic, then Balkan and even Japanese.
This company is just a huge cheater, I am very angry because I bought 6 kits.
I wanted to match my MyHeritage DNA results with those of a person who'd obtained her DNA analysis through her Ancestry account. After listening to a tune being whistled for 25 minutes ["you are place number 14" etc] the consultant did her best but only produced a long-standing and low-grade [0.3%] match. I am absolutely certain that the Ancestry relative is my direct cousin, once removed. I was told that if the computerised "logarithms" didn't throw up a match, there was no point in transferring MH information to Ancestry platforms, or vice versa, any further. I'm disappointed. It leaves my dubious about MH capacity and about their business confidence in co-operating with competitors on the global IT stage.
MyHeritage replied to my bad review of their DNA testing. "Because current DNA research finds DNA to be very similar between people in neighboring countries, where there isn't sufficient statistical difference, the ethnicity estimate is retained on a higher regional level. Indeed our estimate covers 42 ethnic regions in the world..."
Wow, 42 Ethnic regions in the world! Are you neglecting that there are over 5,000 ethnic groups in the world? No wonder you can't tell German DNA from French DNA.
You also throw around the word "estimate" now in both your reply to my bad review of your service and with my phone call to you. Amazing that never showed up in your DNA test advertising. On the phone you even stated that if I had done extensive research in my families Genealogy going back centuries that I should trust my research rather than their DNA tests.
Your algorithms are extremely poor in doing statistical data findings compared to other products on the market.
It's still amazing that you can't tell Italian DNA from Greek DNA. It's a good thing the supposed Italian Mafia is "fake" or they would be insulted to find your DNA testing would show them as being mostly Greek.
Again, worst DNA testing site ever!
Hi Fred,
I regret to find you are not happy with your DNA ethnicity estimate.
Because current DNA research finds DNA to be very similar between people in neighboring countries, where there isn't sufficient statistical difference, the ethnicity estimate is retained on a higher regional level. Indeed our estimate covers 42 ethnic regions in the world, but this is due to improve even greater thanks to our Founder Population project, the largest study of this kind ever conducted. More than 5000 participants of different ethnicities have been handpicked to serve as references for this project by virtue of their family trees, exemplifying consistent ancestry from the same region or ethnicity for many generations. It is our goal for the results of these tests along with our research to yield a rich DNA data set and I can assure you updating and bettering our current model is in our plans. I'd like to make mention that along with our estimate, many of our members benefit from other research tools we provide that is integrated with their DNA results such as DNA matching, ancestral surnames and comparing matching family trees to help understand their family story.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or need any assistance with your family tree research.
Kind Regards
Rafael
MyHeritage
I had a long talk with Ziv who showed much knowledge and patience in his explanation of how to manage my family tree and especially was very helpful in directing me step by step until I fully understood what has to be done to print the tree. Thank you very much for your support.
Have problem with my DNA-kit. Never comes back to MyHeritage, but after talk with support they send me a new kit directly. Good work MyHeritage...
/Paul Nilsson
Sweden
Uploaded my DNA from 23 and me. 23 and me was pretty spot on with my ethnicity (which I pretty much already knew, except for a little extra). My mother is straight off the boat from Engand, as British as they get, and I have my family traced back for generations (as in, middle ages). Funny though, myheritage tells me I am 0% English, hahahaha. Thanks for the joke. Better luck next time (unless you go out of business for being complete BS and a waste of time!).
Hi Jennifer,
I regret to find you are unhappy with your Ethnicity Estimate. I understand that you have researched your British ancestry and find no British in your ethnicity estimate.
It is very important for me to investigate why this is so, as we consider feedback such as this to be very essential to enhancing our research products.
In order to investigate this, I will need to locate your account with your raw DNA that has been uploaded.
Please contact me directly from your registered e-mail address at [email protected] so I may locate your account at your nearest convenience.
You already have my first priority here and I will be looking for your e-mail.
Warm Regards
Rafael
Myheritage
I initially wrote a review on 7/9/17 with 1 star and a title of "Totally Bogus". I bought DNA tests for my parents for Mothers and Fathers Day in 2017 from my heritage. Our results seemed completely bogus. So, we ended up going through ancestry. My heritage had my dad 100% English. We knew he wasn't. Ancestry has him England, Scotland and northern Ireland. So I think my heritage is correct, but they combined the 3 to UK vs breaking it down to the 3 countries in the UK.
