Best software for family trees

Software downloaded from the Internet. Features User-friendly interface and powerful features make Family Tree Heritage the premier genealogy software solution! Family Tree Maker users can import their data in 2 easy steps — watch the video!

Features New Features! Access to over 14 billion historical records, photos, news stories, and documents. Features Create colorful trees, heirloom-quality charts, reports and family books that will be cherished by your family members now and in future years.

Present your research with a variety of beautiful customizable charts Family Timeline: your family's events and photos that are dated are presented in an attractive, easy-to-use Visit Site ». Legacy Family Tree. Origins Report: illustrates where you came from and the percentage of "blood" you have from your countries of origin.

Migration report: Track the spread of your decedents throughout the world. Migration Mapping: Legacy animates the ancestor's movement through time. Source Quality: Record the quality original vs derivative, primary vs secondary, etc. WebHints: auto-search online for records related to members of your family tree. Duplicate auto-check. Easy-navigation sidebar.

Easy to use explorer based help system. Open multiple databases and multiple views of the same database simultaneously. Add unlimited people, facts, events, notes, sources and more. Track multiple relationships such as adoptions Where to Buy » Amazon. Mac Family Tree. Genealogy software designed for the Mac. Interactive Tree. Fluid timelines. Webpage creation.

Associated Persons. Improved Source management. Person Merge. Search and Share Using FamilySearch. Completely new Web Export. New Virtual Tree. Virtual Globe 2. You also get smaller data fields like historical weather and next of kin details, which were missing from the previous version. In our tests, Family Tree Maker performed well for data entry efficiency, scrapbooking tools and ease-of-use.

Very few features require you open new windows, eliminating the possibility of getting lost in a sea of data. Charting is also easy so if you've never used software like this before, the learning curve is small. The scrapbooking features are also right at the top of the interface, where you can add photos, videos and other material to flesh out your family's story. On the negative side, this software is expensive, there are no warnings for when it thinks the content you are entering is inaccurate, and there is a real problem with the MacKiev website.

When you try to buy Family Tree Maker you are bombarded with unskippable messages encouraging you to buy add-ons. We actually laughed out loud when after about 20 add-ons we were offered the chance to purchase an Ancestry mug before we could check out.

Easily one of the worst shopping experiences we've ever seen on any website. If you want to get a flavour of family tree making then the Family Tree Builder from MyHeritage is a good starting point. As you build your tree you can zoom in on people and populate their record with further information. A nice touch is the option to visualise, print or download your family tree in a variety of formats to put on the wall.

You also have the option to order a DNA testing kit to find out your ethnic origins. If you want to put together a basic family tree, and you don't need to do much extra research, then FamilySearch is a good option. It's free to sign up, and you don't need to give away too much information when you first get there, so it's ideal for anyone curious about genealogy.

New updates on the site mean that you can view your family tree in a variety of ways now: landscape, portrait, by descendants, or in a fan-like arrangement, as shown above. We tested it with the family history of a staff member, and the software really struggled to represent the idea of divorce, step-siblings, and other non-traditional family settings. Recent updates mean that it is possible to create these relationships, but it's certainly not straightforward.

We also found it severely lacking when it came to suggestions and additional information - this is definitely something to pair with other research resources although, if you're using the free family tree maker on Ancestry, why would you use this at all? While it is free, we wouldn't recommend this for experienced genealogists who want to bring all their data together. Try it, get the hang of creating trees, then upgrade to something more flexible and with more features. The first two sets of GEDCOM files were purposefully large and complex, while the personal family histories were a lot smaller but contained more difficult relationships such as same-sex marriages and polygamist relationships.

Only two programs were able to perfectly interpret these files: Family Historian and Legacy Family Tree. The other programs had issues handling this much data; some completely scrapped the data, if it disliked one particular entry, while other programs retained the data but had not accurately formatted it. As such, we often found ourselves entering relationships and connections by hand. We also evaluated how easy each program is to use by looking closely at its interface design and data entry process.

Instead, you enter data in an interface that uses floating tabs and adjustable modules in a single window.

This process requires fewer mouse-clicks, so it saves time. Overall, modeless interfaces have shallower learning curves and help novices become experts quicker. Simply put, family trees work by you starting with your own name then drawing out your relationships. So, writing your name at the bottom, you would work backwards, placing down the details of your parents, then their parents, and so on - until you run out of family history.

Heredis lacks undo and redo tools and doesn't offer hints to guide you in your research. Perhaps most important, though, it didn't perform very well in my GEDCOM tests, completely failing to import one of the files and having issues with the others. Very few features require you open new windows, eliminating the possibility of getting lost in a sea of data.

For testing, we entered the information of 10 people and it took under 5 minutes. Charting is also easy so if you've never used software like this before, the learning curve is small. The scrapbooking features are also right at the top of the interface, where you can add photos, videos and other material to flesh out your family's story. Reunion 12's charting displays crisply, making your family tree easy to print out.

You can easily attach photos, video and other media to a family member via the main toolbar, which is displayed vertically on the left side of the screen. It only took us 7 minutes to enter data for 10 individuals, which is incredibly efficient compared to other products we tested that took 10 minutes or more. The programming excluded a same-sex marriage and some media files. Top Ten Reviews has reviewed genealogy software since , testing and comparing the best products on the market each year.

While this is the first time I've reviewed family tree software, genealogy is a frequent topic of conversation in my family. I've traveled to Ireland, Wales and England specifically to visit ancestral sites. Sharing research is a major part of successful genealogy work. It allows you to incorporate research from others, such as a great aunt or a cousin, into your own database. The purpose of the first two records was to test the breadth of the program, as each file had thousands of names and hundreds of families.

The other two records were made to be as difficult as possible — they included same-sex marriages, polygamist relationships and complicated mixed families.

The amount of information in these GEDCOM files was staggering, making it all the more impressive when two programs emerged with perfect results. The biggest problem programs had was excluding huge swaths of information from a family line based on one problematic entry. Another issue was errors in the media files and missing notes. Often, the data was still available, but the connections had to be re-stitched.

I also evaluated how easy each program is to use by looking closely at its interface design and data entry process.

Instead, you enter data in an interface that uses floating tabs and adjustable modules in a single window. This process requires fewer mouse-clicks, so it saves time. Overall, modeless interfaces have shallower learning curves and help novices become experts quicker. As I began researching genealogy software for this review, my family had a big party to celebrate six birthdays — siblings, nieces, nephews, grandmother. Everyone was there. At the party, I talked about reviewing genealogy software, knowing it's a topic my family is interested in.

Are you going to get your DNA tested? Aren't the services better? And they make a good point — why buy genealogy software? The software doesn't come with a database of names and records.