Labs

The traditional present to give the geek in your life at Christmas is hardware. And, as we've seen over the past few pages, there's plenty of cool gear to choose from this year. But there's a lot to be said for software; after all, anyone lucky enough to have a PC, video camera or MP3 player under the tree is going to need something to help them make the most of it.

The BBC-endorsed Family Tree Maker falls into a similar category, allowing you to follow in the footsteps of celebrities tracing their family heritage on Who Do You Think You Are? And although you don't get a team of TV researchers included in the price, you do get a free trial membership to Ancestry.co.uk, a huge online archive of official records dating back hundreds of years.

It's certainly harder work doing it on your own, but once you start making discoveries Family Tree Maker makes it easy to build up your family tree, using a simple database interface for entering details and managing relationships between your forbears. Various types of chart can be generated at the click of a button, making it a simple but functional gift for amateur genealogists.