The DNA database at MyHeritage has grown rapidly since its inception 2 years ago, to an official tally of 1.75 million users in September, 2018. By my (very unofficial) estimate, they have more than 2.25 million users today.
That growth has been spurred by three factors: frequent promotional discounts, a steady stream of upgrades and new features to their DNA service, and free uploads of DNA data from other testing companies. The latter, alas, will be coming to an end on December 1, 2018. (UPDATE: The deadline has been extended to December 15.)
After November, uploads from AncestryDNA, 23andMe, Family Tree DNA, and Living DNA will still get DNA relative matching for free. However, other features, like the ethnicity estimates and chromosome browser, will require a fee. DNA kits uploaded prior to December 1 will be grandfathered in to the DNA features and will not have to pay to keep them.
What does that mean? If you tested with another genealogy DNA company and are considering MyHeritage, transfer before the freebie ends!
Full-Feature Transfers Are Free for a Few More Weeks
This post contains the information you need to download your raw data file from each of the other main companies and points you to instructions on how to upload to MyHeritage. If you’ve tested at more than one other company, you don’t need to transfer them all to MyHeritage. One will do.
How to Transfer Your Raw Data from AncestryDNA to MyHeritage
Full instructions for downloading your raw DNA data file from AncestryDNA and uploading it to MyHeritage (and other sites) are here.
Download Your Raw Data from 23andMe to MyHeritage
23andMe has a two-step verification process to ensure that only you can download your raw data file. To start the process, log into your 23andMe account, click on your personalized icon at the top right of the window, and click on “Browse Raw Data”.
On the next page, switch to the “Download” tab.
Review the text. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the blue “Submit request” button.
Check your email. You will get a message from 23andMe with a link to “Download Raw Data”.
Click the link in the email, log back into your 23andMe account, and click the blue “Download raw data” button to initiate the download.
The compacted file will be saved to your computer hard drive in the folder designated by your internet browser (probably your “Downloads” folder). The filename will be genome_Given_Surname_vX_Full_YYYYMMDDTTTTTT.zip, where Given and Surname are your two names, X is the chip version number, and YYYYMMDDTTTTTT refers to the year, month, date, and time that the file was generated. Do not unzip the file.
For instructions on how to upload the 23andMe file to MyHeritage, go to this blog post and scroll down to the section titled “Transfer Your Raw Data File to MyHeritage”. Your upload will take a few days to process, and then you’ll be able to use the tools at MyHeritage for free!
Download Your Raw Data from Family Tree DNA to MyHeritage
Log into your Family Tree DNA account, and under the Family Finder section on your home page, click “Download Raw Data”.
On the next page, review the text. You will be see six download choices. Click on “Build 37 Raw Data Concatenated”.
The compacted file will be saved to your computer hard drive in the folder designated by your internet browser (probably your “Downloads” folder). The filename will be 37_I_Surname_Chrom_Autoso_YYYYMMDD.csv.gz, where I and Surname are your first initial and surname, and YYYYMMDD is the year, month, and date that the file was generated. Do not unzip the file.
For instructions on how to upload the Family Tree DNA file to MyHeritage, go to this blog post and scroll down to the section titled “Transfer Your Raw Data File to MyHeritage”. Your upload will take a few days to process, and then you’ll be able to use the tools at MyHeritage for free!
Download Your Raw Data from Living DNA to MyHeritage
Sign in to your Living DNA account. On the home page. click the blue “View Test” button beside your test.
In the panel on the left, select “Download Raw Data”. (If you don’t see the panel, make your internet browser window wider.)
On the next page, review the text, then click the box beside the Consent statement at the bottom.
Ticking the box will give you two (if you’re female) or three (if you’re male) blue download buttons. In either case, click the “Download autosomal (family ancestry) raw marker data” button.
The compacted file will be saved to your computer hard drive in the folder designated by your internet browser (probably your “Downloads” folder). The filename will be living-dna-LD#######A-autosomal.txt, where LD#######A is a unique identifier for your kit.
For instructions on how to upload the Living DNA file to MyHeritage, go to this blog post and scroll down to the section titled “Transfer Your Raw Data File to MyHeritage”. Your upload will take a few days to process, and then you’ll be able to use the tools at MyHeritage for free!
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