Add your name, sex, birth date, birthplace, and your parents' names, and then name the tree. The tab you'll use most is the Plan tab, which is basically the main dashboard where you create and edit trees and manage tasks (freeform to-do lists) that you've created.īuilding a tree is straightforward just go to the Plan tab and click on "new tree." As in Ancestry, the easiest place to start is with yourself. (Opens in a new window) Read Our Family Historian 6 Reviewįamily Tree Maker has seven different tabs: Plan, People, Places, Media, Sources, Publish, and Web Search. The two sites should be integrated better, or even collapsed into one. Issues like these bothered me throughout: when I navigated the Family Tree Maker site, I was often sent to the Ancestry site with no obvious way to get back. My username for Ancestry is my email address, but it was rejected by Family Tree Maker I eventually figured out that I just needed to provide the start of my email (everything before the sign), which struck me as odd I'd expect better consistency across the two products. To link the two accounts, you log into Ancestry from within Family Tree Maker, but the process is not straightforward.
If you have any gaps in knowledge about your extended family, you'll really want an Ancestry account. Once you launch the software, you can link it to your Ancestry account to gain access to numerous resources, such as birth, death and census records to fill in any unknown information about your ancestors. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. ( See how we test everything we review (Opens in a new window).) That alone would probably be enough to deter the average user. I eventually completed the download after using three different forms of technical support.
Even worse, that update, which was deemed mandatory, failed multiple times, and I couldn't run the software after several tries-even after restarting my computer.
This is irritating I can understand needing to run an update for software I install using a CD I'm not so forgiving when it's a download. After a few steps, I was prompted to download an update. I opted for the download option, although installing it wasn't as simple as I expected. Both PC and Mac versions are available if you opt for the CD version, you'll have to pay $9.95 for shipping and handling. The regular price for the download is $39.99, though it was on sale for $29.99 when I purchased it. You can download Family Tree Maker from the Web or order a CD there's no free trial. On its own, Family Tree Maker ($105.00 at Amazon) (Opens in a new window) is very basic software, and doesn't offer the level of guidance that Ancestry possesses. Furthermore, the integration is clunky and confusing. If you want access to Ancestry's array of research resources, you'll have to create an account and link it to your Family Tree Maker account, however.
It's owned by Ancestry ($19.99 at ) (Opens in a new window), our Editors' Choice for genealogy software.
Tracing your roots can be a fun activity and Family Tree Maker 2014 ($39.99 download) gives you a place to store your research results and print out basic charts of your family lineage.
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