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From the MyHeritage Blog:

We’re pleased to introduce a highly requested new feature on MyHeritage: you can now confirm your known relationships with DNA Matches. If you already know that a DNA Match is your first cousin, for example, you can record that relationship on MyHeritage so it appears instead of the estimated relationship.

Known relatives serve as essential reference points in genetic genealogy. By comparing other DNA Matches with the relatives you have already identified, you can recognize groups of matches connected to particular branches of your family and better understand how unknown matches may be related to you. For example, if a known cousin on your mother’s side appears among the Shared DNA Matches you have with another person, that can provide an important clue that the new match is connected to the same side of your family.

By confirming known relationships and indicating which side of the family each match is on, you can organize your DNA Matches more effectively and put those valuable reference points to work in your research. Your annotations will be useful later on, when MyHeritage introduces new features such as inferring the paternal side for new matches and automatic chromosome painting. Confirming relationships will also help MyHeritage improve the accuracy of its relationship predictions in the future.

What’s new?

Until now, MyHeritage displayed a probable relationship for each DNA Match based on the amount of DNA you share, your age, and the age of your match. Now, with this new feature, you can replace that estimate with a relationship you already know to be correct, such as a first cousin or great-aunt, and indicate whether the match is related to you through your mother’s or your father’s side.

Visit the MyHeritage blog page for directions on using this excellent new feature.

That other big website will suggest relationships, which I’ve found to be correct some of the time. MyHeritage now allows the user to confirm our exact known relationships, which adds more specific information to ancestors and collateral relatives in our family trees.

MyHeritage is offering free access to 928.4 million U.S. and Canadian census records from September 2–7, 2026. This includes 876.1 million records across 54 U.S. collections and 52.3 million records across 15 Canadian collections.

Search U.S. Census records on MyHeritage

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The records include every U.S. federal census from 1790 to 1950, along with U.S. state censuses and Canadian national censuses. Your audience can search these records for details about their ancestors’ occupations, households, residences, and more.

News from MyHeritage:

To celebrate Bastille Day, we’re offering free access to the France, Tables of Successions and Absences, 1890–1970 collection from July 14–18, 2026.  These historical records, compiled by French authorities can help uncover new branches of your family tree, making it an invaluable resource for anyone researching French roots.

Search the records NOW!

The collection includes 47.1 million historical records and fills an important gap in French genealogy, since national death records for much of this period are not yet available online. Whether your followers have ancestors who remained in France or later emigrated, these records can help confirm family relationships, identify new relatives, and lead to further discoveries in French archives.