We have some fantastic free webinars from Legacy Family Tree Webinars in July, plus a free genealogy conference AND a new benefit for your society members. Check out the details below and let your audience know about July 2022’s live webinars:
The Madness of ‘Mc’ Surnames by Carol Baxter
What’s New at DNA Painter by Jonny Perl
Exploring Your Ethnicities on MyHeritage by Gal Zrihen
Montana Genealogy Treasures by Janet Thomson, Ed.D.
Colonial Spanish & Mexican Censuses & Census Substitutes by Henrietta Martinez Christmas
Les nouvelles collections belges sur MyHeritage (French) by Marie Cappart
Ancestors’ Religions in the U.S. by Carolyn L. Whitton, CG
Our hour to master your camera settings by Jared Hodges
MyHeritage’s Latest Photo Innovations by Tal Erlichman
Treat yourself to a genealogy conference Saturday, July 23! Join us at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com/conference to enjoy five, completely FREE, pre-recorded classes on the topic of Military Research. No registration is required.
Be sure to spread the news far and wide so your friends and followers don’t miss out on this fantastic FREE content! You can use the graphic above.
New benefit for your society members
I know of the challenge of recruiting new members for your society and hoping that your current members will renew. We’ve now created a new membership benefit that you can offer to your members and potential members that I think will help solve these challenges.
In addition to the free webinars at Legacy, the complete back-library of 1,700+ webinar recordings is available with a webinar membership. As a new membership benefit for your society members, you can now offer them a first-year 50% off discount for a webinar membership (regular pricing is $49.95, the discount would make it $24.98, valid for new memberships only). Included in the membership are:
Anytime access to the recorded webinars (currently 1,798 classes)
Anytime access to the instructor syllabus (currently 6,643 pages)
Anytime access to the chat logs of the live webinars
Bonus members-only webinars
Lots of other goodies
Please write to Geoff Rasmussen at Geoff@LegacyFamilyTree.com to obtain your society’s unique coupon code or if you have any questions. He has also prepared a draft announcement you can share with your group. Sounds like a great opportunity.
Best regards!
Daniel Horowitz
Genealogy Expert
MyHeritage Ltd., P.O.Box 50, 3 Ariel Sharon Blvd., Or Yehuda, Israel 6037606, Israel, +972-3-6280000
I’m excited to tell you that MyHeritage has just completed an additional update to the data for our ultimate genetic genealogy tool, Theory of Family Relativity™!
In case you’re still unfamiliar with Theory of Family Relativity™, this feature pulls together billions of data points from across all the family tree profiles and historical records on MyHeritage to bring you theories about how your DNA Matches may be related to you. The calculations are run on a periodic basis, and since our last update, countless new DNA kits, family tree profiles, and historical records have been added to MyHeritage.
This means that the number of theories, the number of DNA Matches that include a theory, and the number of kits that have a theory have all increased significantly — and so have your chances of getting a new theory! As a result of this new update 25,636,711 Theories of Family Relativity™ were added.
Check out our blog post to learn more about this update, and feel free to use the graphic below and spread the news.
Best regards!
Daniel Horowitz
Genealogy Expert
MyHeritage Ltd., P.O.Box 50, 3 Ariel Sharon Blvd., Or Yehuda, Israel 6037606, Israel, +972-3-6280000
We are thrilled to tell you that we’ve passed the half-season point in Season 1 of our podcast, Blast From My Past — available on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Blast From My Past podcast features the incredible true stories of people whose lives were changed by what they discovered through MyHeritage about their family’s pasts — whether it was a close relative they never knew existed, the key to unlocking an old family mystery, or a newfound connection to a long-forgotten legacy.
Here’s a brief recap of the season so far:
Episode 1: “The Secret of Ereikoussa“ — Yvette Corporan had to know: did the entire Greek island community where her grandmother grew up really conspire to hide a Jewish family, right under the noses of their Nazi occupiers? Follow her quest to confirm this extraordinary story… and find out what happened to the family her grandmother helped to rescue.
