Genealogy Information For Mac

1. Genealogy Information For Mac 2017

Research, organize and share your family tree with Gramps. Gramps is a free software project and community. We strive to produce a genealogy program that is. 1) Family Tree Maker for Mac is basically Family Tree Maker 2010 for Mac. It is based on Family Tree Maker 2010 for Windows. It does not include the updated features of Family Tree Maker 2011 (Windows). I had thought maybe it would be based on FTM 2011, but it makes sense to keep it on 2010.

This is a heavy item so postage will be increased if it is to be shipped outside the UK. Note: If you buy this item as part of an order containing items that do not have free postage you will be be charged for postage at the appropriate rate for those items.

Reunion is a genealogy software program for the Mac. It received the highest rating for genealogy software in MacWorld, MacAddict, and Mac Home Journal magazines. Reunion helps you to document, store, and display information about your family, and makes it easy to publish your family tree information online or as a large, high-resolution, graphic chart.

Reunion is a genealogy software program for the Macintosh. It received the highest rating for genealogy software in MacWorld, MacAddict, and Mac Home Journal magazines. Reunion helps you to document, store, and display information about your family - your ancestors, descendants, cousins, etc. It records names, dates, places, facts, plenty of notes, sources of information, pictures, sounds, and videos. It shows family relationships in an elegant, graphic form - people and families are linked in an easy-to-understand fashion. Reunion makes it easy to publish your family tree information - even if you want to share it on the Web. You can automatically create common genealogy reports, charts, and forms, as well as birthday calendars, mailing lists, questionnaires, indexes, and other lists.

Reunion even calculates relationships, ages, life expectancies, and statistics. Reunion also creates large, high-resolution, graphic charts allowing complete on-screen editing of boxes, lines, fonts, and colors.

Wall charts are one of its specialties. Top 20 Reasons to Buy Reunion. 1. Easy to enter your family information - Reunion lets you store every scrap of information: names, dates, places, facts, attributes, plenty of room for notes, free-form text, memos, custom fields, contact information, marital status, and even research logs. Easy to climb the tree - Use the 'tree view' and click to navigate up or down the tree.

Always know where you are in the family file. Add pictures and movies - Digitize your memories (such as old photos, birth certificates, wills, maps, movies, sound recordings, etc.) and link them to people, families, and source records. You can link multiple multimedia items to a single record, or one multimedia item to multiple records. Reunion lets you display, magnify, and reduce images on screen. It's easy to include pictures in your charts, reports, and Web output. Include a complete description and comments for each item if you like.

Genealogy Information For Mac 2017

Create slideshows with custom transitions, music, timing, image size, caption content, etc. Perfect for family reunions! Take it with you! - iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Take your family with you in a very portable format - on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Make changes, corrections, and updates while you're on the go, and then bring the changes back to your family file on the Mac.

(Reunion for iPhone/iPod Touch and Reunion for iPad are sold separately, on the App Store: iPhone/iPod Touch, iPad.). 5.

Share stuff on the web - Reunion automatically builds reports that you can upload to your web site. That's right: all the necessary files, images, and graphics are generated and linked for you inside one convenient folder for you to upload.

Choose from many elegant designs featuring CSS. Easy to find people - Quickly find people by name or perform advanced multiple-criteria searches. For example, you could search for 'all males born before 1800 in Boston' or 'all couples married in Sacramento with adopted children.' Search the web for records - Pick any person and Reunion will help you to search genealogical resources on the web. Create large, graphic tree charts including descendant charts and pedigree charts (up to 99 generations), fan charts, and timeline charts.

Provides complete on-screen editing of box color, font, font size, shadow, border, connecting lines, and captions. Move boxes or branches on-screen, by clicking-and-dragging. Automatically change chart orientation; including top-to-bottom, left-to-right, and waterfall models.

