Genealogy has been a hobby of mine for many, many years however, I haven’t had much time over the past decade (really) to work on it. Part of the problem has been that I’ve had so much data stored on old programs that when I’ve tried to transfer it (yes, using GEDCOMs) things become a real mess. Not only that, but I’m extremely neurotic about citing my sources and, as unbelievable as it may sound, most genealogy programs do a terrible job when it comes to ensuring that data entry follows strict guidelines – instead, citing sources consistently has been left up to the whims of the hobbyist. As a result, I’ve had all of my data sitting around and didn’t feel like spending the rest of my life reentering all of it, which has resulted in putting genealogy on the back burner for far too long.

Periodically, I review current genealogy programs, just to see if someone has finally realized that consistently citing sources is absolutely ESSENTIAL for constructing a good genealogy and someone finally did! I’m now in the process of converting things to RootsMagic and am absolutely THRILLED! Not only is it now possible to enter data, from a large number of sources, consistently but templates are provided so that a specific format can be adhered to (such as the methods supported in the book, Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian by Elizabeth Mills (I’ve used that book for a very long time). In the past, I’ve served as a beta tester for two very well known genealogy programs and had SCREAMED for a consistent manner to clearly and easily document sources. The other programs (which shall remain nameless) always agreed that this was an essential feature but never did anything about it (other than, “Oh, we plan to add that feature in the future”). If nothing else, computers should be used for maintaining data in a consistent manner and the gross lack of attention to the topic by genealogy programs has been a disaster. No more thought! RootsMagic finally done did it!

Most importantly, RootsMagic is intuitive. Over the years, genealogy programs have taken one of two routes – the programs are very intuitive but lack sufficient features (esp. concerning how citations are entered) or they are so complex that one needs to be a rocket scientist to figure out how to use them. At the moment, I’m in a state of bliss as I’ll now be able to work on genealogy again – it’s going to take a bit of time to make sure everything has transfered over but the task is going to be a lot simpler that it has in the past (I’ve already spend some time doing so and am thrilled with the results).

Another feature that I like a lot is that RootsMagic will allow you to use your own catalog numbering system and will keep that data attached to each individual (this is another extremely important feature that, to date, almost no one else has done). When I first began with genealogy a few decades (ugh!) ago, I organized my documentation using a numbering system I had previously read about (essentially, I give each document and number that consists of the first three initials of the primary surname, followed by a number). This has worked very well for me, however, most genealogy programs do not have a separate field to store that information. As a result, that number had to be store elsewhere and then manually removed when printing out reports or sharing data with others. No more! RootsMagic has also solved that long standing problem! I am now a very happy person and, time permitting, maybe I’ll get to enjoy genealogy as much as I used to.

I have been doing genealogy for over 15 years, and started out with very rudimentary versions of Family Tree Maker. I was never happy with FTM’s management of sources — it seemed to be much more interested in how to make things “pretty” and sources, the heart and soul of real genealogy, always got short shrift.

Then, some years ago, I switched to Heritage Family Tree. I loved this program, even though it could be quite klunky in many ways and the charting software that came with the program was always cumbersome and often crashed. However, its source handling was the best out there, able to format and sort sources in such a way that source information could be entered completely and formatted well. It had other good built in features that I really liked.

However, they stopped supporting it, and although it was supposed to work with Windows XP, I experienced so many crashes with XP that I knew I had to start finding an alternative. The death knell came with Vista, and HFTD wouldn’t even boot up under Vista. And then it turned out that their GEDCOM exporter dropped a LOT of information out of the source material I’d so painstakingly entered.

I had kept up with Family Tree Maker, and they came out with a new version. I decided to try to salvage what was left of my old family tree (over 2500 individuals and cannibalized source material that dropped half the information, cry!). However, this version (FTM 2008) is absolutely awful; the interface is about as far a departure from logical data entry, it doesn’t do a lot of basic charts, and it is just so terribly bloated with crap I will never use that I knew I had to find an alternative. On someone’s recommendation, I decided to check out RootsMagic.

After downloading the trial version, I was hooked almost immediately. It’s simple, streamlined, and has fantastic source handling. When you enter a source, you’re given the option to choose Source Wizard; normally I hate wizards, but this one gives a nice interface for inputting different types of sources (census, death/birth/marriage certificates, books, interviews, etc) in such a way that they are uniform and formatted for footnotes.

One feature I really like is the ability to add a married couple in a census together as “Census (family)”. This eliminates the need to enter identical census information on two people in a family. I do wish they would extend this to the ability to select multiple members of a family, so you could enter both parents and children with one click. I realize that children did not always appear on a census with parents (I have a lot of cases where teenage boys worked on other farms), but a dialogue that would let you choose other members of the family to add to a census would reduce input errors and time. However, there is a handy “Memorize” function for sources, so it’s easy to paste the same source into multiple entries. It’s the next best thing.

It has built-in to-dos, so as you’re entering family members and need to remember to do something, you can input a to-do related to that individual or family. This feature includes prioritization, date opened, date last worked on, date closed, and a place to add notes.

Like any new program it takes a little getting used to, but I find myself able to move easily among individuals and families. The Search feature is particularly nice because it includes not only the name of the individual, but also the birth and death dates so you can see which one you are selecting before you do so. This is handy in cases where you have more than one person with the same name and no middle initials to distinguish them.

Backup is simple; it archives a ZIP file of your day’s work onto any external media you choose. Instead of overwriting the whole file every time, it only overwrites an existing file if you’ve changed it on the same day. Otherwise, it saves them incrementally, so you have the version you worked on last week archived as well as the one you are working on this way. This way, if something disastrous happens, like you discover that the 200 relatives you spent the last week painstakingly putting in are actually not related to you at all, or you accidentally replace all instances of “Gary, Lake, Indiana” with “Inverness, Citrus, Florida”, you can roll back to a version without the mistakes.

The program is simple, straightforward, great for the historian. It’s not as cute and sexy as some other, more bloated genealogy programs, but it does everything a serious genealogical researcher needs it to do and a little more besides. And you can’t beat the price.

RootsMagic is very robust, it keeps a great record of your family tree. I like being able to burn a CD of everything with just a few key strokes. Being about to create a Web Page of your family tree is great too! It is very easy to use as well.

http://www.rootsmagic.com lists all the specs, there is a mail list and a forum besides your F1 key and Book available to help with this software. I will not use another software package, as the developer monitors the mail lists and does fix the software if there is an issue. Handles large amounts of data, sources, pictures, and works great with GenSmarts software for finding additional research possibles. Genealogy is a hobby that you need to do yourself. This software is easy to get up and running very quickly.

I have used most of the major geneology programs, but when I want to enter a lot of material as quickly as possible, RootsMagic is the program I choose to use. It has all the “bells and whistles” but the thing I love the most is the ease of moving around in the program. I inherited my mother’s 8 file cabinets of unfinished work. I was able to quickly input major facts and copy her text files into the “Notes”. RootsMagic helped me organize the materials as I went along. I am now scanning and entering family photos. RootsMagic has features I haven’t even needed yet, but it’s good to know that when I need them, they are there ready for me to use.

M. Hansen

This is an easy to use program. I like the fact that you can enter pictures and text of individuals.