GSP Family Tree Maker Deluxe 2006 review

There's a certain appeal in researching your family's history, whether it's to see if you're related to someone famous or just to find out where you came from.

Organising all the information that you discover can be difficult, and GSP's Family Tree Maker tries to simplify the process.

The package's main program helps you organise all the genealogical data you've collected efficiently. In addition, you get a three-disc set of data derived from the 1851 UK census, as well as local parish records for England, Scotland and Wales. You can get census information dating back to 1841 for free online at www.ancestry.co.uk, but the parish records discs contain more detailed local information. The package comes with a free 90-day subscription to Ancestry.co.uk's premium service, which enables you to search registries of births, marriages and deaths up to the present day. It's accessible from within the Family Tree Maker program, enabling you to fill in missing family members and details as you go along. However, if you have a common surname, you might have to wade through a lot of matches before you find the right one.

Annoyingly, there are a few leftovers that remind you the program originated in the States: matches with US records automatically float to the top of the list, even if you've specified UK-specific details in your person search. To refine things, you need to save a customised set of databases in which to look up results.

TREE'S A CROWD

As you collect information, you can enter it directly into a family tree by establishing the relationship - son, husband, father and so on - of the person you've found to an existing member or members of your tree. This process highlighted one serious weakness in the program's method of data entry. While it's possible to record marriages, even down to the day and date, and include wedding photos in your family scrapbook, there's no straightforward way to indicate divorces or remarriages in a way that accommodates step-parents and half-siblings. You either get to associate existing children with the previous marriage or this one, making it difficult for anyone looking at the chart to work out the new family groupings.

You can display your family tree in the standard, top-down ancestors-to-present manner or choose an alternative view such as the creepy-sounding Pedigree. This places a chosen individual at the head of the tree and works back through their direct lineage. Notes, captions, photos and other pictures can be attached to any member of the tree. Clicking on an individual brings up their personal properties, which can be used to store details that even include medical records.

One thing Family Tree Maker can't get you out of is legwork. While the included resources and online subscription help you trace most British ancestors back to the 1841 census, if your roots are in Ireland there's no substitute for detective work. A fire at the Dublin Public Records Office in 1922 destroyed most centrally held documents, making Irish genealogy a matter of leafing through local parish registers; much the same as tracing pre-1841 British ancestry.

Family Tree Maker, together with the free online subscription to Ancestry.co.uk that comes with this package, provides substantial help in tracing back five or six generations of your family. It makes the job of presenting your results a breeze, enabling you to analyse relationships and add snapshots and other details quickly. With a DVD included to help you with the next stage of your search, Family Tree Maker provides everything you need to get started on your family tree.