Obama's Celebrity Collage

Early last week Facebook was frenzied by members eager to find their celebrity doppelganger. MyHeritage’s Celebrity Look-alike feature helped many find their celebrity double. This web application has a unique ability to survey the human face and compare it to a database of thousands of celebrities, helping you find the perfect virtual match!


Finding the alternate you has long held a special place in the heart of mankind. Psychologists tend to pin it to the evolution of self-awareness, which trends back into early human history. This enormous history arc was formed in part by Greek mythology and the story of Narcisus, who fell in love with his own reflection cast on a pond. And Krishna, whose outlandish self-admiration set him to search for his qualities manifest in his mates. Or simply take a look at art commissioned by royalty or nobles dating to early civilization, there you will find figureheads painted/sculpted according to their projected demeanor; at once similar in formal features as dissimilar in their portrayal of desired self.

Continue reading "Doppelganger: from Poe to Facebook " »

The OSN team celebrating the merger

Today we're announcing some very special news...We're branching out! We're going where we haven't gone before; we're growing and sowing the seeds to connect families in every single country around the world.

We're delighted to let you know that we've now joined up with German family networking group OSN (Online Social Networking GmbH). It's great news for everybody as we will be integrating both platforms to offer new features to everyone and the combined database becomes even better in connecting you with relatives or ancestors. We'll now have a whopping 47 million users worldwide.

The MyHeritage.com team

It's a great combination really, as not only will we join up with ten market-leading family sites, we'll also be getting some new colleagues from OSN who will bring us the creative and innovative spirit that characterises the group. Together, we can better help you bridge gaps of geography, language and time and make your online family life easier and more enjoyable!

The really good news for you is that with this formidable user base get more Smart Matches that help you find long lost relatives. With 530 million genealogical profiles you’ll be able to further your research conclusively and connect with more relatives online. And it's important to us to mention again that you can do so privately and securely.

Continue reading "Welcome to the family: verwandt.de, moikrewni.pl, dynastree.com and the others that are joining!" »

By now you've probably heard about Doppelganger Week, the latest trend on facebook. This week people replace their profile picture to the celebrity they resemble the most. And we are happy to tell you that MyHeritage.com has kind of become the unofficial supplier of Doppelganger Week:
Yesterday alone more than 750,000 photos have been uploaded to MyHeritage.com as part of the Doppelganger Week craze!

The number of photos being uploaded is growing every minute and it's great to be in the eye of the storm of one of the biggest storms on the Internet right now. The whole thing was started by Bob Patel, who was teased by colleagues about him looking like Tom Selleck. So find your Doppelganger now and check over to facebook to replace your photo. Or you can find your look-alike directly on facebook. This is the message to post as your facebook status:

MyHeritage ... is taking part in Doppelgangerweek! During this week change your profile picture to someone famous (actor, musician, athlete) you have been told you look like...and repost this message.

If you have not yet replaced your facebook picture with a look-alike yet, get your look-alike now and join the game. We are happy to provide you with the technology to make this latest social networking fun possible.

We really enjoy reporting to you about users that have found family members though our sites or its smart matches, especially when these reunions span countries or even continents.

But we had nothing to do with this surprise match, even if it was family history inspired and shows how many of you volonteer your time and efforts to help other family tracers.

Diane Davis found out the power of online genealogy networks four years ago when a message of contact she sent out unintentially ended up in the inbox of an Australian family history enthausiast.

Continue reading "Tracing your family all the way to love" »

Seeing as we've got a lot of Australian users we'd like to share with you a small part of their traditions which is the celebration of January 26, Australia day.

Australia day is, apart from a day off, a day Australians come together to celebrate, well... being Australian.

It is also the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of convict ships from Great Britain, and the raising of the British flag at Sydney Cove in 1788. The raising of the Union Jack there symbolised British occupation of the eastern half of the continent.

Australia day sprung from the arrivals' celebration of this settlement, but also of their love and pride for the land they settled in. They traditionally held anniversary dinners, formalized by Governor Lachlan Macquarie on the thirtieth anniversary of the day in 1818 by making it a public holiday.

Continue reading "Australian traditions: Australia Day" »

It seems that all around the world TV producers are starting to catch on to the fact that genealogy is a fascinating field. The new generation of producers to realize such are US producers Lisa Kudrow and Henry Louise Gates Jr.
The result is the airing of NBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?'' (WDYTYA) on March 5 and 'Faces of America' from Febuary 10.

Both shows feature a combination of glamour, celebrities and genealogy that should appeal to the seasoned family historian and the celebrity buff. The PBS line-up includes musician Yo-Yo Ma, Queen Noor, actors Malcolm Gladwell, Eva Longoria Parker and Meryl Streep, while the NBC has hooked Lisa Kudrow as well as actors Susan Sarandon, Sarah Jessica Parker and husband Matthew Broderick and Brooke Shields.

Continue reading "Celebrities to Populate your Genealogy Shows" »

Leo Smith, 57, from Adelaide, South Australia contacted MyHeritage.com to thank us for helping him record and research his family history. So far he's found a Dutch and a French Canadian connection in his family as well as various stories ranging from family members fighting with William the Conqueror to relatives being early American settlers and serving in the Revolutionary war. Find his experiences with using our site below:

Leo, as a young boy

I became a member of MyHeritage.com in October 2009 when I found myself with a lot of time on my hands after a heart surgery. A neighbour told me about his family tree and I got interested. After trying a lot of sites I finally decided on MyHeritage.com. It was easy to use and with Smart Matches it become easier as time went on, so I finally upgraded to Premium Plus for better results.

In the short space of time I've been a member I've added 1753 People and 401 families to my tree. I have traced my mother's side is back about 17 generations and II'm yet to really start my fathers side. My mother's Marvell family dates back to France prior to the invasion of England by William the Conqueror as the Marvells went to England with him.

Continue reading "User Story: Knight, Masons and Loyalists" »

Rory Bremner, one of the celebrities telling all about his family history

The yearly Who Do You Think You Are conference is undoubtedly one of the major genealogical events in London, and in the whole of the UK. A day to tear down brick walls, meet fellow-minded family history enthausiasts, get your DNA tested on your families' geographical origin or simply wander around its many stalls,
its well worth your time if you're interested in family history. This year's conference is held from the 26th to the 28th of February in Olympia.

We attended the conference last year and thought it an absolute must. So with the conference fast approaching we wanted to let you know the MyHeritage team will be there again for you to meet an greet with. So note it down and then come over to our stall no 506! We're there for any technical questions, media queries or just to tell you more about our work and company.

Continue reading "Who Do You Think You Are Conference Next Month!" »

Happy 2010 again! We wanted to let you in on a few new features that will help you organize, identify, and expedite your documentation of media.

Your MyHeritage.com family site now allows you to tag your videos and documents.

Just like tagging your photos, you can ascribe family members names to any of your videos and documents uploaded to the site. Simply click the "Add Person" button to the right of the media, and type in the family members name.

Continue reading "Video & Document Tagging " »