Episode 2: “The Missing Piece” — Abandoned at the same train station in Daegu, South Korea, just weeks apart, Kim and Christine were placed for adoption on opposite sides of the globe and grew up unaware of each other’s existence. Then came the DNA test results that changed everything.
Episode 3: “The Hero Who Fought Both Sides“ — In a 1933 photo, a Jewish shopkeeper, decorated with a German military medal from WWI, smiles wryly right next to a Nazi guard outside his shop. Who was this man, and what happened to him in the dark years? The answer tells an astonishing story of courage.
Episode 4: “The Real Uncle Sam“ — He wants YOU to join the U.S. Army. But who is this Uncle Sam in that iconic recruitment poster? It turns out that he was based on a real person — and this is his fascinating story.
Episode 5: “The Colombian Link“ — When a pair of Colombian half-brother adoptees reunited thanks to a DNA test, they couldn’t have known that their journey to find their birth families had only just begun… or exactly how far that journey would take them.
There are plenty more beautiful and mind-blowing stories on the way! Please help us reach a wider audience by sharing about the podcast and encouraging everyone you know to follow or subscribe to it, too.
Enjoy!
Daniel Horowitz Genealogy Expert
MyHeritage Ltd., P.O.Box 50, 3 Ariel Sharon Blvd., Or Yehuda, Israel 6037606, Israel, +972-3-6280000 UnsubscribeManage preferences
I’m proud to share that the third installment of the indexed 1950 U.S. Census records are now live on MyHeritage, this time from Alaska, New Hampshire, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Last week, we released indexed records for Wyoming, Delaware, Vermont, and American Samoa. Today, an additional 763,697 were added for a total of 1,847,635 records in the 1950 U.S. Census Index.
As before, all these records are free to search, view, and add to your family tree on MyHeritage!
Check out the blog post to learn more, and feel free to use the above graphic when spreading the word.
More indexed records are on the way, so stay tuned!
Enjoy!
Daniel Horowitz Genealogy Expert
MyHeritage Ltd., P.O.Box 50, 3 Ariel Sharon Blvd., Or Yehuda, Israel 6037606, Israel, +972-3-6280000
As you probably remember, we released LiveStory, an incredible new feature that makes your photos speak, at RootsTech. The response has been enthusiastic: in the first two weeks, over a quarter of a million LiveStories were created by MyHeritage users. People are just loving this new feature and can’t get over how incredible it is to witness their ancestors and historical figures telling their stories!
We compiled some of our favorite responses — and some amazing examples of LiveStories — from social networks, blogs, and the media in this blog post. We also announced a competition inviting people to share their LiveStories for a chance to win a free MyHeritage Complete plan — details in the post. Be sure to let your friends and followers know so they can enter!
Have you created LiveStories for your own family members yet? Share them with us on social with the hashtag #mylivestory or by email to stories@myheritage.com.
Enjoy!
Daniel Horowitz Genealogy Expert
MyHeritage Ltd., P.O.Box 50, 3 Ariel Sharon Blvd., Or Yehuda, Israel 6037606, Israel, +972-3-6280000
I know you’ve received a flurry of emails from MyHeritage over the past week and I promise this is the last in the series 😉 I just want to make sure that all these important announcements don’t get lost in the shuffle, so I’m providing a quick recap:
LiveStory: At our RootsTech keynote, we announced the release of LiveStory: an incredible new feature that makes your family photos speak and creates amazing video biographies of your ancestors! Click here to read the blog post announcement, here to try it out, and here to see an awesome video about it, which we invite you to share.
Blast From My Pastpodcast: On March 2, we launched our first-ever podcast, featuring stories of people whose lives were changed by what they discovered through MyHeritage. Click here to read more about it and here to follow and listen to the podcast.
Family Tree Timeline: Another big feature we launched in time for RootsTech is Family Tree Timeline, a new view of your family tree that allows you to explore how your family history unfolded over time. Click here to learn more.
