Family Tree Maker 2010 Platinum Edition (PC CD)

I have been using FTM 2010 for several weeks, and am very satisfied with it. Having previously used FTM 2009, there are several features that I have found to be considerably improved. The most significant of these are the 'enhanced nodes' in the 'People' workspace, the improved mapping controls in the 'Places' workspace, and the better integration with Ancestry website. The 'enhanced nodes' feature adds thumbnails and lifespan dates to the 'boxes' in the pedigree. If you have several generations of ancestors with the same name, this greatly reduces the likelihood of confusion when working on your tree. One of the most irritating aspects of the previous version of FTM was its propensity to mis-locate places on the map, even when you entered the correct county and country. This issue has been addressed in the 2010 version by the provision of a push-pin facility, which enables the user to override the software's automatic choice. The integration with Ancestry allows both uploading trees to, and downloading them from the website. However, the trees are still not synchronised, so that working on either one will not update the other. This is one aspect that will hopefully be addressed in the future. The only other major gripe I have with the software is that there is no facility to identify individuals on group photographs. If you have a wedding-group photo with a dozen or more people on it, you can very easily link all the individuals to the one photograph, but in order to know who is who, you have to write tedious descriptions - "the third person from the left on the second row from the front, etc" - in order for them to be of any real value. Having previously been a user of the (free) Family Tree Builder software, which has this facility, it is disappointing that FTM have not made something similar available. Notwithstanding this, the software is both very easy and satisfying to use, and has advanced features that will suit the most demanding of family historians.

I'll get my first annoyance out of the way right from the start, then I can get on with what's good about this software.

During installation I was asked for credit card details in order to activate the free trial subscription to Ancestry.co.uk. I really do not like this approach to free trials - if its free, then sign me up and ask for my details at the end of the trial (6 months in this case). This is a bad enough practice when the entire package is being offered for free (and I fully understand why companies do it), but when this is a free trial offered with a piece of paid for software I think this is particularly cheeky.

I did sign up for the free trial though, and this is where this review turns positive.

Although this software can be run stand alone and you can build your family tree without an Ancestry .co.uk subscription, the power of this software really is in the integration with the aforementioned website. The search facility from within the software works pretty well, and the merge wizards for incorporating that information within your tree work very well - most of the time. This allows you to build your family tree very quickly with a lot of information.

It's not without its problems though. I have foudn that I have sometimes ended up with duplicate people, or sibling children of a couple split between 'mother and unknown father' and 'father and unknown mother'. This can be a nightmare to correct in the software, and I still haven't got to the bottom of when and why I get into this mess.

Th ereporting features are pretty extensive, but pretty standard for genealogy software. The family tree that I always imagined to be a standard in this type of software, but obviously isn't, is missing as usual - that being a tree showing everyone that you have input into the system, ie all ancestors and all decendants of everyone. I know this is an unweildy tree, but it's something I'd like to see nonetheless (it could be printed as a zoomable pdf or something!)

I agree to an extent with what some reviewers have said regarding this software vs the website. The Ancestry.co.uk website does seem to have all of the search functionality that the software has and so I do wonder whether the software is needed at all. Aside from being able to build a tree manually without an Ancestry.co.uk subscription I guess there really isn;t much need for the software - it just comes down to personal preference about whether you want to store the data locally (with this software) or online (on the website). One feature that is sadly lacking in both is the ability to synchronise a tree between the two - that would make this a brilliant application.

Another thing that appears to be missing from the software is the 'leaves' function of the website. The Ancestry.co.uk website will display a leaf alongside any person that it thinks it has found possible matches for in its database. You then click the leaf and work out whether or noth is person is a relation and add them to your tree if appropriate. With this software it would appear that you have to proactively search for people yourself rather than being prompted with leaves.

A word of caution as well. You need to be realistic about what this software will do for you. It will not automatically build a family tree for you. It will search census data, birth, marriage and death registers, newspaper and magazine articles etc for information that you select from your family tree (names, DoBs, residences etc) and present you with possible matches. As with any genealogy search it is down to you to work out whether a particular match is part of your family. There may be dead ends and there may be multiple possibilities and false leads - but that's half the fun of a genealogy search!

The platinum Ancestry.co.uk subscription included with the software for 6 months won't get you all of the information you will need, though. There are certain data sources that require a further subscription (if you tree ventures outside of the UK for example), but it should get you a long way.

