Product Reviews

If you have ever wondered whether you're related to some famous historical figure, or dreamed about proving to friends that you do indeed come from a long line of infamous pirates, then you probably already have a passing interest in genealogy. But if you want to make a proper go of tracing your family tree, you're going to need more than a couple of history books, a piece of paper, Internet access and a pen.

Well GSP's Family Tree Maker is one of the best known genealogy programs available, and now in its 2005 Collector's Edition guise, it promises to make exploring your family roots even easier and more fascinating than before.

Given that genealogy software appeals to many non-technical as well as PC literate users, it's refreshing to see that Family Tree Maker goes to great lengths to make it easy for a novice to use. Its main screen is sensibly laid-out and easy to navigate, and even the most cautious of computer users will find that the comprehensive online tutorial gets them off to a flying start. GSP even provide two printed manuals that should you get entangled somewhere between two great great ancestors.

Family Tree Maker has two main views: Family and Pedigree. The Family view allows you to enter information on each individual family and add details relating to the primary couple, their parents and children. The depth of information you can attach to each individual is particularly impressive. You can add pictures and video clips using the Scrapbook, list details such as

The second view, Pedigree, is a new addition to this 2005 edition. It allows you to view the relationship between individuals and their ancestors and descendents. You can inspect from three to seven generations at a time, selecting how many you want to view from a drop-down menu. Double-clicking on an individual member of your family tree displays a window containing all their personal details. And to make it easier to find individuals within a complex tree, you can now attach a Bookmark to frequently viewed people, while a History file tracks the last 30 entries you viewed, making it easy to navigate back to them when you desire.

Other new features include the integrated web search facility that allows you to connect directly to www.ancestry.com to search for family members.

While this is primarily a US site, it does cover the rest of the world and includes UK Census information. The Collector's Edition comes with a 30-day free subscription to the UK and Ireland Collection. For deeper research it also includes a wealth of historical population information for the UK on 11 CD-ROMs. If you do find information you want to add to your tree online, you can use the Web Merge feature, which guides you through new information, ensuring that you retain all your existing entries, although there are plenty of ways to delete duplicated information later.

Once you have finally compiled your family tree, there are many ways to display it. You can choose from several different types of tree style and customising your tree with background and individual images is easily done.

A range of editable templates also help make creating your own unique tree wonderfully straightforward.

If you fancy digging up your past then Family Tree Maker is the best genealogy software on the market. The wealth of information and ease of use makes it essential for any family historian and anyone interested in tracing their ancestors.