Zoom out to give you the big picture of the entire chart. See places on a map - Reunion integrates with Google Maps to get geo codes for your place entries and draw maps with pin points, for example: showing the birth, residences, and death places of a person. Handy dates - You can enter dates as they might be spoken, like a death date as '40 years 3 months 2 days after birth.'

Reunion shows the weekday for the birth, death, or marriage date, the age at marriage, the current age or life span of a person, and the length of marriage. Also, you can choose from 16 different formats for the display of dates. Identify relationships - Reunion tells you, at a glance, how people are related to you (or anyone in your family file). Creates custom lists of relatives. For example, a list of all your removed cousins or a list of all descendants.

Tells you the relationship between any two people in your records and creates a chart showing the line between the two people; also tells you the common ancestor. Wide variety of customized reports and lists - Some are automatically opened in your word processor and fully formatted with page numbers, page breaks, headers, superscript reference note citations, columns, etc. Some are 'book-style': like the narrative ahnentafel report (the ancestors of a person), Register report (the descendants of a couple), and the family history report - perfect for book publishing. Graphic forms - Print attractive family group sheets, person sheets, questionnaires, and blank forms. These are great for gathering data from relatives. Reunion lets you automatically print forms for any group of people in your file, for example a questionnaire for all your first cousins. Birthday and Anniversary reminders - Have Reunion remind you of upcoming special events in your family.

Create easy-to-customize lists of events. Import/export - Full GEDCOM import/export lets you transfer data into Reunion without re-typing. You can exchange data with users of other genealogy software (Windows or Macintosh). If you've been collecting information in FileMaker or some other database program, Reunion also features a 'text file import, to help you bring the data into Reunion. Flexibility - Reunion lets you create charts and reports for 'subsets' of your family file. For example, you can make a tree chart for 'direct lines only' or share just the relatives of your mother. Cascading Pedigree Charts - These are a series of graphic pedigree charts, 4- or 5-generations per page, that are cross referenced with continuation numbers.

Autocomplete instantly recalls the last 10,000 surnames you've entered, helping you avoid typing the same surname over and over. Source documentation - Document the sources of your information using 'shared' source records. For example, if you wish to cite a source, you only need to record details about the source one time. Information about the source (the library, the book, the microfilm, the date, the quality of the data, even scans or pictures of original documents) can be entered into a single source record, and you can cite this source on any record, in any data entry field, as many times as you want. You have the option to include sources in reports. Easy to get help - We can help you by phone and e-mail. Reunion also includes an easy to use, comprehensive e-manual.

No matter where you are in Reunion, a Help button appears that will take you instantly to the right spot in the manual. What's New in Reunion 12?.

New Duplicate Check feature - When adding a person, a new window appears showing possible duplicates to the person you're adding. You can make it as sensitive as you want. Potential duplicates can be reviewed, to help decide whether to link an existing person or continue adding a new person.

No need to look for duplicates after the fact. Sort events for everybody, marked people, or the current couple. The new Citations List is a powerful and flexible tool for reviewing, searching, and managing citations and citation detail. It's easy to see a list of citations for any person, family, or group of people. Citations can be sorted in several ways and citation detail can be edited in one place for better consistency. This new feature shows the precise usage of each citation; not just the person, but the field, source number, template, and citation detail for each citation record. Vastly improved fan charts, including: full circular fans (and any degree of spread from 150° to 360°); the ability to exclude empty cells; color controls for individual fan cells, or by generation, sex, branch, or direct line; the fine-tuning of space between generations, adjacent cells, and lines of text; control of shadows and rounded corners for cells; and much more.

New Color Tags feature lets you use color to tag people in your family file. Color tags provide visual clues to distinguish different groups of people with particular attributes. For example, people modified in the last 30 days could be given a green tag, descendants of any ancestor can be given an orange tag, ancestors of a person can be given a cyan color, people flagged as 'uncertain' can have a magenta tag, people with multiple parents can have a yellow tag, Y-DNA and mtDNA can be assigned different color tags, etc. We've greatly enhanced the ability to search for citations and citation detail. There are 3 new, powerful searches in the Find panel: Number of Citations, Cited Source Number, and Citation Detail. These are in response to wish-list requests, such as: searching for text in the citation detail field, searching for people with a particular field that has no citations, cites a certain source, or has a certain number of citations; searching for people with general source citations, etc. The possibilities are vast.

