The first presentation of the Genealogy Software Showcase is a roundup – a look at some of the top tree building software on the market.

Software only has value when it works for us. While tree building software can do many things, it has two main jobs:

• Provide a way to store and organize our research data (database).
• Present that data to us in a meaningful way (graphs and reports)

In this post we look at the first job of tree building software. Specifically we will look at how each program handles data entry.

I know, it sounds boring. But it is a critical part of our research, and if these programs can make the task easier, well…

In each program I will enter the same three generations of my family. For each person I will include birth date, death date, and marriage date. This should give us a good look at the design of each user interface, how it handles names, dates, and relationships.

For time’s sake, not all of the demonstrations in this post were included in the Livestream.

RootsMagic 7

Publisher: RootsMagic, Inc
Designer: Bruce Busby
History: Been around since 2001, Family Origins before that
http://rootsmagic.com/

Family Tree Maker 2019

Publisher: The Software Mackiev Company
Designer: Originally Kenneth L Hess
History: Been around since the 80’s, Blue Banner Software, Broderbund, The Learning Company, Mattel, Ancestry, with Mackiev taking control in 2016
https://www.mackiev.com/ftm/

Legacy Family Tree 9

Publisher: Millenial, Inc, MyHeritage
Designer: Ken McGinnis and Dave Berdan
History: Been around since 1997
Millennial corporation until it was bought by MyHeritage in 2018
https://legacyfamilytree.com/

Heredis 2020

Publisher: BSD Concept, French, employee owned
Designer: Originally Bernard David
History: Been around since 1994
https://www.heredis.com/

Reunion 12

Publisher: Leister Productions, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
Designer: Frank Leister
https://www.leisterpro.com/

Family Historian 6

Publisher: Calico Pie Limited in the UK
Designer: Simon Orde
History: Been around since 2002
https://www.family-historian.co.uk/