What is a MyHeritage Smart Match™ and how do I use Smart Matching™?

MyHeritage Smart Matching™ is a specialized, high-powered genealogy technology that automatically matches individuals in your family tree with people in other trees created by millions of members worldwide. This sophisticated engine works by intelligently comparing names, dates, and family connections to find where your tree intersects with others, even when there are differences in spelling, language, or phonetics between the two records.

How the Technology Works

With billions of family tree profiles hosted on the MyHeritage platform, Smart Matching™ offers a high probability of revealing valuable new information. The algorithm is designed to be "fuzzy" yet accurate, meaning it can recognize that "John Smyth" in one tree and "Jon Smith" in another are likely the same person based on their parents and siblings. When a match is found, both tree owners are notified, creating a unique opportunity for researchers to collaborate, share historical documents, and verify family lore.

Discover your relatives - Review your MyHeritage Smart Matches™ now!

Step 1: Log in to your MyHeritage account

Visit the official website and log in to access your family site dashboard.

Step 2: Access the Discoveries menu

On your navigation bar, hover over the Discoveries tab. This section serves as the hub for all automated findings generated by the MyHeritage algorithms.

Step 3: Choose your preferred match view

Select either Matches by people (to focus on specific ancestors) or Matches by source (to see matches grouped by the specific family trees they originated from).

Step 4: Review and confirm matches

Click "Review Match" to see a side-by-side comparison. If the data is correct, confirm the match to save new facts, citations, and relatives directly into your tree.

Working on Family Tree Builder?

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Using Smart Matching™ with Family Tree Builder

If you prefer desktop software, MyHeritage Smart Matches™ are also fully integrated into Family Tree Builder. To take advantage of the most recent software releases and enhanced matching features, users should regularly synchronize their local data with their online family site. You can download the Family Tree Builder software to begin this process.

Even if you are an active desktop user, we encourage you to use the online version of the feature to benefit from the most up-to-date interface and real-time collaboration tools.