Theory of Family Relativity (TOFR) at MyHeritage
The Theory of Family Relativity (TOFR) can use your DNA matches and the many user trees on MyHeritage
to find new branches of your family
Through DNA I have connected with many 3rd and 4th cousins who share this interest
I even traveled to Norway with one 4th cousin and we stayed in the guest apartment of another 4th cousin near Drammen
Best to have a tree back to your g-g-grandparents
(all 16) or at least your greats,
n..b. sharing DNA gets less likely beyond 3rd cousins
When you have a good tree then the Theory of Family Relativity can often figure out your relationships
In order to use the Theory of Family Relativity you need a DNA test and a tree at MyHeritage
The DNA test can be a transferred test or you can test at MyHeritage
The tree needs to go to at least your grandparents and preferably further back
Comparison of two kits, one transferred and one tested at MyHeritage kit for the same person
Here is a 3rd cousin once removed compared to both those tests
To see your theories go to your DNA matches page
Click on Filters to see the filter menus,
then click on All tree details for that menu,
then click Has Theory of Family Relativity
Now just your DNA matches with theories will be listed
You can use the button Review DNA Match
or click the purple View Theory
Your match page only shows one theory,
click on the purple button View full theory
to see the other theories
Each theory is assigned a probability,
each is based on different trees or records
To go directly to the multiple theories,
on the list of matches page
Click on the purple "View Theory"
Now to evaluate a theory
This theory presumes my gg-grandad Halvard had a sister Lisbet
who is the same Lisbet who is
the gg-grandma of cousin Nilsen
Start with the known person in your tree
click on View in tree
A quick check of my tree at MyHeritage does not show his sister Lisbet but I know my tree there is not very complete
Halvar
My family tree on my PC and GENI both have Lisbet
And a quick lookup in the Etnesoga entry for Ostein's family finds her as well
(Norwegian Farm Books are a huge help for research)
So do her birth and death years match?
How about locations?
Do we have the same spouse?
My tree has no spouse or descendants, does the spouse in cousin Nilsen's tree match the records?
The farm entry for Veste in EtneSoga agrees
Time to add Lisbet and family to my tree
but I cannot just click them over yet
I need to go back to one of her parents who are in my tree
and find a record which includes Lisbet
On her mother Anna's profile page
Click on Record Matches or Research this person
Wikitree has a record which includes Lisbet
click Review match
This is what I was looking for, now click Confirm Match
Each fact can be selectively copied over
Found where we can add Lisbet to our tree!
After selecting facts to copy be sure to click
Save Record on the bottom right
Whenever I work on a match I always like to leave myself a note as to what I found
Now whenever I look at the match with John or see John in my match list the little comment icon is purple
This is a good way to keep track of the matches I have looked at and figured out
Every 3 or 4 months they run
the Theory of Family Relativity again
so when I go check my TOFR matches
I look for those with an empty notepad
I also reset the number of matches at the bottom of the page to the maximum, namely to 50!
As to that Per match, I can see immediately that the theory is incorrect because I know Halvor's father was Halvar Ostensen Skjold not Halvor Arvesen
Clicking on Halvor Arvesen shows me he came from a completely different area of Norway. My Halvor is from Hordaland
TOFR can often be fooled by the two people who have the same name and dates
so always check the location and other family members
The other way to get bad theories are errors in other trees
A common one is assigning your ancestor to the wrong spouse
Looking at a match on my mother's side with ancestors from the same small Bavarian town I see the wrong father for my gg-grandfather Solomon Langermann
Here is Solomon in my tree
My ancestress Semele was married twice, Liebmann Aaron Hoenigsberger was her first husband, Loeb Langermann was her second husband. The tree used by the theory has the wrong father for Solomon and thus the wrong relationship
Most of the theories are correct
of my 32 theories only 4 are wrong
but all have been fun to figure out!