Reunion's Find feature can show you exactly where matches occur — not just the person who has a match, but the precise field where the match occurs. This happens with a new Match menu button that appears in the Results list.

The Source window now shows all elements together and visible in one glance (Source Fields, Free-Form Text, Multimedia, and the Preview). No more using tabs to see or edit different elements. All four sections are can be revealed or hidden, and they're all resizable. Reunion's web output now features 'responsive design', meaning that web pages created by Reunion will appear optimized for whatever device (desktop, phone, tablet) is viewing them.

New Book features. A new book based on a relative report, with chapters for each relationship. A new book based on an hourglass report. This book moves both directions, forward and backward in time, combining the descendants of a person, together with the ancestors of a person and/or the ancestors of his spouse. The Book Project window has clickable links, making it easier to navigate the book before creating a PDF file. For example, clicking names in the index, place index, sources, media, etc.

Also, a new History menu for backtracking as you navigate to different pages in the book. New Add Section window offers several prebuilt sections for books and a place to save/recall your own customized book sections. These include Front Covers, Back Covers, and Custom Sections.

This feature makes it easier to assemble a book from pieces that have already been created and modified to your liking. In the Sections list of the Book Project window, the titles of chapters within the main report now appear. For example, instead of showing simply 'Ancestor Report' in the list of book sections, you'll see 'First Generation,' 'Second Generation,' etc. This makes it easier to navigate to different generations or chapters in the Book Project window.

Text can be fully justified (i.e., text in paragraphs can be left- and right-justified). Preferred pictures in books can be auto-sized to a uniform width, for neater appearance alongside text. Text can be colored automatically: select different colors for males, females, relationships, and highlight the names of direct ancestors/descendants. New text variables representing the source person for the report and the type of report. In addition to names and dates, sidebars have an option to include relationships appended to each line. Two new searching features are available in reports created for the web.

A new Search menu item lets viewers of your web reports search for people by name. The integration of third-party search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, and/or DuckDuckGo) allows viewers to search your web reports for any scrap of information. Added ability to change individual events, facts, and source fields into different events, facts, or source fields on a case-by-case basis. This feature makes it easier to 'clean up' after importing a GEDCOM file; or, to tidy-up data entry. This feature appears when Control-clicking event or fact fields in Edit Person, event fields in Edit Family, and the Source Fields section in the Source window. In the Edit Person panels (Name, Events, Facts), you can Control-click citations in the Source Citations list to see a contextual-menu of features and shortcuts, including: copy, paste, remove, edit, show in sidebar, show citations to the source, show thumbnails of media items linked to the source (and/or open any of those media items) and the ability to set a source as the Automatic Source. New detection and presentation of web page addresses (URLs) in fields.

URL's in facts, structured source fields, and event memos become blue, underlined, and single-clickable. Anything that looks like a URL will be made into a clickable link. URL's in facts and facts in smart lists are clickable in the family view. URL's in note fields are clickable in the family view (if they have been converted using the 'Make link' feature). In books and web reports, facts and structured source fields with URLs will be clickable.

Missing multimedia items can be repaired with a simple drag-and-drop in the Media window or in the Multimedia Usage report. Also, missing items in the Multimedia Usage report can be double-clicked to relink/repair. In the Edit Person Name panel, a source can be dragged from a Source Citations list and dropped into the Automatic Source box. This will designate the dragged source as an Automatic source.

Lists of couples can be searched. A search box now appears in the List Couples window and also in the Results list when it contains couples. Improved 'Search the Web' feature now includes separate menus for regional groups. This makes it easier to manage the growing number of search sites around the world. For example, you can see search sites grouped by region, or enable/disable all sites in any region or country with one click. When a person is in the Clipboard, a new clipboard icon will appear with the person's name in other sidebars and in the List windows.

