I took a wonderful webinar through the Association of
Professional Genealogists on Thursday evening on DNA and Ancestry given by
Jennifer Anderson Zinck. Although my
husband and I tested through Ancestry before their autosomal test became available
in October 2014, our earlier results are still available through the DNA tab on
the ribbon. I had thought Ancestry was no longer supporting their older tests so I was pleasantly surprised.
Understandably, the old results aren’t going to be a part of
their new communities and circles. I
decided to upload that old data into MyHeritage.com’s new DNA feature as they
recently began accepting data from other companies. MyHeritage provides the largest ethnicity estimates of all current test companies.
To upload, click on the MyHeritage DNA tab’s dropdown “Upload DNA data
NEW.” Click the pink box “Start.” Click if you are uploading your data or
someone else's. In my case, I was trying
to upload my mtDNA. Then, click the
Service Terms and Consent Agreement.
Next, click the pink box “Upload.” Ancestry downloads the results as a csv file which my
computer didn’t like. I converted it to
an Excel file as that is what it is and uploaded it.
The pop up told me “DNA uploaded successfully.” Good thing I decided to click “Manage Kits”
before I uploaded hubby’s data.
Surprise, surprise – my kit was marked “Invalid.” I thought that might be because I had changed
formats so I went back through the steps and uploaded the csv file. Again, I got the “DNA uploaded successfully”
but in checking further, it was marked as “Invalid.”
I called MyHeritage at 1-877-432-3135. Don’t get confused by the voice mail options! I wasn’t needing billing or accounting (1) or
sales (2) and the third option, tech support, says to call back between 7 am -5
pm. Since it was 9:15 AM on a weekday I thought the
phones might be down. The message
repeats twice but just hold on because you’ll eventually be placed in the queue
for assistance. I was number 9 and the
wait time was about 15 minutes.
I told the tech guy the process I had followed and it turns out that MyHeritage does not accept mtDNA or yDNA, only autosomal, which we hadn’t taken. I suggested that
the type of test be written on the site to save phone calls and wasted
time though autosomal is the way to go now and there probably aren't a lot of folks like us who have older tests.
So, if you have an autosomal DNA test done at a competitor’s
site, you might want to take advantage of MyHeritage’s free offer. Getting your data out to another site just
might unlock secrets you never knew existed.
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