Another big reason we thought the results were bogus is because my mom came back with 15% Italian and 4% Greek. I have researched my mother's side of the family back to the 1400's and not one person is from Italy or Greece. Well, as it turns out, ancestry also had 15% Italian but also came with a 1/2 brother and 1st cousins DNA matches whose grandfather was born in Italy. People we didn't know who they were. We then discovered that her father she knew is not her father and that her biological fathers paternal side of the family is Italian. So, I owe my heritage an apology, as we did not know this and therefore thought the results were bogus.
If you're looking for a comparison on my heritage vs ancestry, this is my opinion. If you're looking for research only, I'd personally go with "my heritage" as the site is more user friendly and easier to navigate. They also provide you with smart matches with potential ancestors via email. Whereas as I rarely get emails from ancestry and have to do the digging myself which is time consuming. If you're looking for DNA matches of others, looking for family, etc, I'd go with ancestry as I believe there are more people getting their tests through ancestry therefore more of a chance to connect with long lost family members. Ancestry also breaks down the heritage better with their DNA results.
Dear Sharon,
I'm sorry to read that you are disappointed with your ethnicity estimate because you are wondering why you show a West Asian percentage but your parents Ethnicity Estimate does not show this.
There is actually a scientific reason for this, please allow me to explain.
Each person receives 50% of his DNA from his/her mother, and 50% from his/her father. The percentages of DNA a person receives from his ancestors at the level of grandparents and further back (Great grandparents, etc.) are not necessarily divided evenly in each generation.
Because the percentages of DNA a person receives from his ancestors at the level of second generation (grandparents) and further back are not necessarily divided evenly in each generation, it is possible that one great-grandparent may have passed on 3% of his/her DNA to his great-grandchild, while another great-grandparent may have passed on 11%.
This might explain some surprising results in your MyHeritage Ethnicity Estimate such as a West Asian percentage in your results passed from higher generations. This also demonstrates why the probability of a person having only one pure ethnicity is very unlikely and why some siblings may inherit certain ethnicities, while other siblings may inherit the same ethnicity in another percentage, or even may not inherit this ethnicity at all.
Determining one’s ethnicity based on DNA is a relatively new field in genetics. Great advancements have been made in the past years, but there is much more to discover. I can assure you that MyHeritage is on top of this and we will continue to work on improve our Ethnicity Estimate along with developing better tools based on your feedback, new scientific research and discoveries.
I'd be happy to give you more personal insight in regards to your Ethnicity Estimate.
Please contact me from your registered e-mail address at [email protected] anytime. I would always be happy to answer any questions you may have in more detail.
Sincerely
Rafael
Myheritage
I love myheitage and Breck in sales and Aaron in Tech Support enhanced the experience with expertise and patience, thanks!
Jan Power
100% no chance that I'm 100% Filipino... My wife's results were just as ridiculous, and the bottom line not true! Impossible! DNA results were not ours, or they were flawed and really shady... Don't get suckered like I did, this company is a fake! Don't waste your time and money! Take it from someone with experience with them.
Dear Aldrico,
I'm sorry to read your feedback and review score and I can assure you our feedback is very important to us.
We are constantly using the feedback from members such as yourself to research, improve, and refine our ethnicity estimate and it is our goal to provide the most state-of-the-art family research tools.
That being said, I am very interested in going over your results along with the results you find of your spouse.
Please contact me from your registered e-mail address at [email protected] so I may investigate your Raw DNA along with your ethnicity estimate.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Rafael
Myheritage
I would like to use this service, however, I am a PhD. Student and while on my breaks, I have time to work on my family tree, where as during school, I do not. I like the monthly billing Ancestry allows, because I am only on it a couple months a year, they would get my money, and I would be paying for 10 unused months.
Dear Rhonda,
I understand that you are interested in purchasing a monthly subscription instead of an annual one and I'll be happy to help you.
While it is true that purchasing a yearly subscription is more cost efficient in the long run because you will get a 25% msrp discount and building a family tree in most cases will take more than a few months, it is ultimately your choice.