Multiple entries in the Clipboard can be selected and deleted. Reports that move 'forward' in time (such as the Register report, Family History, Descendant) are no longer based on a preset 'husband & wife' starting point. Instead, these reports allow the selection of either the husband or wife as the 'principal ancestor' for the report. Reunion's most comprehensive reports can be either narrative or outline style.

Many people believe the outline style is easier-to-follow. Now you have the choice when creating register reports, ancestor reports, or either of the two, new book formats: hourglass and relative. 'Find Relationships between two people' now makes it much easier to choose people to evaluate. People can be recalled from: recent Find Relationships searches, the Bookmarks, the Quickbar, the History (recently visited records), or people can be selected by ID number. 'Find Relationships between two people' now includes a Copy button that puts the relationship (as described in words/text) into the Clipboard, making it easy to paste into an email or elsewhere.

In the Thumbnails window, there's a new sharing feature that will save all images into a folder. One nifty way to use this is to make a folder of images and then configure your Mac's system Screen Saver to use that folder of pictures. The Events list has been improved in several ways. Ability to show only the events that happened in a particular place. For example, a list of death events in a specific city; or a list of burial events that reference a particular cemetery; or a list of all events that happened in Boston.

The possibilities are numerous. A marking column has been added. A Marking Shortcuts button has been added. Sorting has been improved. The first 50 characters of event memo fields can be included in graphic charts (ancestor, descendant, and relative charts) and descendant reports.

There are many cases when a few words next to the event are of interest. In the census fields, users will often add the word 'lodger' or 'living with grandparents' into the memo field. In Reunion 12, those tidbits can be included in charts (and the descendant report). In the family view, Control-click any image inside a person button to show the new Image Tools menu.

This menu includes thumbnails of all images linked to a person, the ability to change the preferred picture, and other features. When the Ages sidebar includes perspective events, each perspective event will have a unique icon reflecting the nature of milestones in the perspective event set. For example: US Flag for US presidents, musical notation for composers, soccer ball for Olympics, etc. Double-clicking on a perspective event in the Ages sidebar will open your web browser and perform a Google search for the topic/content of the perspective event.

The Place Usage list can be sorted by name or event. Just click on the column headings.

By default, it is sorted by: last name, first name, event. Lists show the number of people in each group. For example, in the Relatives list it's easy to see the number of grandchildren, great grandchildren, 2nd cousins, etc. This new feature appears in: Relatives, Treetops, Calendar, On This Date. When starting Reunion, you have the option to show the People sidebar, the Reminders sidebar, or whatever sidebar was open when you last Quit Reunion. When sharing logs, there's an option to share the selected log or all logs.

When searching for people or families by ID number, you'll see the name and key dates of the person or family number currently entered in the number field. In the General Preferences 'Font for lists and data entry,' there's a new button to restore defaults. The keyboard shortcuts for increasing/decreasing the size of text in the family view will also apply to the size of text in the sidebars and the list windows.

When making movies from slideshows, higher resolution choices are provided. Add Person Using Search is a new feature to simplify adding people who may already be in the family file. It's an alternative to looking in the sidebar for an existing person. Just enter a first name, last name, and sex and then Reunion will present a list of possible matches. When sharing the People, Results, or Events lists, the Share window provides a new option to use grouped subtitles. This consolidates the report into groups of items, making the report much easier to read.

The Source Preferences window is much wider, for those who use longer, more elaborate field and/or template names. Added ability to remove an item in a source record's multimedia list via Control-clicking.