I'm certainly enjoying using this software, but I don't think I'll be stumping up a further forty odd pounds every six months to continue the Ancestry subscription. You can integrate other search facilities with the software (such as FreeBMD) but the integration with the merge wizards is unlikely to be as useful. So once the free subscription is up it'll be back to manual searches and manual input.

The software did manage to import a GEDcom file (the standard genealogy file format) created from other software that I had used in the past, so I didn't have to start my tree creation from scratch. The software does export back to GEDcom files as well, so if this software proves a lot less useful when the free subscription runs out then I can always revert to other software as well.

One final negative point. The software is branded Ancestry.co.uk (and to an extent, although useful and fun to use, it does seem almost an advert and lure to their website subscription sefvices) it's actually written by a company called Avaquest. Once you register thsi software, even if you select NOT to be informed of their other services Avanquest will bombard you with almost daily emails advertising their wares!

I originally purchased FTM Deluxe which claimed to have 3 months subscrption to ancestry, but only had 2 weeks. This edition had 6 months and when on special offer was worth considering as subscription to ancestry is £100-150 annually.

The software is powerful. There is starting guide (with a demo to work though- this is based in Diana Spencer and I found it upsetting to have her as an example) there is also a hints and tips booklet, v helpful when the basics are mastered. There is also an online video overviews and help functions.

The basic operation is quite simple, but soon becomes quite complex to use the full facilities. There are several 'views' of the data. It's not clear to me whether it is better to have one large tree with every one on it or split into smaller files with significant branches of the family.

People- where the classic family tree is shown -child their parents, the parents parents etc.. Here two to four generations can be seen in overview. The platinum version shows DOB-DOD and will display a thumb nail image if one is available. If connected to the web ancestry displays a leaf sign to indicate info may be available on this individual. A niggle here is that only one sibling is displayed. So if your grandfather had 4 children only the direct descendants of one is shown at any one time. To access the others you need to highlight grandfather and the children will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. I have one ancestor who married twice and had 14 children. The software asks for a prefered partner and they and their children are shown. You need to recall there is a seconds wife and then switch to them to see that part of the family. To get an overview of the ~200 relatives I've had to print a family tree and stick accoss 2m of wall!

There is a detailed person view where birth date, place, christening, occupation, residence, marriage can be displayed. Facts can be preferred or alternative where there is conflicting information. The facts are customisable so you can include those which are relevant or of interest. When connecting to the web data can be copied into the record- saves typing errors and a source included. This is a v useful tool as historical data is not always accurate and two pieces of data can be source referenced so you don't have to remeber where you found the info.

There is a places view which is linked to a global mapping device and will show maps or ariel pictures. The software is US based however and has tendancy to assume first that addresses is in US. It doesn't recongnise a lot of UK locations and these then have to be manually adjusted. I had hoped this would be improved between 09 and 10 versions of software but changes are not noticeable to me. In this view details can be seen of all relatives who lived in a certain area. If census data is enterred to add locations on different dates then the movement of families can be tracked. It is helpful when viewing census data as if a family expanded between the 10 year periods the names of a siblings occupation and place of residence is a good clue to locating the right record. Using the mapping you can see the names of small villages say 5 miles from previous location. That said you could use google earth to do the same.

Media can be added photo's and source data. For example freeBMD on line allows access to scanned images of summary birth, marriage and death data which can be downloaded from internet.

There is a publication section with some additional formats for 10 platiunum vs 09 deluxe. These have some degree of customisation but I've not found a report or chart which can be built from scratch with just what I want. For example there is a place report. The default gives every one, you can't select a place but have to selecte individuals which means going back to the place view and writing a list of names associated with that place. Reports/charts can be made in .pdf format so can be emailed or uploaded to the web to share with others.

Finally there is a websearch view with a summary of your selected individual and possible matches. This section only gives access to limited data if you don't subscribe. A lot of info is available free however if you search for it. As subsriptions and copies of original BMD certs can be expensive I recommend finding all the free stuff before taking out a subscription. There is a useful task list where you can record details you're searching for, v useful as the tree gets big.

The software does allow for real life and handles mutliple partners, single sex relationships, adoptions, illegitimacy and so on. It is however like printers which are cheap to buy but expensive to get printer cardriges for. Here the softare is good value but cost of accessing data expensive.

I've had a few technical niggles. The software loaded ok, but 3 after days in failed to start. There were several sources of help none of which worked. However the software will start under another user profile on the same pc. Our pc is several years old so this may be more of a reflection of the pc than the software.