MyHeritage is a global family history discovery platform. It enables users to build and grow their family trees with the assistance of sophisticated matching technologies; search billions of historical records from around the world; animate, repair, enhance, and colorize historical photos using advanced AI technology; and leverage DNA testing to explore their heritage, find new relatives, and confirm or discover new connections on their family trees. MyHeritage is available in 42 languages and is used by millions of people across the globe.
Company historyCompany history
MyHeritage was founded in 2003 by Gilad Japhet, who developed a passion for genealogy at the age of 13 when preparing a genealogy school project. Twenty years later, he took a break from his career to dedicate 6 months to working on his family tree. Not satisfied with the software on the market at the time, he started developing his own family tree building software at home, and eventually decided to form a start-up centered on genealogy.
Gilad assembled a small team to work on the project and moved to a bigger space — in a nearby barn. With chickens clucking in the background, MyHeritage was born. The team completed the software, translated it into 6 languages, and made it available for free in 2005. Since then, the platform has grown exponentially, driven by its core values of innovation, compassion, diversity, and putting the needs of its users first.
Important milestones include:
- 2003: Company is founded
- 2005: Website goes live
- 2007: Release of Smart Matches™
- 2010: Mobile app goes live
- 2012: Begins offering historical records
- 2014: Launch of Instant Discoveries™
- 2016: Launch of the MyHeritage DNA test
- 2017: Acquisition of Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- 2018: First MyHeritage LIVE conference
- 2019: MyHeritage’s historical record database hits 10 billion records
- 2020: MyHeritage builds COVID-19 testing lab to assist in the fight against the global pandemic
- 2021: Launch of Deep Nostalgia™; acquisition by Francisco Partners; acquisition of Filae; 1 million subscribers reached
- 2022: Launch of AI Time Machine™
- 2023: Launch of Reimagine; launch of the MyHeritage Wiki
MyHeritage productsMyHeritage products
Family treesFamily trees
MyHeritage offers a platform for building and growing family trees. Aside from the classic features of adding family members and attaching details, historical records, source citations, and photos to individual profiles, MyHeritage also offers Smart Matching™, which finds matching profiles in other family trees, and Record Matching, which locates historical records that may be relevant to profiles in the tree. Instant Discoveries™ helps users add multiple people to their trees or find new photos of a person based on Smart Matches™ with other trees on the platform.
Historical recordsHistorical records
MyHeritage offers billions of historical records from all over the world. Since 2022, the company has been growing its historical record database at the pace of one collection added per day on average.[1] Users can find records using the historical record search engine, utilizing advanced filtering and sorting options. In addition, MyHeritage offers Global Name Translation Technology™, an exclusive feature that translates or transliterates names from other languages into the user’s native language and identifies name variants.
MyHeritage DNAMyHeritage DNA
The MyHeritage DNA test is a cheek-swab autosomal DNA test that enables users to explore their origins from across 2,114 geographic regions and find new relatives. MyHeritage DNA offers the most comprehensive set of advanced genetic genealogy tools on the market, including Theory of Family Relativity™, AutoClusters, the One-to-many Chromosome Browser, and the cM Explainer™.
Photo featuresPhoto features
MyHeritage offers a number of advanced AI technologies for family photos:
- MyHeritage In Color™: automatically colorizes black and white photos and restores the colors in faded color photos
- The Photo Enhancer: automatically enhances the quality of photos and brings blurry faces into sharp focus
- Photo Repair: automatically repairs scratches and creases in photos
- Deep Nostalgia™: animates the faces in photos
- AI Time Machine™: transforms everyday photos into AI images of the subject in different historical periods
ReimagineReimagine
MyHeritage offers a standalone photo app with a separate subscription called Reimagine. The app enables users to scan multiple photos quickly and easily using an advanced AI algorithm that identifies the edges of photos and crops them out as individual images. The user can then colorize, enhance, repair, or animate their photos.
Commitment to privacyCommitment to privacy
MyHeritage commits never to sell or license users’ data to third parties, as stated in its privacy policy:
MyHeritage was founded in 2003 and has enjoyed the trust of its users ever since. MyHeritage cares deeply about the privacy of its users and the privacy of their data and its top priority is to honor their trust.
MyHeritage has never sold or licensed personal data (like customer names, email addresses, residence addresses and family trees) and will never do so in the future.
MYHERITAGE HAS NEVER SOLD OR LICENSED GENETIC DATA OR HEALTH DATA, AND WILL NEVER DO SO IN THE FUTURE.
MyHeritage will never provide data to insurance companies under any circumstances. MyHeritage prohibits law enforcement use of its DNA Services.
Users can delete their data from MyHeritage at any time. Deletion is permanent and irreversible.
If anything material ever changes in this privacy policy, we will notify you by email.[2]
Pro Bono projectsPro Bono projects
MyHeritage has engaged in a number of pro bono projects that align with its values and goals of reuniting families and making family history more accessible to everyone:
- DNA Quest: an initiative to reunite adoptees with their families via DNA testing. MyHeritage pledged to donate 25,000 DNA kits as part of this initiative, facilitating many reunions across the globe.
- Tribal Quest: a project to document and preserve the family histories of remote indigenous tribes. Tribal Quest expeditions have taken place in the Amazon rainforest, Papua New Guinea, Namibia, and Siberia.
- Restitution of looted assets: MyHeritage has assisted in the return of property looted by the Nazis to their rightful owners.
- Erikoussa reunion: MyHeritage played a key role in helping descendants of a Jewish family that escaped the Nazis to reunite with the village that rescued them.
MyHeritage also supports organizations such as Connecting Roots, Nos Buscamos, The Eftychia Project, DNACambodia, and other non-profits that seek to reunite families separated by coerced adoption, political upheaval, and poverty.
Explore more about MyHeritageExplore more about MyHeritage
- The MyHeritage website
- The MyHeritage DNA test
- The MyHeritage blog, which covers updates, announcements, reunion stories, and other topics of interest
- The MyHeritage Knowledge Base, which features articles, how-to videos, and webinars about researching family history with MyHeritage features
- About MyHeritage
References
- ↑ E. (2023, July 20). Celebrating 365 Historical Record Collections Added or Updated During 365 Days - MyHeritage Blog. MyHeritage Blog. https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/07/celebrating-365-historical-record-collections-added-or-updated-during-365-days/
- ↑ MyHeritage Privacy Policy, updated June 2023