Like most modern Mac apps, Reunion 12 has a cleaner 'flatter' appearance (buttons, lists, and such). However, if you prefer the more 'rounded' look of Reunion 11 and earlier versions, there's a button in the Family View Preferences that will revert to the older appearance. When using Match & Merge People, and using the 'Names and Dates' criteria, the evaluation of matches is more lenient, meaning it's more likely that matches will be identified. When moving the contents of any field into the User ID field, there's a new option to 'clear' all User ID field numbers before moving data into the User ID field. Previously, the data you were moving would be appended to data already in the User ID Field. A new keyboard shortcut: Press Command-Y to unmark everybody in the family file and then mark everybody listed in the current sidebar or List window, whichever is frontmost. A picture's 'sensitivity' setting will take precedence over its 'preferred' setting when creating reports and charts.

This change makes it possible to see the sensitive pictures in Reunion, but not include them in reports/charts. Searching for text in source records will use the 'word starts with' methodology to find matches, just like searching for people in the People list. That means you can search for multiple words in sources (including just the beginnings of words) and word order doesn't matter. In the List window, if there's a column showing '# of Children,' a new button appears which will show the names of children. Similarly if the List window has a column showing '# of Spouses,' a new button appears which will show the names of spouses.

In the Thumbnails window, there's a new option to show images for the 'current family.' This option appears in the Include menu. In the Thumbnails window, there's a new button for showing only images designated as 'Treat as Document.' .

For indexes in reports, there's a new option to 'use full dates' rather than just the birth/death years. Added capability to move (copy) the Person ID Numbers or the Family ID Numbers into another person or family field. Added ability to search for a word or text in any fact field.

For example, if you looked for the word 'church' in 'any fact field,' then 'church' would be found whether it's in somebody's Religion fact field, Education fact field, Occupation fact field, or any other fact field. Reunion 12 takes advantage of Apple's word processor app, Pages 6.1 (released in March 2017) in which Apple finally restored support for RTF files. Added ability to interpret more abbreviations for 'circa' when entering dates, such as 'c' and 'c.' Thus, entries like 'c 1989' or 'c. 1989' or 'c1989' or 'c.1889' all are interpreted as 'circa 1989.' This feature will help when importing GEDCOM files where such abbreviations may be used, and, if you happen to be transcribing data using these abbreviations.

The Find feature allows searching for the changed date of the contact information (for people and couples). In the List window, a column can be set-up to show 'Contact Changed Date' for contact information. When a Find has been performed on the Sources sidebar/list, there's a new feature to mark people whose information cites any of the sources in the Source list.

Increased the Clipboard limit to 750 items. Improved the handling of events in GEDCOM import/export via added support for the EVEN/TYPE tags. This should provide better compatibility with other apps and also avoid issues with 'miscellaneous events' and the use of fields with non-standard GEDCOM tags. The option to use the EVEN/TYPE tags when exporting appears in the Field preferences. When a thumbnail from Apple's Photos app is dragged/dropped into Reunion, the contents of the picture's 'Description' field will be imported into Reunion's 'Comments' field.

Added confirming messages when making child button names bold or plain (in the Change Direct Lines Bold panel). Additional Enhancements in Web Reports. In Ancestor reports with a destination of web/browser, and also in books based on the Ancestor report, the block of information about each ancestor will include the full names and dates of his/her parents. And the name of each parent is a clickable link. There's a new option for colorizing names of males, females, and relationships in web reports. When sharing lists (such as the People list, Event list, etc.) with a destination of web/browser, a single HTML file is created (rather than a folder). The list, CSS elements, and related image files are all embedded in one file.

This change makes it easier to create and send a list via email. Web family cards In web projects will include the 'Unmarried' status. Web family cards in web projects will show the correct color for sex when there is a same-sex marriage. This applies when the same-sex couple appears as the source couple and when the parents of a source person are a same-sex couple. Index and Surname pages in web reports have new options to 'use full dates' and 'show (birth-death) years.' .

Person sheets in web projects, and also Register reports for the web, will include a clickable camera icon when a person has 'family' pictures or multimedia items. This appears with the marriage information, and makes it easier to find multimedia linked to a person's family.

