Beware!! Legacy-MyHeritage tie in!

As I found My Heritage the stuff of nightmares long ago, to say I was alarmed to see Legacy extolling the virtues of a tie in with My Heritage, and enough to bring me out in a cold sweat.

A few months ago, after sounding out the Forum for a recommendation for a replacement for my old trusted Family Tree legends (FTL) -now obsolete - I settled on Legacy. To be fair even in the short space of time of using, I have come to accept Legacy and indeed recently updated to Legacy 9.0. Then today I receive an email from Legacy citing the experiences of a Webinar between Legacy & My Heritage...concluding:

..."Since the webinar and with my recent personal discoveries with MyHeritage, I believe MyHeritage is quickly becoming the next big thing for genealogists. It has been for me...Geoff Rasmussen, Legacy developer and host of Family TreeWebinars.com.."

Followed by:

..."Now that Legacy 9 provides both Record Matches to My Heritage's historic records and Smart Matches to their online trees, this is the time for you, too, to give (Legacy 9.0) it a try..."

The email then offers (Legacy Users) a 40% off 'MyHeritage Data Plan for just $89.55 which expires Sunday night, June 4.

People who have not experienced MyHeritage historical records -at the latest count 7.7 billion of names - will I am sure be tempted. Why wouldn't they as it offers access to the world's greatest FH Database, but it is a fairy land world believe me, and puts Ancestry into the third division.

It has taken me all this time to realise existing Legacy Hints are courtesy of MyHeritage historical records despite exhaustive (I thought) research to ensure there was no such tie-in. There is no danger I will be using them and, for that matter, will likely discontinue using Legacy...period!

I always liked the Ancestry syncing facility offered by FTM and may resurrect that once MacKiev get their act together with FTM 2017, currently offering test drives. But there is no way I will accept any FH software that offers links to My Heritage even if discovered after the event.

But of course remember it is just my own opinion...so caveat emptor!

 

I agree, Bob, that Legacy's espousal of My Heritage is terrible but it's very easy to ignore it: simply don't tick My Heritage at 8.13 under Customise > View. As it happens, I don't tick Findmypast either because I got tired of getting hints for info I already had.

 

I am curious - what was bad about My Heritage? Never been tempted to use it as Ancestry and Find My Past have me well covered!

 

I'll leave Bob to answer that as it's his pet hate and it's such fun when he gets really uptight about something.

 

Thanks Gillian and may I say nice to have you back, well at least with a new post and yes My Heritage is one of my pet hates.

 

Thanks and duly noted as I continue with the basic Legacy for now.

 

But why is it a pet hate? Were their results all wrong? Was it confusing to use? Its OK I don't want to use it but I do have Legacy as one of my family history software packages.

 

Come on, Bob. Own up. I can't answer for you because I never use My Heritage - seriously at any rate.

 

He seems very coy Gillian

 

He's probably piling up ammunition.

 

Well where do I start? And for the record you will find older postings on the Forum which will elaborate on the points I am about to recall; but here is the gist of my MH experiences.

Many years back I came across MyHeritage (MH) and curiosity caused me to take advantage of one of their Free Offers (my first Ha Ha!). I was impressed and taken aback with all the 'Smart Matches' offered, which led on to communications with other members, mostly from far flung places, mainly America and a fair following in Australia. Suddenly I was everyone's friend and all claiming kinship of one sort or another; (my second Ha Ha). However although they could communicate with me, MH insisted I could only reciprocate by becoming a full member. So biting the bullet I chose the cheapest option and joined.

It took a few months of intensive backwards and forwards interactions - with MH repeatedly reminding I would get more out of my membership by upgrading to Gold or Platinum (or whatever they called the various upgrades) - before it dawned on me that many claiming to be related were nothing of the sort; not even close. In fact the second dawning was to realise many were plain cranks; nice people no doubt and well intended, no doubt, but cranks nevertheless. Even when I felt bold enough to repudiate their claim they would either ignore my response, or insist they were right. But the final straw came when I realised that there were people claiming bloodline link back to royalty, legends of history, and -wait for it - even biblical figures. It was in fact self perpetuating as everything went into the MH's data base causing more people to proclaim the same things; especially sadly those in the US.

In time I made the decision to ditch MH and found a UK soul mate with a true family link - the one good thing that came out of my MH membership -and communicating by email, both decided to leave. Then came the scenario of trying to cancel our memberships. Oh the surface no problem but the wrangling asking them to our Tree Data Bases went on for months until they finally agreed. I vowed never to return and would warn those who were minded to join.

