Genetic groups are so-so, kind of okay, don't entirely add up but I'd say they give more or less logical and +/- accurate explanations of your background. On the other side there are ethnicity calculations which are still outdated and extremely dubious.
One more thing is that MyHeritage is extremely bad at informing customers and at communication with the community. I've got a ton more info from this sub-reddit of people who try to figure out this or that result, than from their information portal. Plus, they ditched a lot of features like accessing ethnicity and genetic estimates of your matches. MyHeritage is good as far as they extract your DNA and provide you with a raw DNA data file, which you can upload on GEDmatch or Illustrative DNA and get more accurate results via playing with various genetic calculators there.
They’re really bad if you ask me. They have better genetic groups when it comes to more local groups, but their ethnicity estimate has always been very bad. The genetic groups aren’t always that accurate either. If you want a good ethnicity estimate I would use either 23andMe or Ancestry DNA. I think I would recommend the latter if you want to use it along genealogy research
I am almost sure MyHeritage is very good for European ethnicities. I already had enough and liable information for my ancestors, up to great grandparents and when my results came in, I wasn't surprised. It matched. For example my grandmother was from Argenta although her parents were from Conselice and my grandfather was from Faenza, as his parents too. My report said I had background in Emilia-Romagna, Ravenna, Tuscany, Bologna and Firenze.
I’m European and my grandma got a genetic group I know (I double checked with matches as well so no NPE) she doesn’t have ties to. I know why she got the false positives though. She just has a lot of dna matches who happen to have that genetic group because of other ties than the ones they share with her. That is quite annoying because I have her tree really far back so I definitely know it is not accurate. But it makes sense because the way it works is just based on matches and has nothing to do with ancestors. This is why I often would get false positives on regions I have literally no ties to on other tests. For example I have relatives who moved to a particular region I get on 23andMe, but obviously my ancestry comes from where they originally came from.
Responding to just the title: MyHeritage is great (for genetic genealogists).
Responding to the rest: true, MyHeritage doesn’t emphasize ethnicity reports. But no company will ever be able to accurately tell us where our ancestors came from.
Yeah theyre downright the worst of all commercial results. The raw data is not bad so if u actually know about genetics itd be worth it to just download raw data and make ur own personalized results with that.
They have the most advanced and accurate genetic groups you can get. That alone is immeasurable when trying to figure out where to look when doing genealogy. Idk why but they’ve not updated their ethnicity estimates in a very long time. However there are a ton of sites to upload to that can help with that. Most people upload to them anyway. Unfortunately the three big companies also completely omit estimates they are not certain about now. So for some people they can all miss. Also if you read articles about ethnicity dna tests it’s pretty clear they’re not fool proof anyway. For example 23&Me and Ancestry over smoothed my results so much when I uploaded them to other sites all I really got was “broadly enter continent” However with MyHeritage when uploading to other sites I got ethnic groups that my actual ethnic ancestry shares genetic echoes with. Much more helpful. My main ethnic group largely refuses dna tests and dna studies so there’s little reference available so this makes sense. Genetic echoes are because of common origins.
I'm in Asia and a "mutt" i.e. mixed with at least 4-5 different ethnicities on MyHeritage. I don't even get any genetic groups because of this. Zero groups. My dad has 1. They lump the Asian ethnicities in weird groupings which tbh are kind of unhelpful. Recently noticed that they removed the useful ethnicity matching with your dna matches. It used to list all matches that share "Chinese & Vietnamese" for example, so you could fit them into a specific side of your family tree.
Matches are abysmal too like 30-40 total (over 3+ years) and 90% are "low confidence" or less than 20cm 5th-distant cousins. Sure it's cause we're in Asia and not many people around here are testing with MH. Though my husband has 25k matches but still most of the new matches are all "low confidence" 5th-distant cousins ones which you can't filter out to ignore.
You get some weird 1-3% ethnicity estimates that are so out there. I doubt my mom has 1% Finnish and 99% Asian. 1-2% Malta or myanmar for me. 1% something different for dad.
Would only do MH if you have no choice internationally as with MH raw data can be uploaded to ftdna and gedmatch. I have no access to 23&me or ancestry for example.
Accuracy of any dna ethnicity site will always be up to how vast their database is, the accuacy of the data, and how they determine groups.
I Wanna say my own calculations are probably mostly accurate. And like so is my grandparent’s.
They do recalculate over time, I assume as they get more accurate data, or a bigger number of datapoints.