Genealogy Software Basics There are a bunch of things that you can expect any genealogical software to do:. Build a family tree. Record information on your ancestors: dates, locations, relationships, etc. Family Tree Maker 2017 Family Tree Maker, or FTM, has been around for decades, and is the best known and most widely used genealogy software. It packs a lot of power, and is good all-around at just about everything. Pros and Cons Family Tree Maker provides all of the features that you would expect from a genealogy program, and it does most of them very well.

The latest version of Family Tree Maker added a unique feature called FamilySync, which lets you automatically synchronize up to three family trees. This is perfect if you have relatives who are working on the same tree as you.

Any information you enter gets added to their trees, and vice versa. They have also added the ability to color code your ancestors with up to eight different colors each. This can be used to help you keep track of your research status, easily see which children were by a first wife or second wife, or any other use you can think of. Family Tree Maker 2017 also includes a lightweight built-in image editor so you can make simple changes to enhance any photos connected to your family tree. The program connects easily to both the Ancestry and FamilySearch websites, allowing you to download records directly into your tree. It also provides extensive hints on places to search for more records when you are connected to the internet.

FTM 2017 is one of very few programs that now allows you to include same-sex marriages in your family tree. On the negative side, while Family Tree Maker 2017 does offer an improved set of charts and reports, the charts are still not as extensive as Legacy 9. Also, the company that produced Family Tree Maker changed in 2016. The new company, Mackiev, has made a number of changes and improvements with their 2017 version, but don't count on them to provide much support for older versions. Family Tree Maker also tends to be the most expensive genealogy software out there, but for many people, it's worth it. Compatibility FTM is available for both Windows (7.0 or later) and Mac (10.9 or later).

Online Support Because it has been around for so long and is used by so many people, Family Tree Maker has a wealth of online support in the form of tips, step by step instructions and tutorials, and even how-to videos. Their website includes a free digital companion guide to get you started on using all of the program's features. While all this support is great in most cases, be aware that Family Tree Maker has changed a lot over the years, so some of that support might be out of date. Still, there are so many users out there that you can always find a forum to ask questions and get expert answers quickly.

Integration For years, Family Tree Maker has allowed you to connect with Ancestry to upload your family tree and to directly download records from Ancestry into your tree. With the latest release, FTM now includes that capability for FamilySearch.com as well. That means you can easily connect and share with the two largest genealogy sites out there with billions of online records available. Where to Buy Family Tree Maker is available from There is no free trial available. Legacy 9 Legacy 9, also known as Legacy Family Tree 9, is a fully featured genealogy program that is considered by many to be the best on the market today. It has plenty going for it, and only a couple of weak areas.

Pros and Cons Legacy 9 provides everything you would expect, plus a lot of neat extras that are new in the latest edition. One powerful tool is the compare two people tool, which lets you examine two people side by side. This is especially useful if you have two records with the same name, but you're not sure if they're the same person. The side by side display lets you check them out easily rather than having to keep flipping back and forth. Legacy 9 has the most extensive (and in most cases best looking) set of charts out of any genealogy program.

This gives you all sorts of options for printing out your results. The latest release even includes a new X-DNA chart to track your genetic inheritance. In addition to printed reports, Legacy 9 has built-in support to turn your family tree into a webpage automatically. It also has a built-in web browser so you can check out online sites without having to switch back and forth between windows. The program includes color coding for easy organization of your ancestors, such as tracking children from multiple marriages, and up to nine tags that can be used however you want. Legacy 9 even includes a secure online backup for your family trees, so you never have to worry about losing your database. On the down side, Legacy 9 does not support same-sex marriages yet, though that is supposed to be coming.

The Legacy website is less flashy than most and a little harder to navigate at times, but still includes a help center, forums, and more. Compatibility Legacy 9 is only designed for Windows, though their website includes instructions for how to make it work on a Mac using an emulator. Online Support The Legacy website provides a variety of training videos and programs, and an extensive help center that includes user forums, troubleshooting advice, and even a suggestion box for you to tell them what features you'd like to see added. Integration Legacy 9 is specifically designed to work with a variety of useful (and free) websites, including FamilySearch, FindMyPast, GenealogyBank, MyHeritage, and Find A Grave. It can search these sites for your ancestors automatically and give you hints on where to find more information. Where to Buy Legacy 9 is available from their, and is available in two versions.

