Thursday 13 September 2018

MyHeritage now accepts transfers from Living DNA and 23andMe but will soon start charging for some features

MyHeritage have announced that they can now accept uploads from people who have tested at Living DNA and on the 23andMe v5 chip. Both these companies currently use the Illumina Global Screening Array chip, which has very limited overlap with the chips used by the other testing companies.

MyHeritage have also announced that they will soon be introducing charges to access some features. Here's an extract from their blog.
As of December 1, 2018, our policy regarding DNA uploads will change: DNA Matching will remain free for uploaded DNA data, but unlocking additional DNA features (for example, ethnicity estimate, chromosome browser, and some others) will require an extra payment for DNA files uploaded after this date. We will announce the full details of the new policy once it is finalized, closer to December 1st. All DNA data that was uploaded to MyHeritage in the past, and all DNA data that is uploaded now and prior to December 1, 2018, will continue to enjoy full access to all DNA features for free. These uploads will be grandfathered in and will remain free.
To read the full article click here.

If you've not yet added your kit to the MyHeritage database make sure you do so before the deadline. MyHeritage have some useful features for interpreting results, and they are also promoting their tests in some European countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands, that are poorly represented in the other company databases. MyHeritage also have a useful feature which allows you to see the countries where your matches live. Although my match list is still dominated by distant matches with Americans I now have 368 matches with people living in Britain as well as 130 Australian matches. I have quite a few cousins in Australia that I'm hoping to make connections with. It's always a good idea to have your DNA represented in all the databases as you never know where you're going to get the breakthrough matches.


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