Review by Quoad Toad

Family Tree Maker 2011 is the first family tree maker I have used. I am a computer geek, but found this software wasn’t very intuitive.

The Ancestry website (which you get 3 months of access to with the software) contains a vast amount of information. It was fascinating to comb through their records and see census data going back to the 1800s and also seeing the WWI draft papers of my great-grandfathers. As you enter new family members into the tree, Ancestry looks up information and provides hints and facts for each family member. Having access to this wealth of information is great and I would give Ancestry 5 stars for the information. (One note about the information - it seems to mostly be United States records. I found no information from my ancestors’ homelands - mostly Germany and Russia. I can’t speak to whether Ancestry has access to records from other countries though.)nnThe data an essential part of this program - at least for me since my family did not keep meticulous records of our ancestors. Without the data, I would have a tiny tree, only going back as far as my great-grandparents. However, the software that creates the tree is not very user friendly or intuitive. I found myself getting lost in the tree when going back and forth between the research function and the data entry function. The software also wasn’t intuitive enough on its own to figure out siblings and parents based on the census data. All of the information would be listed - parents and children, but importing this information often takes several counter-intuitive steps. Also, I did the DNA ancestry test and although I was able to import it into my family tree, it didn’t integrate well. It’s just a fact attached to a family member and can’t even easily be seen unless I dig into that person’s record.

I was also dismayed that I had to enter credit card information even though this software came with a free trial. It is set to automatically renew and I will have to remember to cancel it on my own, which is very irritating. I hate when companies use this sort of marketing tactic. It really turns me off.

Despite the issues detailed above, I am still having fun using this product. Many improvements could be made to the software, but I still at least partially recommend this software to others - especially those who would find the data helpful.