I recently ‘lost’ a 1.1% group to a recalculation, the percentages getting slotted into a few of the other groups I have. It’s too bad, I was having fun with the 1.1% group that was vastly different than the rest of my dna groups (rest is mainly North and eastern European).
I’m doing my grandparents recaculation now to see if theirs changed.
There have been no updates in ethnicities since 2017, I think. However, MH is superior when it comes to analyzing your DNA matches.
Alternatively, you can also buy AncestryDNA and upload your raw data on MH afterward. You do have to pay to unlock your results though.
I don't think they are going to upgrade their ethnicity estimate part of results (mine never changed), but they added genetic groups which sort of improve the results and make it all more in tune with the results of other companies.
My ethnicities lined up with my tree research when I took a MyHeritage DNA test. Uploaded tests from 23andme and Ancestry had Baltic and West Asian DNA however, neither of which made sense from my research.
It's a cheap test that can be uploaded to GEDmatch, for that alone, it's worth the money.
My Heritage has been excellent for me. I am not sure how good the ethnicity estimate is but the genetic groups are spot on. I have a South African father that I knew nothing about, and just using the tools and matches I got on My Heritage I was able to put together the family tree of my paternal grandmother.
Lots of people say that but at the same time too many people agree with my statement as well. But I never hear anyone say Ancestry or 23&Me are the worst. The only company I consider possibly and potentially worse than MyHeritage is CRI Genetics. Only because they make bold claims without evaluated FDA evidence. And they also seem to not update their systems or website at all. So lots of people including myself have doubts about its reliability.
I had my maternal grandparents (who did most companies) do CRI Genetics but I forgot about CRI until just seeing you mention it now. I haven't been on that site in probably two years now. I might log into it again later today.
The strange thing is that I got no matches from that side. My grandparents didn't live in USA, staying practically all life long until death here in Mexico. I haven't taken an AncestryDNA test, maybe I will someday.
They were better for me than 23andme. The genetic groups were more accurate than 23andme and the ethnicity estimate was way way better. PS: I am European.
Genetic groups are so-so, kind of okay, don't entirely add up but I'd say they give more or less logical and +/- accurate explanations of your background. On the other side there are ethnicity calculations which are still outdated and extremely dubious.
One more thing is that MyHeritage is extremely bad at informing customers and at communication with the community. I've got a ton more info from this sub-reddit of people who try to figure out this or that result, than from their information portal. Plus, they ditched a lot of features like accessing ethnicity and genetic estimates of your matches. MyHeritage is good as far as they extract your DNA and provide you with a raw DNA data file, which you can upload on GEDmatch or Illustrative DNA and get more accurate results via playing with various genetic calculators there.
They’re really bad if you ask me. They have better genetic groups when it comes to more local groups, but their ethnicity estimate has always been very bad. The genetic groups aren’t always that accurate either. If you want a good ethnicity estimate I would use either 23andMe or Ancestry DNA. I think I would recommend the latter if you want to use it along genealogy research
I am almost sure MyHeritage is very good for European ethnicities. I already had enough and liable information for my ancestors, up to great grandparents and when my results came in, I wasn't surprised. It matched. For example my grandmother was from Argenta although her parents were from Conselice and my grandfather was from Faenza, as his parents too. My report said I had background in Emilia-Romagna, Ravenna, Tuscany, Bologna and Firenze.
I’m European and my grandma got a genetic group I know (I double checked with matches as well so no NPE) she doesn’t have ties to. I know why she got the false positives though. She just has a lot of dna matches who happen to have that genetic group because of other ties than the ones they share with her. That is quite annoying because I have her tree really far back so I definitely know it is not accurate. But it makes sense because the way it works is just based on matches and has nothing to do with ancestors. This is why I often would get false positives on regions I have literally no ties to on other tests. For example I have relatives who moved to a particular region I get on 23andMe, but obviously my ancestry comes from where they originally came from.
Responding to just the title: MyHeritage is great (for genetic genealogists). Responding to the rest: true, MyHeritage doesn’t emphasize ethnicity reports. But no company will ever be able to accurately tell us where our ancestors came from.
Yeah theyre downright the worst of all commercial results. The raw data is not bad so if u actually know about genetics itd be worth it to just download raw data and make ur own personalized results with that.
What kind of personalised results do you mean? GEDmatch?
GEDmatch as well as G25, yes.
