Avanquest Family Tree Maker 2010 review

You can assemble your family file from scratch or you can import existing data if you have a Genealogical Data Communication (GEDCOM) file from another application. You can add free-form notes for each person, as well as separate research notes. You can add new sources of information in one of several formats based on standard templates, say for a birth certificate. However, this isn’t as useful as it sounds, as FTM’s templates are formatted for American document information.

FTM can plot any geographical location in your family file on a map, with indicators for the people it has associated with the place. FTM has its own list of places, querying any of yours which don’t follow its format, and offering a selection of similar names from which to choose. Using this you can track the spread of your family across the country.

There’s a good selection of charts and reports, including the Family Book feature – which assembles your choice of trees, reports, and other printouts into one continuous document with a table of contents and index. You can print it yourself, or pay for Ancestry’s online MyCanvas service to bind it into a book for you. You can define spaces in the printout for any pre-existing material you might want to add, like a scrapbook. Charts include the familiar family tree, also called a drop-line diagram. Some charts can be produced in poster format, which you can make up yourself by gluing together multiple pages.

FTM2010 claims faster load times and quicker performance than previous versions, although it’s still comparatively sluggish to use. Get the latest patch from www.familytreemaker.com, as this fixes missing data in reports, improves report formatting, and stops spontaneous shutting down.

There are some strong competitors. Family Historian has an easier to use interface and is UK-specific, while RootsMagic has more flexible data entry. Neither though is integrated online with a database such as Ancestry. Having restored useful features left out in the disastrous 2008 version, FTM 2010 is once again living up to its best-selling status. It's not perfect, but it's a great way to get into genealogy.