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To take full advantage of using the MyHeritage genealogy website for your family history research, you need to build a family tree. Learn the three best ways to make your tree over on MyHeritage.
Why Build a Family Tree on MyHeritage
When you're climbing your family tree, you need to put information in an organized way. When you do this on MyHeritage, then you kick in a research assistant that can help you climb your family tree while you're not doing genealogy, which is always a bonus.
To build a family tree on MyHeritage, you need to set up an account.
To see each way to build a family tree on MyHeritage, watch this video.
New Genealogists Should Manually Build a Family Tree on MyHeritage
If you're new to genealogy, build your tree manually on MyHeritage.
During the account registration process, MyHeritage will request you add your parents' names.
MyHeritage will walk you through the process of adding additional grandparents to the family tree. Pay attention to the relationship names, so you don't confuse your Mother's Mother with your Mother's Father or your Father's Mother.
After you have named your grandparents and included as much information as you are able, you get a thank you message that says, "Welcome, you have ___ many people in your tree."
Now you have a little family branch, rather than a tree.
How to Add Another Relative to Your MyHeritage Family Tree
To continue adding people to your tree, click any "Add [Relative]" box to add a new relative.
In this video, I added a father to Emma Virginia Townsend by clicking on "Add Father."
MyHeritage provides a profile pop-up form where you can add what you know about the relative. Fill in as much as you are able.
Please take advantage of a cool feature that I've only seen on MyHeritage. Next to the date field, there is a drop-down menu with several options, including the following:
Exact
Before
Circa (meaning about)
Between
While entering place names, MyHeritage does not provide any location standardization prompts. Instead, they offer a drop-down list of locations you have previously used.
To differentiate between a place name representing a city or a county, add the word County behind the location. For instance, I use Franklin County, Ohio, rather than Franklin, Ohio, as a reminder that I meant the county.
After completing the form, click "Okay."
Then continue adding other relatives.
Experienced Genealogists Can Upload a GEDCOM file to MyHeritage
If you have built your family tree elsewhere, you build your family tree on MyHeritage by uploading a GEDCOM file. If you're not sure how to create a GEDCOM file, click here.
Click on FAMILY TREE in the website menu.
Click IMPORT GEDCOM
Browse your computer for the file.
Click upload.
You'll get this message that says, "it's being processed."
Once it's complete, you can begin working with your tree by:
Click on FAMILY TREE in the website menu.
Click MANAGE TREES.
Click VIEW beside the tree you uploaded.
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Continue Building Your MyHeritage Family Tree Based on Records
No matter where you build your family tree, expand it based on records.
On MyHeritage, you can find Record Hints from an ancestor's profile page or from the prompt on the profile accessed from the Fan Chart View.
Not all record hints are created equal.
Some of the MyHeritage Records Hints are other family trees, such as the FamilySearch family tree and the Geni world tree. These trees have varying degrees of accuracy, so consult original documents like census records, newspapers, city directories, and more first.
Add New People To Your Tree From Records
After indicating a Record Match is relevant to your ancestor, you can click on "Extract information from [record]."
During this process, you can move new information from the record to your family tree. This includes adding new persons. Watch this video to see how.
Building a FamilyTree on MyHeritage is Just the Beginning
After creating your initial tree on MyHeritage, you can start reviewing more record hints and searching their collections to find more discoveries. As you find new facts and people, you can add them to your family tree without leaving the MyHeritage website.
MyHeritage does offer free software to build your family tree. To learn more about the FamilyTree Builder program, read this article.
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