Also, we do offer FREE platforms for your research in using the offline FTB program and our Free Basic membership.
In any case, In order to assist you with purchasing a monthly subscription, please contact me from your registered e-mail address at [email protected].
I will be looking for your e-mail as you are already my first priority.
Happy to help
Rafael
Myheritage
I saw on Fox and Friends all the happy news with this product. Then I'm reading all the negative from regular people and now I'm afraid to spend the money and try it. Everyone seems to have a hard time. No thanks.
Dear Frances,
I also so enjoyed the amazing DNA segment on Fox and Friends and I can assure you MyHeritage is all about helping everyone research their family story and discover roots.
Though I do beg to differ on how Myheritage scores on rating sites. Currently Myheritage holds number 1 place on dnatestingchoice.com while keeping a sturdy 7.5 rating on Trustpilot. Here on SiteJabber we are rated the highest compared to all of our competitors in genealogy sites. Anyone is welcomed to verify this online by all means.
I would be happy help you get started with researching your family history. Please e-mail me personally anytime at [email protected].
Always happy to help
Rafael
Myheritage
I am from Argentina, they do not have a lot of info on South America. They told me I am of Mayan decent, which is crazy. Maybe Inca or a South American native tribe. Both of my parents are from Argentina, so to say that the only kind of native you can be is amazonian or mayan is ridiculous.At least the European half of my DNA seems accurate. But like I said do not bother if your South American! Very Disappointed!
Dear Lili,
I regret to read your review and I'm sorry for the misunderstanding.
Your feedback is very important to us and I would like to give you some more insight on how we calculate your Ethnicity Estimate. The results you receive in the MyHeritage Ethnicity Estimate are based on an autosomal DNA test. This test analyzes DNA inherited from both your parents, giving you a range of information about where your ancestors lived before a few hundred years ago.
To estimate your ancestral ethnicity, MyHeritage compares your DNA with the DNA of people around the globe whose genetic ethnicity is known. We call these people the Founder Populations. Currently our genetic models are based on 42 ethnic groups around the world. But this will improve thanks to our Founder Population project, the largest study of this kind ever conducted. More than 5000 participants have been handpicked to serve as references for this project by virtue of their family trees exemplifying consistent ancestry from the same region or ethnicity for many generations. The results of these tests will yield a rich DNA data set. As you may know, there are hundreds of recognized tribes, and they are ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse. However, the majority of these tribes have not contributed their DNA for research purposes which would allow science to establish better ethnicity models. Therefore, the fact that we did not find the specific Native American DNA you are searching for in your Ethnicity Estimate does not mean that do not have South American Indigenous DNA and it does not mean that in the future we will not be able to give you more precise information about your raw DNA results.
As a side note, along with our estimate, many of our members benefit from the research tools we provide that is integrated with their DNA results such as DNA matching, ancestral surnames and comparing matching family trees to help understand their family story. While estimating one’s ethnicity based on DNA is a relatively new field in genetics, great advancements have been made in the past years, but there is much more to discover.
All in all, I can assure you that MyHeritage will continue to improve our Ethnicity Estimate, based on your feedback, new scientific research, and discoveries.
Please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] from your registered e-mail address if you have any more questions.
I would always be happy to help.
Sincerely
Rafael
Myheritage
Both my wife and I have a DNA test with Heritage and Ancestry. While Ancestry was closer to our family tree research, My Heritage was out in La La land. My not of been our results, who knows. If our results, then there testing is flawed and shady. Do not recommend them.
Hi Harry,
I understand that you have uploaded the raw data of a DNA test you took with a different company and you would like to know why the Ethnicity Estimate results differ between the providers.
It is true to consider the reason why an ethnicity estimate would differ when your DNA is calculated by two different companies that most likely process and measure your raw DNA results in a different way using the various processing methods and algorithms that is used. With the MyHeritage test, as with some other autosomal tests, we cover about 700,000 SNPs. However, this does not mean that each test necessarily covers the exact same SNPs. This means that although the DNA sample could be the same, we simply tested different bits of it, which could result in a different outcome. Although these differences may be small, it could have an impact on how the estimate is calculated and in some cases will result in the differences you quote.
