MyHeritage Free Trial | 8 Tips to Make the Most of It

Sunny Morton

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A MyHeritage free trial subscription can jump-start your family tree, introduce you to new DNA matches, and help you decide if a MyHeritage membership is right for you. Follow these 8 strategies for success with your free trial.

When you activate a MyHeritage free trial subscription* to build your family tree, you can “try before you buy.” But you also have limited time. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your free trial subscription.

Maximize your MyHeritage free trial subscription

 

1. Know what you’re getting

When you start a MyHeritage free trial, you are trying out their Complete Plan. It comes with access to:

  • all their advanced DNA tools for analyzing your DNA test results (if you have your DNA on MyHeritage)
  • the ability to build unlimited family trees
  • billions of historical records from around the world
  • millions of family trees built by people from around the world
  • technologies that automate the process of learning more about your family
  • unique and innovative photo editing, repair and animation tools

You can’t possibly cover everything on the site in 14 days (subscriptions last a year for a reason!). During your 14-day trial, explore the most important features, such as clues about your DNA matches and access to historical records.

Get the MyHeritage free trial subscription

2. Add your family tree

MyHeritage’s powerful technologies can help you research your DNA matches and build your family tree–but only if you give them something to work with. If you have a family tree file (or can get one), upload it.

If not, start building a family tree right there on the site. Add your parents’ names with whatever birthdates and places you know, and their parents’ names and particulars, as far back as you can. Add aunts and uncles. Don’t worry about adding pictures or stories yet. Right now, you just want to feed those names, dates and places to MyHeritage’s clever automated tools, most of which will start working right away. (And realize that after your free trial, if you don’t choose a qualifying subscription, you can still use and download your tree, but you won’t be able to put more than 250 names on it.)

3. Add your DNA test results

We suggest that everyone who has already taken a DNA test elsewhere transfer their results to MyHeritage for free. During your trial subscription, you’ll have access to MyHeritage’s advanced DNA tools to explore your matches. (If you don’t continue a qualifying subscription, you can pay just $29 USD to upgrade your DNA experience to include all their advanced DNA tools. More on that in a minute.) Of course, you can also purchase a MyHeritage DNA test, but you won’t have your test results back in time to use the 2-week trial period.

Transfer my DNA to MyHeritage

4. Attach your family tree to your DNA test

This will empower those advanced DNA tools to help you figure out your relationships to your DNA matches and build your family tree. Here’s how to attach your family tree to your MyHeritage DNA test.

5. Start exploring those advanced DNA tools

There’s so much to see and do at MyHeritage! Your DNA match list is tops on the list. Here’s a quick video tour of what you’ll see and hints of what you might be able to learn about your matches, using all those advanced DNA tools that come with your free trial. Especially, you’ll want to explore the family trees and shared ethnicities of your DNA matches and use the shared matches tool to group (and label!) your DNA matches. Something to keep in mind is that they add new users to the Theory of Family Relativity ONLY every couple of months, so it’s possible you’ll miss at least part of this window during your two-week trial.

6. Build your tree by exploring Record Matches

MyHeritage lets you work on your genealogy AND your DNA. As you add relatives to your tree, you will probably see brown Record Match icons appear (see below). You’ll likely also see green icons that point to the trees of other MyHeritage users and Discovery clues about ancestors you haven’t even identified yet. The most reliable of these are the Record Matches, so focus on these first. Click on them to view historical records that appear to match your relative.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether an old record is really about your relative. Consider them carefully! Only attach records you’re confident belong to relatives to their tree profiles. It’s also smart to download copies of historical records so you have them on your own computer for future use. (After your MyHeritage free trial ends, if you don’t continue with your subscription, you may not be able to see those historical records you already attached to your tree.)