The Standard version is completely free, allowing you to sample most of the features of Legacy with no time limit. If you want to access all of Legacy's features, you can purchase the Deluxe version.

Family Historian 6 Family Historian 6 is not nearly as well-known as Family Tree Maker or Legacy, but that doesn't mean it is any less useful when it comes to recording your findings. Pros and Cons Family Historian's greatest strength is its ease of use. If you're looking for a program that you can use right out of the box from day one, this is it. You can get started right away without having to read a lot of manuals or watch a bunch of tutorials. Entering information into Family Historian is simple and intuitive.

The main screen includes both an ancestry chart and a separate details box for a selected individual, letting you enter information without losing sight of the big picture. Family Historian includes a 'smart trees' option that lets you expand or collapse different parts of your tree as needed. That means you can concentrate on just a small section at a time without your other branches filling up the screen. The program also offers tools to view two family trees side by side so you can compare them before deciding if you want to merge them.

Family Historian includes a dynamic mapping tool that not only lets you see where your ancestors were, but lets you color code them, zoom in and out, view all the events that happened at a particular location, and more. Family Historian 6 also offers powerful tools for sharing your family tree with others in print or electronically. It includes about twice as many charts as Family Tree Maker, though not as many as Legacy 9, and they are not as artistic.

The lack of backgrounds leaves Family Historian charts looking a little dull compared to other programs. Unfortunately, Family Historian 6 does not offer any support for DNA results at this point. Compatibility Family Historian 6 runs on Windows (Vista, 7, 8, and 10). Online Support The Family Historian website includes quick start guides and tutorials, but has a more limited online community compared to other products, especially Family Tree Maker. On the other hand, because it is produced by a British company, the Family Historian community might be particularly helpful for those researching family roots in the United Kingdom. Integration The program links directly with the MyHeritage and Findmypast websites, letting you easily locate information on your ancestors and download it directly into your family tree.

However, unlike the other programs on our list, it does not include direct linking with Ancestry or FamilySearch. Where to Buy Family Historian 6 is available from. There is also a 30-day free trial if you want to test it out before you buy. RootsMagic 7 RootsMagic is not as well-known as some of the other genealogy software, but that doesn't mean it isn't just as good. It offers all of the basics you need, plus some useful bonus features.

Pros and Cons RootsMagic has some powerful features that you won't find in many programs, including the ability to have more than one database open at the same time. That makes it a lot easier to compare databases and copy information from one to the other. You can even drag and drop people directly from one database to the other. One of the best things about RootsMagic is a unique feature called RootsMagic To-Go, which lets you load a portable copy of the program onto a USB drive. That way you can take it with you and use it on any computer wherever and whenever you want. This can make doing research on the road, at libraries, courthouses, or wherever, much easier, and lets you enter search results right away. RootsMagic makes it simple to share your findings.

Built-in tools help you create custom webpages, CDs, and DVDs, and offers plenty of print options as well. This program is one of the few that currently allows you to include same-sex marriages in your family tree, and can manage other complex relationships as well. Compared to other programs, RootsMagic does not have as many charts available, but it has extensive options for creating every sort of report you're ever likely to want. On the negative side, RootsMagic's interface is not as nice looking or easy to use as other programs.

That can make it more frustrating for folks just starting out in genealogy. Compatibility RootsMagic 7 works on the greatest range of operating systems of any of our picks, including every version of Windows since Windows 2000 and XP, and on Macs (10.8 and later). Online Support The RootsMagic website is more limited than most of the others. It does include some video tutorials and how-to guides, but not as much other support, and has a smaller user community.