Many reading the above might think it is not MH but its membership that are at fault, as many think the same about Ancestry; but MH is far more sinister as it has become a Behemoth. From the very beginning it decided to grow by buying out other companies and absorbing their data bases (my old Family Tree Legends being one such). I suspect also there are 'hand-shake' liaisons with other data bases still to be uncovered as well as the one we now know about, its offer of tit-for-tat linkage with Legacy.

Of course this is a subjective point of view and although I know from the past others have agreed with it, there may still be those who actually enjoy MyHeritage and all that it offers. After all 7.7 Billion data base names is a pretty large number by any standard. However whether by the front door or back door, I still think teaming up with MyHeritage deserves the warning 'Beware: All Who Enter'.

 

Tut Tut...I have just read your little ad libs and bon mots (thank you Tim). You must all learn to wait. Rome wasn't built in a day you know, and trying to recall the events of years past is not easy at my age; but Gillian had it to right about building up ammunition.

But now you have my response and I apologise for its brevity. My excuse? It will soon be time for tea...as the Dormouse said to Alice

 

I knew it would be worth waiting for and I hope you still have some ammunition for your next salvo, wherever it may be needed.

 

I wholehearted agree with Bob's points, they are one of the reasons I never use tips or hints from other sites, it was only recently I discovered that aspect of CantFindMyPast and I gave that option up after 10 minutes.

At the risk of upsetting Bob I must come clean, I was involved with MH before it got to testing, this was when it was closed code, alpha testing and into the public beta testing. Even before it was made available for people to add data there were many 'discussions' about their lack of interest in genealogy and the prime focus being an income stream from unreliable facts. I left the project before they ever got around to paid memberships.

 

Only just got round to picking up on this advice Gillian and I bow to your advanced knowledge on Legacy. This morning it asked (for the first time since using) if I wanted to view 'Hints' as available. Now I admit to enjoying Ancestry Hints, but I want nothing to do even remotely with Hints originating via MH. So 8.13 duly unticked as you recommend. Thank you.

 

I am not upset at all Rhian, especially as you highlight the point that became so obvious in the end, their interest is 100% income stream (as you so succinctly put it) riding on the back of faux genealogical research.

One point that brought this home to me was when uploading a new Gedcom to their site (with a new suffix update xxx #1,xxx #2 sort of thing) I would find my old Trees still showing and -quite unbelievably - getting Smart Matches back to previous Trees. I stopped updating in this way and I think they grew tired of me asking them to take down obsolete Trees. They did so however reluctantly, and it took several months at the end to get them to remove ALL my Trees.

 

I decided not to comment on Legacy's 'bleeding heart' email trying to entice subscribers to join the My Heritage tie in before the June 4th deadline. They could extend it to the year's end and I would not accept same and I now believe Legacy have tainted their image, which is sad. But then in this weeks Computer Magazine what should I find but a letter to the Magazine asking 'Can My Heritage raise prices without warning?' which caught my attention and evoked memories of way back . Here is the gist of the letter sent to the part of the Magazine that deals with readers consumer problems.

The reader advised that MH -without prior warning (which is the important bit)- charged £60 more than the previous years subscription and the person had enabled auto renewal!. He only found this out when checking his Bank Statement so when he complained to MH he was outside their 14 day cancellation period so they refused to take any action (I was tempted to tell them MH would have wriggled out even if within the 14 day period as they did with me, or at least they tried to). The advice from the magazine of course was that all RENEWAL price increases MUST be notified well in advance of implementation. MH say this happened, the reader says it didn't otherwise he would have cancelled. Apparently such things are difficult to counter this as it is known as proving a negative.

The Magazine are exploring the matter and I wish them luck as I know once hooked MH have a myriad of ways of enticing subscribers to pay more. Is it any wonder I advise against getting involved with MH...and I have since learned that My Heritage also offer DNA testing at the same price as Ancestry's current reduced offer. Be afraid, be very afraid!

 

ALARM BELLS ARE RINGING...
MY HERITAGE ACQUIRES LEGACY FAMILY TREE

Extract from email from My Legacy...




Not surprising given Legacy's tie-in with MH (see above) but a sad day. I have been trialing Legacy for only a comparatively short time following the demise of my Family Tree Legends, but had grown to like it. Others have used it considerably longer. I'm afraid the MH acquisition means I must say goodbye to Legacy. Perhaps now I may consider the MacKiev version of FMT a possible replacement? But how much longer before MacKiev & MH shake hands (assuming they haven't already)...the stuff of nightmares.

 

I saw that yesterday but was waiting for your comment, Bob. Horrors of all horrors. I, too, now have to consider changing to some other software but really don't want to as I've used Legacy since Day One so to speak and have grown to like it, especially now they have a cloud, where I can swiftly and safely store my stuff. I feel a bit like Rex Harrisson here