7. Consider your options after the free trial

At the end of the 2-week trial, your first discounted year of the Complete Plan will be billed automatically unless you stop it (see below how to do that). If you stop the automatic billing, you’ll revert to the free Basic plan unless you choose another option. From top to bottom, here’s what ALL your options are:

  • Everything (Complete Plan). Advanced DNA tools, historical records, and full tree building. MyHeritage makes it really easy for to say YES to the Complete Plan you’ve been trying by sharply discounting your first year subscription. For U.S. customers, the discounted rate is $199 for the first year, or less than $17 a month (full price is $299).
  • Historical records access (Data Plan): Access to billions of historical records, the automated Record Matches tool, a 250-person family tree and priority customer support. It’s $129 for the first year ($189 thereafter).
  • Enhanced tree-building (two options):
    • Premium Plan. Advanced DNA tools; tree-building for 2500 people; the automated Smart Matches tool for finding your relatives on other people’s trees; ; and priority customer support ($89 first year, $129 thereafter).
    • PremiumPlus Plan. All the feature of Premium PLUS unlimited tree size, an accuracy checker for your tree data, and the ability to graft tree data onto yours with one click ($149 first year, $209 thereafter).
  • Advanced DNA tools only: For DNA tests that have been uploaded to MyHeritage, you have the option of paying a one-time $29 unlock fee to continue using the advanced DNA tools.
  • Basic (free) access: The free features are a good start, but won’t take you far. For DNA, this means access only to your DNA match list and any shared ancestral surnames they may have posted. You won’t be able to add more than 250 people to your family tree. Access to historical records will be extremely limited.

8. Read the fine print and watch your calendar

MyHeritage tells you exactly how you can stop your payment at three different points in your subscription journey: during the free trial, for a 30-day refund, or to stop auto-renewals of your subscription later on. The passage below, from MyHeritage’s Terms & Conditions, shows that you are in control and you have several options, but you have to pay attention to the deadlines. We’ve emphasized some statements in bold:

Free Trial: Free trial subscriptions will be billed only at the end of the free trial period. You may cancel a free trial at any time during the free trial period from the My Purchases page and incur no charge. On that page, choose “Data subscriptions” or “Complete subscriptions”, press “View details” and then choose “Stop free trial now” for the chosen subscription. To start a free trial, your payment details will be required. By providing your payment details and accepting the Terms and Conditions, you agree that MyHeritage may automatically begin charging you for the paid subscription after the free trial ends on a recurring annual basis. Visa cardholders will be notified by email 7 days before a free trial ends.

 

Refund Policy: MyHeritage values the satisfaction of its customers and offers a thirty (30) day money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied with your purchased plan you may request a full refund by contacting Customer Support within thirty (30) days of the initial purchase date of the subscription.

 

Opting Out of Renewal: You may opt out of renewing any of your subscriptions by logging in and utilizing the My Purchases page (choose the relevant plan, click “View details” and then click “Stop annual renewal”) or by calling MyHeritage at +1-844-994-1888 (toll-free number in the USA; see Contact Us page for additional phone numbers in other countries). If you do not let us know that you want to discontinue your subscription at least one day prior to the end of the current subscription period, the payment for the next renewal period of the subscription will be made.

Consider bookmarking the MyHeritage Terms & Conditions page for your reference, once you start your free trial. Mark or set an alert on your calendar to give remind yourself to take action by the required time. And remember that Terms & Conditions can change over time, so doublecheck them yourself.

You’re ready to go!

Get started at MyHeritage with your free subscription and by transferring your DNA results from another testing company (click below to learn how).

Transfer my DNA to MyHeritage

Start My MyHeritage free trial subscription

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9 Comments

  1. Sylvia Genders

    Not a free trial, just a click through to a subscription page. I am getting much more done on the free sites.

    Reply
    • Diahan Southard

      That’s another great tip, thanks for sharing!

      Reply
  2. Sue

    I just started a free trial and was able to access everything the first couple of days, but then a member of my family disappeared from my tree and the newspaper clippings I had added to his profile also disappeared. I re entered his name and info but now I cant access the newspaper clippings anymore and of course impossible to contact them about it.

    Reply
    • Your DNA Guide

      Hi Sue – You can find MyHeritage’s customer support phone numbers here.

      Reply
  3. Karen Cooper

    Got charged for free trial even though I cancelled. Don’t know how to get customer support now that I cancelled

    Reply
    • Your DNA Guide

      Hi Karen – You can find MyHeritage’s customer support phone numbers here.

      Reply
  4. JOY JENKINS

    Anything is better than ancestry dotcom at this point. I have a spreadsheet full of links to other sources that provide records that I can no longer find on that paid site. I do like MyHeritage as far as what I’ve found in just the basic information on family trees. I have been wanting to join so I guess I will. Thanks for the tips.

    Reply
  5. Nancybelle Jones

    I need to cancel my free trial end the subscription and have my card credited

    Reply

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