Product Reviews

Family Tree Maker is probably the best-known genealogy software package on the market and this latest version builds on its reputation, adding extra features to make the most of online ancestor tracking. It also has an improved interface with plenty of tweaks to make it easier to use and new view options to make displaying and editing your tree even simpler.

Given that genealogy software appeals to non-technical as well as PC-literate users, Family Tree Maker goes to great lengths to make it easy for a novice to use. It's intuitive and provides a comprehensive online tutorial to get you started, as well as two printed manuals.

The software is split into two main views: Family and Pedigree. The Family view is where you enter information on each individual family, adding details relating to the primary couple, their parents and children. The depth of information you can attach to each individual is impressive. You can add pictures and video clips using the Scrapbook, as well as listing details such as allergies or serious diseases, for example, and attaching source notes to show where your information came from.

The second view, Pedigree, is a new addition.

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It allows you to view the relationship between individuals and their ancestors and descendants. You can view from three to seven generations at a time, selecting how many you want to view from a drop-down menu. Double-clicking on any individual member of your family tree displays a window containing their personal details.

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.

The new integrated web search facility allows you to connect directly to the www.ancestry.com website to search for family members. While this is primarily a US site, it covers the rest of the world as well and includes UK Census information. The reviewed Collector's Edition comes with a 30-day free subscription to the UK and Ireland Collection. It also includes a wealth of historical population information for the UK on 11 CD-ROMs.

If you find information that you want to add to your tree online you can use the Web Merge feature, which guides you through including new information while ensuring that you retain all your existing entries, although there are plenty of ways to delete duplicated information at a later date.

Once you have compiled your family tree there are many ways to display it. You can choose from several types of tree style and customise them, adding background and individual images. The software comes with editable templates to help you create a unique tree.

The wealth of information on offer in this package and its ease of use ensure that Family Tree Maker remains the best genealogy software on the market and well worth buying for any serious family historian.