1950 U.S. Census hub: On March 3, we launched a brand-new content hub gearing up to the release of the 1950 U.S. Census next month. It’s a fantastic resource for educating people on census records and what they can teach you about your family history. We would greatly appreciate it if you could include it in any list of resources you may be compiling! Click here to check it out.
Filae family tree profiles: At the end of February, we added 269 million family tree profile records from Filae to MyHeritage. You can read more about it here.
I think that should cover it! I look forward to hearing what you think, and please help us let the world know about these fantastic additions to the world of genealogy.
Enjoy!
Daniel Horowitz Genealogy Expert
MyHeritage Ltd., P.O.Box 50, 3 Ariel Sharon Blvd., Or Yehuda, Israel 6037606, Israel, +972-3-6280000
3rd annual 24-Hour genealogy webinar marathon We’re excited to announce The 3rd Annual 24-Hour Genealogy Webinar Marathon hosted by FamilyTreeWebinars.com and MyHeritage. The marathon will begin on Thursday, April 7 at 5pm eastern U.S. time (Friday, April 8 at 7am Sydney time) and end on Friday, April 8 at 5pm eastern U.S. time (Saturday, April 9 at 7am Sydney time).
You will learn how to trace your ancestors from the world’s top genealogists and educators. From the 1950 U.S. census to DNA, from Airtable, hard drives and iPads to Poland and Scotland, there’s something for everyone… in every time zone. And thanks to FamilyTreeWebinars.com and MyHeritage, the entire event is free! Pop in for a session or two, or stick around for the full 24 hours — it’s completely up to you. There will even be time for Q&A and door prizes.
How to Listen In
Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com/24. Live attendance for each session is limited to the first 1,000 attendees. If you can’t join us in real time, we’ve got you covered: all recordings will be available afterwards absolutely free for a week. Beyond that, you can watch them anytime with a webinar membership to FamilyTreeWebinars.com.
The Lectures
Viewers will enjoy a wide variety of lectures of genealogy and DNA. Each class will be 45 minutes long including time for questions at the end. Here’s the classes.
– Everything You Need to Know About the 1950 Census by Lisa Louise Cooke – Confirming Smart Matches™ and Record Matches by Daniel Horowitz – What’s New in Jewish Genealogy 2022 by Ellen S. Kowitt – Smarter Searching: Refining Search Parameters for Genealogists by Cyndi Ingle – The Geography of Genealogy in Europe by Dave Obee – Using Macs and iPads for Genealogy by Nancy E. Loe, MA, MLS – Supercharge your Research Spreadsheets with Airtable by Francine Crowley Griffis, CG – Writing as You Go is the WAY to Go! by Elissa Scalise Powell, CG – In Your Ancestor’s Kitchen: Researching the Items You Remember by Gena Philibert-Ortega – Polish non metrical genealogy sources by Kinga Urbańska – Analyzing My DNA Matches by Gal Zrihen – Clans and Families in Scotland by Dr. Bruce Durie – Who were the Scots-Irish? by Natalie Bodle – Introduction to Swedish Military Records by Kathy Meade – Searching for My Ancestors’ Records by Moshe Etlis – Sons of the Soil: researching our British agricultural labouring ancestors by Janet Few – The Lady of the Scrapbook: A Newspaper Case Study by Mary Kircher Roddy, CG – Simply using timelines will make a difference in your research! by Dr. Shelley Viola Murphy – Organizing My Photos by Keren Dotan – Spinsters and Widows: Using Women to Reconstruct Families by Shannon Green, CG – Doing Time – Prison Records as Genealogy Resources by Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL – Hard drive and SSD drive failure rates and what to do by Andy Klein – Family Discoveries in Minutes by Devin Ashby – Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians–Oh, My! by Sunny Morton
As we just announced in our RootsTech keynote address, I’m pleased to introduce LiveStory: an incredible new feature that allows you to create animated videos of your ancestors telling their life stories. This feature was developed using AI technology pioneered by D-ID, the company that helped us bring you Deep Nostalgia™ last year. Here’s a short and fun introduction to LiveStory video.
