FamilyTreeDNA now offers the option to build a tree in a MyHeritage account and connect it to your FamilyTreeDNA kit. This guide is designed to walk you through the connection process. For help building your tree, or importing a GEDCOM to MyHeritage, please see the MyHeritage Help Center.
Initial Sign Up
When you first sign into your kit, you will be prompted to connect your kit to a MyHeritage account if you have not already done so.
This is not required, and even after September 9 you will not be required to connect your tree to MyHeritage, though after that date your tree will become read-only and you will not be able to make any additional changes or connect matches to it.
A free MyHeritage account allows you to build a tree of up to 250 individuals, or to upload a GEDCOM of any size. Adding additional tree nodes requires a MyHeritage membership and offers many additional features as well as access to their records database.
Permissions
The next page will list what permissions are granted to MyHeritage when using their tree. These permissions are needed to ensure that the test taker is of legal age to have an account, and to facilitate connecting matches to your tree.
From here you will be redirected to MyHeritage where you will be prompted to connect to an existing MyHeritage account or to create a new one.
For information on creating a tree on MyHeritage and connecting accounts, see this blog post.
You will receive an email notification from both FTDNA and MyHeritage once the connection is complete. At this point you can connect matches on the Tree Settings Page.
Selecting Home Person
If you transfer your existing tree from FamilyTreeDNA, the home person for your tree will be automatically selected. If you connect to an existing Myheritage account, or create a new tree, you will need to select the home person from the Family Tree page of your Account Settings. From this page you can also relink existing matches.
Maintaining Multiple Accounts
You can connect an unlimited number of FTDNA kits to the same MyHeritage account and tree. In addition, you can have an unlimited number of trees on a MyHeritage account. No subscription is required. if you wish to connect a kit to your existing tree in MyHeritage, when you redirected to MyHeritage you will need to log in.
All free MyHeritage accounts are limited to no more than 250 individuals in any one tree. If a tree is transferred to MyHeritage from FTDNA or a new GEDCOM is uploaded that has more than 250 individuals in it, all individuals will be added to the tree, but no additional individuals can be added for free.
With a MyHeritage subscription, accounts can have an unlimited number of individuals in their tree(s).
Relinking Previously Linked Matches
In the GEDCOM that FamilyTreeDNA sends to MyHeritage, we will indicate which individuals in the tree have a match link associated with them. Those matches will still need to be relinked after the connection is complete, but the process should be smoother than if you used a different tree.
For more information on relinking previously linked matches, see our Linking Matches on Your Tree article.
Disconnecting Your Tree From MyHeritage
If you wish to revert to the FamilyTreeDNA Tree builder, you can use this button to disconnect your account. If you have connected to the wrong MyHeritage account, you can also use this to disconnect and connect to the correct account.
After you disconnect your tree, your account will revert to the tree you had using the FamilyTreeDNA Tree Builder.
Note: No information is removed from MyHeritage. Any tree they previously had on MyHeritage will still exist there and any account you created/used will still exist there.