We are constantly using the feedback from members such as yourself to research, improve, and refine our ethnicity estimate and it is our goal to provide the most state-of-the-art family research tools. Therefore, I ask you to please contact me directly from your registered e-mail address at [email protected], so i may review your Ethnicity Estimate along with your raw DNA and forward your feedback for individual assiduity.
I will be looking for your e-mail.
Always happy to help
Rafael
Myheritage
Both my mother and my brother did their DNA through another company. I essentially have an idea where my family likely comes from, I also have a an idea of migration patterns based on new DNA and Halogroup breakdowns for Ireland and Scotland and I know there's likely a bit of British/English and one old connection to West Europe.
I know my dad is old Irish (so I would suspect typical 80-90% Irish, with some Iberian, Scandinavia maybe Finnish Northwest Russia). My mom id her DNA and she got over 50% Great Britain, 34% Irish, Europe West and Italy Greece. Which sort of fits old migration patterns to the British Isles. My Brother who would have some of my dad's gene got 66%+ Irish, 16% Great Britain, 6% Finland NW Russia, 3% Iberian, Europe West, Italy Greece, which also fits. With My Heritage I got 65.3% Irish, Scottish, Welsh and 34.7% English, which is so basic and generic. Clearly they have no data base. It is like they threw and ink blotter on the Map of the British Isles. SO I download my DNA file into Gedmatch and in less then a minute I have similar breakdown of ethnicity to my mother and brother. So clearly the information contained in my DNA can be further broken down. I feel clearly ripped off. I wanted to see if anything was different is wasn't. I also do know how DNA is distributed and not all siblings are the same but this was just NO EFFORT INVOLVED. All my family already has been told not to use this DNA test. Vague and simply useless. My video was less than 30seconds with an Irish jig follow by an English melody, poof!
Hi Bern,
I'm sorry to read your feedback and review score and I can assure you that your feedback is very important to us.
We are constantly using the feedback from members such as yourself to research, improve, and refine our ethnicity estimate and it is our goal to provide the most state-of-the-art family research tools.
I understand that you see your results as pretty vague, but this is due to the nature of current Ethnicity Estimates in general. Bio-geographical estimates are complicated, especially for countries in Europe.
Many factors such as, for example the fact that over the last thousand years, people in Europe moved around frequently and often mixed with people from neighboring regions. Over time, the official borders changed and so did the population.
All in all, the ethnicity estimate is still an estimate and it is based on the SNPs that we measure from your raw DNA as a company, and the various processing methods we use in our algorithms.
An ethnicity estimate's results may vary in comparison of two companies because of the obvious difference in how companies will process raw DNA results.
Although these differences may be small, it could have an impact on how the estimate is calculated and in some cases will result in differences within your Ethnicity Estimate and your DNA Matches.
Because the field of Genetics is constantly expanding as new research is being done, we continue to upgrade our new Ethnicity Estimate (Beta 0.95) with an enhanced display of ethnicity results, newly added ethnicities now presenting 42 ethnicities and a greater accuracy. But this is due to improve even greater thanks to our Founder Population project, the largest study of this kind ever conducted. More than 5000 participants of different ethnicities have been handpicked to serve as references for this project by virtue of their family trees, exemplifying consistent ancestry from the same region or ethnicity for many generations.
It is our goal for the results of these tests along with our research to yield a rich DNA data set and I can assure you more updates are on the way.
Along with our estimate, many of our members benefit from the research tools we provide that is integrated with their DNA results such as DNA matching, ancestral surnames and comparing matching family trees to help understand their family story. While estimating one’s ethnicity based on DNA is a relatively new field in genetics, great advancements have been made in the past years, but there is much more to discover.
Because your feedback is important, I'm very interested in helping you explore new information while providing you with answers to any questions you may have.
Please e-mail me at [email protected] from your registered e-mail address so I may locate your account and analyze your Ethnicity Estimate along with the feedback you report.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Rafael
MyHeritage
Just received a one off email from these people telling me they're charging me £49.99 today as an imaginery free trial I've never heard of has come to an end. I have no idea who they are or how they have my card details - or even if they just have my last four digits - but they're getting sweet nothing from me.
