Product Review: Family Tree Maker

When I first started working on my family history, the only thing I used for keeping track of my information was paper and a typewriter. No, not a computer but a typewriter, very few people owned computers at that time let alone used it to keep track of a family history. When we finally bought our first computer, we used a free program to log in all of our information; it was called Brother’s Keeper. I don’t even know if it still exists. For what type of computers we had back then, it was amazing the amount of information you could store in the program. Just to let you know this was before there was a World Wide Web. I know ancient times and some of you can’t even imagine what that was like.

A few years later we bought our first software package for family history research, Family Tree Maker. Every few years I upgrade my software so that I can’t get the latest technology available. It is an easy to use program; that allows you to upload pictures and put more information into the program. You can print out group sheets to help you keep track of your family and even print out ancestral sheets to give you a broader list of how things look and where you have gaps.

I haven’t found a problem with this software. It is simple to update. You can find information simply by going to the index and you can add more than one spouse. You can also attach a child to a family even if the couple isn’t married.

Overall, I would recommend Family Tree Maker to other budding genealogists. You can buy is relatively inexpensive and you don’t have to upgrade every year. It will be an asset to your genealogy research. As always good luck and happy hunting!