Review by Bryan Carey

Family Tree Maker Deluxe is the latest and greatest from the company that has made its mark on the world of genealogy. Just like with the other software available from Family Tree, this software helps you build a tree, create reports, integrate with Ancestry.com, and otherwise learn more about yourself and the individuals with whom you share a common ancestry.

This version of Family Tree takes some time to install, so you might be best off just walking away from the computer for a while as it loads. If you already have an Ancestry.com account, it will take some time to import the data. About 15 minutes worked for me, and my family tree has about 8,000 members. At this point, everything is set- you just use the report tab to run reports and utilize all that the software has to offer.

For those who do not have an Ancestry.com account at present, it is easy to start building a tree. You just enter your personal information along with that of your spouse, plus parents, grandparents, etc. The software will then work its magic and start looking for matches in the database. It provides hints to review and research further, if necessary, to make sure that the hint for that person is correct.

Like other Family Tree Software, this version comes with a free membership to Ancestry.com. In this instance, the free trial is for three months, but I should caution that with this version, you have to enter a credit card number to activate the free offer. This means, of course, that you have to remember to deactivate before the end of the trial, otherwise your credit card will get charged. This is less than ideal, I admit, but it is a common way of doing business nowadays with online services.

Discovering more about ones ancestry can be fascinating and Family Tree Deluxe is a good product for this purpose. It does take a little longer to download and there is the credit card issue mentioned previously. But other than that, I found it to be a good, reliable software product with useful reports and other tools that help you expand your family tree in all sorts of new and fascinating directions.