Either a legitimate heritage site I've had for over two years has sold my details on or they're a scam company.
Either way, steer well clear of them and cancel anything they try and weedle out of you. Totally snidey.
Dear F. B.
I regret to find that you feel you were somewhat scammed in enrolling in the Myheritage free trial and I will do all I can to help you receive a refund.
Our data collections includes over 6 billion historical records and is constantly expanding, but it is possible that the information you are looking for is not yet listed in our records.
This is why we provide a free trial period and a money back guarantee for users to try out our collections.
Myheritage informs everyone that enrolls in a free trial of the charge before the 14 days are up via the automatic e-mail that is sent out after one enrolls in the trial membership.
Also, one may view the status and cancel a free trial subscription at any time when logging in to MyHeritage from the My Purchases page and incur no annual charge.
That being said, our terms and conditions read that If you are not satisfied with your purchased plan you may request a full refund by contacting Customer Support within thirty (30) days of the initial purchase date of the subscription.
I would be happy to locate your account and assist you with this as soon as possible but I have yet to locate your account from the name you provide here on site jabber.
Please contact me from your registered e-mail as soon as possible at directly at [email protected] so I may help you with this as soon as possible.
I will be looking for your e-mail.
Glad to help
Rafael
MyHeritage
They call me in Spain. I have to pay to receive the call.
They give me incomplete information. I ask a question and because they don't know the answer they don't reply. This website is sponsored by the Mormon Church. They have ulterior motives, based on an absurd notion of family lineage, sort of like the sacred underwear.
Dear Michael,
I'm sorry to hear about your experience with Myheritage and I will do all I can to help.
Firstly, I must clarify that Myheritage is not sponsored by the Mormon Church and we have no ulterior motives other than supporting our 89 million registered users in researching their family trees using the various tools we offer.
I would like to investigate who called you exactly and answer any questions that you may have as soon as possible.
Please contact me directly at [email protected] from your registered e-mail address so I may give you the help that you are in need of getting.
You are already my first priority here and I will be looking for your e-mail.
Kind Regards
Rafael
Myheritage
Excellent lady (Tessa) helped me over the phone. She was very helpful, courteous and professional. A friend of mine bought me a DNA test as a birthday present so we had to put in my name and sent to my email address. This was handled beautifully. For this reason, I highly recommend MyHeritage.
Same day they phoned me (twice) on my cell while I was in meetings at work with "great" new offers... I come home and fine that my 6 month old 1-year prepaid PremiumPlus account (still shows Premium+ some place in my account profile, but say "basic" in one place)... now faces a pay wall saying I exceeded my 250 family members (my tree has over 20,000) and trying to force me to renew or upgrade... way to go pissing off your best customers... now waiting to watch this scam company fail while I switch to the competition
Dear Edward,
I'm sorry for the misunderstanding and I will do all I can to help.
I haven't found your account yet but, I am assuming that you have a PremiumPlus membership site with a tree of 20,000 family members published on it online, along with a unintended free extra basic site. This is most likely causing confusion and you do not need to upgrade again. It seems that you could have created this extra site in error and it can be deleted by all means to avoid upgrading another site or getting the promotions you describe. It is important to know that each site requires a separate membership and while some members benefit from having more than one paid site to research their family trees, it is totally optional to have more than one paid site. I recommend you publish and research all of your trees onto your PremiumPlus site to take advantage of your unlimited amount of storage that is included with your membership.
I would like to personally go over your account and help you fix this issue by all means. Please contact me directly at [email protected] so I may locate your account and help as soon as possible.
You are already my first priority here.
Happy to help
Rafael
Myheritage
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Dear Slept,
I regret to find your review and I discern with great sympathy what you have gone through in purchasing your DNA kits while having to deal with your local customs office.
We absolutely value the satisfaction of all of our members and I am more than interested in locating your account to explore how this happened, in order to better our service and prevent this from happening in the future.
Unfortunately, I am unable to locate your account using the site jabber name you provide here.
Please contact me directly from your registered e-mail address at [email protected] so I may investigate this issue and see to it that you do receive some sort of compensation. You are already my first priority here.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Rafael
MyHeritage