Imagine watching a realistic simulation of how your great-grandfather may have looked and sounded telling the story of his life. That’s exactly what you can do with LiveStory.
You can easily create a LiveStory from scratch, all you need is a photo and a short narrative written in the first person, and you can create a LiveStory in just minutes! But those who already have family trees on MyHeritage are in luck, because MyHeritage can create an automatic LiveStory for you by pulling details and photos from your tree. You can edit the narrative and add chapters and photos, customize the voice, and preview the result as much as you like until your LiveStory is ready to share with your family and friends.
Feel free to use the above graphic when spreading the word (and video)… and of course, share your LiveStories far and wide! I can’t wait to see what you do with it.
Enjoy!
Daniel Horowitz Genealogy Expert
MyHeritage Releases LiveStory, A Groundbreaking Feature That Automatically Creates Video Biographies, Using D-ID Pioneered AI Technology
Tel Aviv, Israel, and Lehi, Utah, March 3, 2022 — MyHeritage, the leading global service for discovering your past and empowering your future, and Creative Reality™ startup D-ID, announced today the release of LiveStory, a groundbreaking new feature that creates captivating video biographies. LiveStory automatically produces an animated video of a user’s ancestor telling their life story, weaving together photos and details of their life into a narrative that is told by a speaking portrait of the person.
LiveStory is powered by some of the most advanced AI technologies available today. The technology for the speaking portrait was licensed by MyHeritage from D-ID, a company specializing in video reenactment using deep learning. MyHeritage first integrated D-ID’s technology inDeep Nostalgia™ to animate the faces in historical photos. Deep Nostalgia™ launched in February 2021 to wide acclaim and became a global sensation. MyHeritage soared to the #1 spot in the app stores in over 30 countries, and since its launch, nearly 100 million animations have been created. With LiveStory, MyHeritage and D-ID take this concept further by adding audio and building a compelling narrative of a person’s life events. The narrative is created automatically from the user’s family tree on MyHeritage, or entered manually, and is converted to high-quality audio using text-to-speech technology. Cutting-edge reenactment technology then animates the person’s face and mouth to speak the audio by generating a realistic lip sync. The animation is automatically enhanced with photos curated from the family tree, or uploaded and paired with the narrative. This results in short and engaging videos that users can download, share directly with family and friends, and post on social media.
Where Deep Nostalgia™ amazed millions by animating the faces of beloved ancestors, its successor, LiveStory, gives voice to one’s most interesting family stories in a remarkable new way. LiveStory is fully customizable; the narrative, photographs, and voice can all be edited and previewed until the desired result is achieved. LiveStory currently supports 31 languages, dozens of dialects, and hundreds of voice personas, as well as male and female voice options.
MyHeritage has established a policy to prevent abuse of the technology and the creation of “deep fakes”. LiveStory is intended to be used only on photos of deceased people, typically one’s own ancestors, and should never be used on a photo of a living person without their permission. Use of content that is obscene, false, or offensive is expressly prohibited.
Some may find the feature uncanny, however, initial reactions to LiveStory have been outstanding. Noted genealogist James Tanner called the feature “jaw-dropping” and “more than fabulous” after seeing a LiveStory of his grandfather. Writer, author, and renowned lecturer Lisa Alzo was moved to tears by a LiveStory of her late father and said, “I am in awe of this technology. LiveStory gives us a whole new way to experience and share family stories that will resonate with younger and older audiences alike, and is particularly useful for generating video biographies of people who lived before video was invented.”
“LiveStory takes storytelling to the next level,” said Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. “With this latest viral feature, MyHeritage continues to lead the world of online family history in both vision and innovation. Our use of AI to breathe new life into historical photos is unique and is helping millions of people cultivate a renewed emotional connection with their ancestors and deceased loved ones. Genealogy is all about telling and preserving our family stories. We keep showing the world how fun and compelling genealogy can be.”
