Thanks to changes to the MARVEL! Statewide database, local genealogists can now get free access to the MyHeritage Library Edition genealogy database.  Even better, you can get that access at home as well as at Curtis Library!

To get to the database simply go to www.curtislibrary.com, scroll down until you see the Genealogy box.  Click on that, look on the left side for the MyHeritage box and click on that and follow the link.

I have not used MyHeritage much myself but there are a few points I can mention.  Their marketing says that it is “one of the largest, most internationally diverse genealogy databases of its kind” and it provides “access to billions of historical documents, millions of historical photos and other resources in thousands of databases that span the past five centuries.”

MyHeritage started as one of the more popular companies provide DNA testing. They have an impressive 7 billion records available for research but keep in mind that ancestry.com has over 16 billion.

I would not use MyHeritage as a replacement for Ancestry but I am always happy to have a new database to search that just might have a record that I have not seen yet.  Net, for new genealogists this seems to be a very good resource (many users note that the interface is very intuitive) and for more experienced genealogists…you never know what you might find.

MyHeritage also offers a teaching blog that is definitely worth a look.  You can find the blog at   https://blog.myheritage.com/ .  Most recently the blog has offered an entire series on “DNA Basics” as well as identifying new historical records that are being added to the website.  The site is, of course, marketing the MyHeritage DNA testing options, but the content seems to make ignoring the marketing work the effort!

Happy research!