Review by Patrick O

I started looking into genealogy a few years ago, not getting very far. Not enough time and I was needing to compile a few more resources to get started to find.

I had some time over the summer and started up a free trial. I got the essentials version of Family Tree Maker to add a bit more. School started (I’m a professor) and I ran out of time but I wanted to keep up with what was really moving forward. The new version came out and I happily snapped it up.

I’ve gotten my family named traced back to 1685, having started with nothing more than my grandparents names (and their kids). So, this really works. Have a crazy amount of information that has kept my family interested as I find more and more.

The key is that this program is really a companion to ancestry.com. Without ancestry.com it really doesn’t do much on its own. And really Ancestry.com itself does a major portion of anything you’d want to do. Why get the software? Because it comes with a membership. What’s the difference between the different levels of Family Tree Maker? The length of the membership it comes with. That’s it.

But, it’s the same price for a 6 month membership with Ancestry.com as this program costs that comes with the membership. So, might as well buy the program.

What are you getting. At it’s most basic, it allows you to store and maintain your genealogy data on your computer rather than trusting online connections. It allows you to maintain different genealogies and has some other features like stories and interacting with the data. Moreover, it allows you to keep up with the updated features of ancestry.com itself, which gets better and better every year.

The website has gotten much easier over the last few years and its worth having a program that keeps up with it. The program itself isn’t perfect. Take the time to go through the tutorials. It’s a bit clunky at times and not always intuitive, but once you know how it works, it starts getting more and more comfortable.

The accompanying photo software isn’t bad, but there’s much better out there, including the free GIMP.

Short version, if you’re wanting to use Ancestry.com for six months, buying this Platinum is a no-brainer. If you’re just looking to upgrade your old Family Tree Maker for its own sake, I don’t see a significant difference from my Essentials version of last year, but again, it doesn’t cost any more to get the program with the membership. It’s a great tool.