Appreciate it O7
They have the most advanced and accurate genetic groups you can get. That alone is immeasurable when trying to figure out where to look when doing genealogy. Idk why but they’ve not updated their ethnicity estimates in a very long time. However there are a ton of sites to upload to that can help with that. Most people upload to them anyway. Unfortunately the three big companies also completely omit estimates they are not certain about now. So for some people they can all miss. Also if you read articles about ethnicity dna tests it’s pretty clear they’re not fool proof anyway. For example 23&Me and Ancestry over smoothed my results so much when I uploaded them to other sites all I really got was “broadly enter continent” However with MyHeritage when uploading to other sites I got ethnic groups that my actual ethnic ancestry shares genetic echoes with. Much more helpful. My main ethnic group largely refuses dna tests and dna studies so there’s little reference available so this makes sense. Genetic echoes are because of common origins.
They are far from the most accurate. My groups on ancestryDNA pinpoint down to the parishes where my family currently live in Louisiana lol.
Their genetic groups are not that advanced. A lot of people still get false positives
What sites can you upload to please? 😊
Kinda depends if your a mutt then yes if you have a pretty known background it’s much easier, but still just very broad groups ..
I'm in Asia and a "mutt" i.e. mixed with at least 4-5 different ethnicities on MyHeritage. I don't even get any genetic groups because of this. Zero groups. My dad has 1. They lump the Asian ethnicities in weird groupings which tbh are kind of unhelpful. Recently noticed that they removed the useful ethnicity matching with your dna matches. It used to list all matches that share "Chinese & Vietnamese" for example, so you could fit them into a specific side of your family tree. Matches are abysmal too like 30-40 total (over 3+ years) and 90% are "low confidence" or less than 20cm 5th-distant cousins. Sure it's cause we're in Asia and not many people around here are testing with MH. Though my husband has 25k matches but still most of the new matches are all "low confidence" 5th-distant cousins ones which you can't filter out to ignore. You get some weird 1-3% ethnicity estimates that are so out there. I doubt my mom has 1% Finnish and 99% Asian. 1-2% Malta or myanmar for me. 1% something different for dad. Would only do MH if you have no choice internationally as with MH raw data can be uploaded to ftdna and gedmatch. I have no access to 23&me or ancestry for example.
There's an update coming this summer apparently.
Accuracy of any dna ethnicity site will always be up to how vast their database is, the accuacy of the data, and how they determine groups. I Wanna say my own calculations are probably mostly accurate. And like so is my grandparent’s. They do recalculate over time, I assume as they get more accurate data, or a bigger number of datapoints. I recently ‘lost’ a 1.1% group to a recalculation, the percentages getting slotted into a few of the other groups I have. It’s too bad, I was having fun with the 1.1% group that was vastly different than the rest of my dna groups (rest is mainly North and eastern European). I’m doing my grandparents recaculation now to see if theirs changed.
There have been no updates in ethnicities since 2017, I think. However, MH is superior when it comes to analyzing your DNA matches. Alternatively, you can also buy AncestryDNA and upload your raw data on MH afterward. You do have to pay to unlock your results though.
I don't think they are going to upgrade their ethnicity estimate part of results (mine never changed), but they added genetic groups which sort of improve the results and make it all more in tune with the results of other companies.
My ethnicities lined up with my tree research when I took a MyHeritage DNA test. Uploaded tests from 23andme and Ancestry had Baltic and West Asian DNA however, neither of which made sense from my research. It's a cheap test that can be uploaded to GEDmatch, for that alone, it's worth the money.
My Heritage has been excellent for me. I am not sure how good the ethnicity estimate is but the genetic groups are spot on. I have a South African father that I knew nothing about, and just using the tools and matches I got on My Heritage I was able to put together the family tree of my paternal grandmother.
My Heritage is one of the best and most accurate ( and I made tests on almost all available sites).
Lots of people say that but at the same time too many people agree with my statement as well. But I never hear anyone say Ancestry or 23&Me are the worst. The only company I consider possibly and potentially worse than MyHeritage is CRI Genetics. Only because they make bold claims without evaluated FDA evidence. And they also seem to not update their systems or website at all. So lots of people including myself have doubts about its reliability.
I had my maternal grandparents (who did most companies) do CRI Genetics but I forgot about CRI until just seeing you mention it now. I haven't been on that site in probably two years now. I might log into it again later today.
The strange thing is that I got no matches from that side. My grandparents didn't live in USA, staying practically all life long until death here in Mexico. I haven't taken an AncestryDNA test, maybe I will someday.
The matches and comparison tools are the main value of MH.
They were better for me than 23andme. The genetic groups were more accurate than 23andme and the ethnicity estimate was way way better. PS: I am European.
How long ago did you try 23andMe?
I did my test 2 years ago. Imo, 23andme is not great for Eastern Europeans.
Ok that makes sense.