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Do you think you have an accurate family tree? Chances are you have some mistakes hiding in your family tree, and MyHeritage has a great tool to help you clean up your family tree.
You may have imported your tree from another program or built it manually on MyHeritage. Make it a habit to regularly run the MyHeritage Consistency Checker to check the health of your family tree.
Be advised that the Consistency Checker is part of a MyHeritage Subscription. Free accounts may view a sampling of issues.
How to Access the MyHeritage Consistency Checker
On the MyHeritage website with a family tree open,
Click on Family Tree in the top navigation menu.
Click "My family tree.
Click on Consistency Checker.
An alternative way to access the consistency checks appear on an ancestor's profile page. The prompt with a link will appear in the research mini-menu besides Smart Hints and a link to "Research this person."
Once the Consistency Checker loads, you'll see a page that looks very much like this one.
You may discover problems in one of the 36 issue categories. We'll discuss those issues later.
Family Tree Problems found by MyHeritage Consistency Checker
MyHeritage scans our family trees for 36 issues grouped into three different categories. I've included a sampling of the problems found in each category.
Errors: You'll see a red exclamation mark icon beside issues that are obviously wrong.
Birth after death
Child older than parent
Child born after death of parent
Warnings: Issues with a circular orange exclamation mark mean the data seems usual and potentially incorrect.
Died too old
Alive but too old
Parent too young when having a child
Parent too old when having a child
Fact occurring after death
Fact occurring before birth
Siblings with close age
Large spouse age difference
Notices: Anything possibly incorrect but not necessarily will have a white "i' in a gray square. Depending on the culture, the issue might be accurate.
Death date resembles cause of death
Death place resembles cause of death
Siblings with same first name
Inconsistent last name spelling
Inconsistent place name spelling
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Clean Up a Consistency Issue
MyHeritage makes it easy to navigate to the issues in your family tree.
Notice that each hyperlinked name in the report will take you to a page where you can edit your ancestor's profile.
For some issues, you can fix them from the Consistency Checker page. For instance, you will see a green quick-fix button to mark an ancestor as deceased who seems rather old. Click this quick-fix option will mark your ancestor as deceased through a single click.
If an issue is not a valid problem, ignore it with a single click. First, hover over the recommendation with your mouse. Then, when you see the small 'X in the top right corner of the issue, click the 'X.' The issue will no longer appear in future consistency reports.
Watch the video below for further instructions:
How to Detach and Reattach Family Members in the Family Tree
If you discover that a person is attached to the wrong set of parents, you'll need to follow these steps. You'll first remove them from the incorrect parents. Later, you'll attach them to the correct couple.
Click on the child attached to the wrong parents from the family tree.
On the profile panel, click on the button that says "More."
On the following menu, select "Remove Connection."
On the "Remove Connection" panel, select the incorrect parental couple.
Click "Ok."
This child will no longer have parents attached to their profile.
To connect them to the correct parents, ensure that the couple appears in the family tree. For example, you might need to add an additional spouse to an ancestor.
Once the couple appears in the family tree, open the profile panel for the right mother.
Click on "More."
Select "Connect to existing person."
On the "Connect to existing person" screen, select "Connect to a child."
Begin typing the child's name into the search box.
Select the correct profile for the child.
Then, click "Ok."
The family tree will update to connect the child with the correct parents.
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Update the Consistency Checker
The MyHeritage Consistency Checker doesn't automatically update. Instead, you need to click on the words "Recalculate the Report." If the phrase does not appear on the page, use the refresh icon, which resembles an arrow in a half-circle.
The resolved issues will drop off the report, and you can keep working your way through all of the remaining problems.
Possible Reasons Generating Consistency Errors
As you review your family tree on MyHeritage and notice the issues, you may discover some reasons behind the errors. Here are a few that I found.
"A child was born after a parent died."
While a child can be born a few months after the death of their father, it's not true for many years after their dad's death. Likewise, it's also impossible for a child to be born after their mother's death. Typically what happens is the child belongs to a second wife. Or, I have confused two people with the same name.
"Alive But Too Old."
This issue appears if you haven't marked your person as deceased in the MyHeritage family tree. You can resolve this issue in several ways. Option one is to use the quick-fix to indicate the person is deceased. The next option is to use the name links to open the profile and add a death date. Finally, search MyHeritage for records that include a death date.
In this video, I continue the discussion of the inconsistencies MyHeritage found in my family tree.