Integration RootsMagic 7 is able to connect and download directly from such sites as Ancestry, MyHeritage and FamilySearch, giving you access to a ton of online records and databases. Where to Buy RootsMagic 7 is available from. RootsMagic Essentials 7 is a free version of the software which includes all of the basics you need to get started, and can be used as long as you want. However, the free version does not include a lot of the best features, such as RootsMagic To-Go. Family Tree Heritage 9 Rounding out our top five picks, Family Tree Heritage 9 lacks a lot of the bells and whistles that the other programs have. Still, it covers all of the basics with flying colors, and has a few great features of its own. Pros and Cons Family Tree Heritage lets you connect to Ancestry, FamilySearch, and RootsWeb, giving you instant access to billions of online records.

Even better, it can help you add other sites as well, something most software doesn't allow. That can be a great help when searching for information from other countries around the world. Like our other top five choices, Family Tree Heritage provides web hints for getting the most out of your online connections. Family Tree Heritage has powerful tools to make it easy to merge two family trees together, saving you hours of crosschecking and identifying duplicate records.

The program makes it easy to add news sources, and a ditto tool that lets you quickly connect one source to many individuals. This can be a great time saver. One of the best features of Family Tree Heritage is the way you process bulk changes in your family tree all at once. If you find a mistake, like a misspelled town name, you only need to fix it in one spot, and the program can update it everywhere else for you instantly. Other features include a research timeline that organizes what you do (and don't) know about an ancestor chronologically, color coding to help organize family branches both on your computer and in print, and the ability to add up to three custom tags to each ancestor so you can group them however you want. Family Tree Heritage is mixed when it comes to producing charts and reports. It is great for producing quick, easy to read reports, but it has a more limited choice of charts with generally uninteresting backgrounds.

So if you want fancy charts, it's not so hot, but if you want to see your info in report format, it's probably the best. On the negative side, Family Tree Heritage is the only one of our five picks that does not include an in-app browser.

That means you have to switch back and forth between programs if you want to look up information online in most cases. However, it does support direct searching of Ancestry and FamilySearch databases from within the program. Family Tree Heritage 9 does not include a mapping feature, so you can't track your ancestors visually. It also does not support same-sex marriages. Compatibility Family Tree Heritage 9 is only available for Windows. Online Support Family Tree Heritage 9 has some online tutorials, but overall offers a lot less than the other programs on our list.

It has a very limited online community. Integration The software allows direct downloads of records from Ancestry and FamilySearch. It can often be set up to work with other websites as well.

However, it does not let you directly modify your family tree on Ancestry, only through manual uploads. Where to Buy Family Tree Heritage 9 is available from There is no free trial available. So Which Software is For You? Which program is best? As with so many things, that depends on you, and how you plan to use it. Family Tree Maker 2017 is a great all-around program for most users, especially if you want to upload your tree to Ancestry.

Legacy 9 is also a great all-around program, and provides the greatest number of charts for showing off your research. Family Historian 6 is excellent if you want ease of use. It lets you dive in right away, spending less time learning the program and more time researching your family. RootsMagic 7 is the clear (and only) choice if you want to take your research on the road and don't have a laptop.

It’s also one of the more popular picks among professional genealogists. Family Tree Heritage 9 lets you link to more online sites than any of the other programs. If you want to work together with other family members on the same tree, Family Tree Maker 2017 is the way to go. If you're looking to create a webpage from your findings, Legacy 9 and RootsMagic 7 are your best choices. If you want to create amazing looking ancestral charts, Legacy 9 is your best bet. For the most economical route, Legacy 9 and RootsMagic 7 both have free versions with no time limit, but you'll miss out on some of their best features. In the end, don't agonize too much about picking the wrong program.

In most cases, all of them will do what you need especially if you are just starting out. Worst case scenario, all these programs let you export your data as a GEDCOM file, which can be loaded into any other genealogy software. It won't copy everything, such as photos and videos, but it will save you from starting from scratch. So decide what your main priority is, pick the program that looks best for you, and get started searching for your family roots today!