“Following the dizzying success of Deep Nostalgia™, we are thrilled to team up with MyHeritage once again to create another mind-blowing experience that will change the way people interact with family history,” said Gil Perry, Co-Founder and CEO of D-ID. “LiveStory leverages AI-powered video reenactment to give voice to the stories of our ancestors. We are delighted by such a moving and inspiring application for our technology and our strong, ongoing partnership with MyHeritage.”
LiveStory is a freemium feature on MyHeritage, available on desktop, mobile web, and the MyHeritage mobile app. Users can create several LiveStories for free. Beyond that, additional use requires a subscription. LiveStories can easily be shared with friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and other social media.
About MyHeritage
MyHeritage is the leading global discovery platform for exploring family history. With billions of historical records and family tree profiles, and with sophisticated matching technologies that work across all its assets, MyHeritage allows users to discover their past and empower their future. MyHeritage DNA is one of the world’s largest consumer DNA databases, with 5.6 million customers. MyHeritage is the most popular DNA test and family history service in Europe. Since 2020, MyHeritage is home to the world’s most advanced AI technologies for animating, repairing, enhancing, and colorizing historical photos. www.myheritage.com
D-ID is a Tel Aviv-based Creative Reality™ startup specializing in patented video reenactment technology using AI and deep learning. D-ID’s products range from animating still photos, to facilitating high-quality video productions, and creating viral user experiences. With funding from tier 1 VCs, D-ID aims to radically disrupt the time, hassle and costs involved in video production, allowing for the creation of highly personalized media using AI, specifically in history, e-learning, corporate training, marcomms, AI assistants, and the Metaverse. With international customers, D-ID’s core competencies in the human face and deep learning enable its partners to create exciting and engaging content that was until now unimaginable. To find out more, visit www.d-id.com.
I am thrilled to announce the launch of our first-ever podcast, Blast From My Past — now available wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify and Apple.
The Blast From My Past podcast will feature the incredible true stories of people whose lives were changed by what they discovered through MyHeritage about their family’s pasts — whether it was a close relative they never knew existed, the key to unlocking an old family mystery, or a newfound connection to a long-forgotten legacy.
Our debut episode, “The Secret of Ereikoussa,” drops today! It tells the story of Yvette Corporan, a bestselling author, and Emmy Award-winning producer who set out on a quest to confirm the extraordinary story her grandmother told her: that the Greek Island community where she grew up conspired to hide a Jewish family right under the noses of their Nazi occupiers. Listeners will follow along as Yvette digs for clues, and, with the assistance of MyHeritage CEO Gilad Japhet, makes discoveries beyond what she had ever imagined.This episode is just the first in a series of breathtaking and deeply moving stories. We can’t wait to share the rest of them with you!
The first announcement is that we have just added 269 million family tree profile records from Filae to MyHeritage. If you have French roots, you will almost certainly find some family members in this collection. This addition comes alongside the 8 million other historical records we added from France and Norway since the beginning of 2022. Please read more here.
The second announcement is that we’ll be running a special offer for uploading DNA kits to MyHeritage. From tomorrow, March 1–8, 2022, people who have taken a DNA test with other services will be able to upload their DNA to MyHeritage and enjoy all our advanced DNA features for free — including Ethnicity Estimates, Chromosome Browser, Theory of Family Relativity™️, and more. If you tested with another DNA service and haven’t uploaded your DNA to MyHeritage yet, there’s never been a better time! Visit myheritage.com/dna/upload to get started.
Please be sure to spread the good news to your friends and followers!
And of course — don’t forget to tune in to our annual keynote on the RootsTech main stage this Thursday at 2:30 P.M. MST. Trust me, it will be worth it!
Enjoy!
Daniel Horowitz Genealogy Expert
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