Hey there! Here’s some news about what’s been going on at RootsFinder lately that you might like to know about:

New DNA import methods

We’ve been working hard on a new method of importing your DNA data. In addition to importing your results from GEDmatch, you can now import your autosomal DNA information from Ancestry, MyHeritage, 23andMe and FamilyTree DNA. Simply use the DNAGedcom utility for Ancestry.com, 23andMe and FTDNA, or use the PedigreeThief browser extension for My Heritage. This means you can now import matches from all of your DNA sources!

Although GEDmatch exports triangulated matches, not all companies do. When triangulated matches are not available, you will import ICW (in common with) matches instead. For an excellent explanation of the difference between triangulated and ICW matches, read Blaine Bettinger’s post: https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2016/06/19/a-triangulation-intervention/

 

New triangulation cluster view tools

We added a couple of cool new utilities to the DNA triangulation view this month. You can now drag nodes around, expand clusters away from each other so they don’t overlap, and filter kits that are shown. To access the utilities, you may need to expand your toolbar, which is in the upper right-hand corner of the triangulation cluster view. Check it out and let us know what you think!

 

DNA tools will remain free through the end of the year

Because we still have several other exciting new tools in the works, we’ve decided to keep the DNA utilities in the Free Forever plan through the end of the year so everyone can try them out.

We love your feedback!

Two new tree hint partners

If you have ancestry from the Netherlands, you’ll be excited about our two new hinting partners: GenealogieOnline and OpenArch. The partnership with GenealogieOnline will allow RootsFinder to match information in your tree with genealogieonline.nl, including 32 million people and over 830,000 images. OpenArch (openarch.nl) will match your tree with information about 199 million records from 86 Dutch archives.

To add these new partners to your hinting sources, click “Hint Settings” from the left-hand menu in RootsFinder. Then check the boxes next to GenealogieOnline and OpenArch in the sources section. You should start receiving hints in under an hour.

Increased storage

Based on feedback (and worries!) from our users, we’ve increased the amount of storage included in our free and paid plans. The new storage amounts are:

  • Free Forever: double from 1GB to 2GB (holds about 1,000 photos)
  • Pro Plan: ten-fold increase from 10GB to 100GB (holds about 50,000 photos)

To give you an idea of how much storage this is, a fairly large tree with thousands of people and several thousand media needs about 8GB of storage. Now you can build the best tree ever without worrying about storage. If you need even more storage, please let us know so we can evaluate things. We love helping you reach your goals.

“How I Solved It” Guest Blogger Series

As you’ve seen here in the RootsFinder blog, each week we share blogs published by our featured authors from their websites. (With permission, of course!) We curate the content to highlight sound genealogical research methods, sources, and techniques so you can learn and be inspired by their experiences.

We’re always looking for new bloggers to share their voices. We want to give our users a wide range of experiences and discoveries to learn from, so if you’re interested in sharing some of your blog posts or know someone who might be willing to share, please contact us or leave a comment on the blog!

Need handouts or slides for your group?

If you have a presentation or event coming up and you’d like to talk about RootsFinder, please let us know. We can send you some handouts and even help you with suggested screenshots and bullet points highlighting RootsFinder’s research, sharing, and DNA tools. Just let us know how many handouts you need or if your group has a special interest.

RootsFinder Forum for feature requests

Many of the new features we develop come from your requests in the RootsFinder forum (forum.rootsfinder.com). If you haven’t visited the forum recently, you may want to stop by and share your thoughts. We really appreciate hearing from you and look forward to making RootsFinder the best it can be based on your feedback.

Have a great week!
Sincerely,
Your RootsFinder Team

Heather

Heather

Heather is part of the RootsFinder team. Her love of family history has taken her to some pretty interesting places with many adventures since about 1991, as a professional since 2000. She's also passionate about the earth, startup businesses, and the triple bottom line. Pretty pictures & occasional fun at https://www.instagram.com/heatherdevaun/
Heather