Family Tree Maker 2008 Essentials [OLD VERSION]

Customer Reviews

Older versions offer more

2008-09-10
Many of the reports, views, etc. from the older version are missing in this version. Available reports cannot be customized as much as in the older version. Printing is a nightmare, and apparently impossible with a wide format printer-which my old version handled just fine. I uninstalled it and went back to the old version I purchased 4 years ago.

Family Tree Maker

2008-09-03
The whole family is using this product and we love it. We have over 1000 family members listed going back to the 1300's.

Great product but be patient

2008-08-29
Overall a great program but needs to be more user friendly. Do not expect to understand how to use this program in one day. I would give it a week because the manual is not clear in it's instructions nor is the Help link. However once you do figure it out, it is a very powerful and useful program. My frustration began when I could not register the product. I had to call Ancestry.com's Tech Support and they had be download an update Patch that needed for it to work right because my FTM 2008 was one of the older ones with gliches. It works great now and I cannot complain. Another challenge is when you have to add siblings that share a common ancestor which if you are like me wanting to include multiple ancestral lines for all, you have to check preferred parent in the far right dialog box or you will become very frusrtated. It took me 2 days to figure that out. This program can be very user friendly if it had better instructions.

Family tree maker

2008-08-25
Got the Family tree maker, put it on my computer, and it freezes up alot. Is very frustrating. Legacy software is better and easier to navigate around in. Had more success with Legacy. Would reccomend Legacy instead.

The version that made me quit Family Tree Maker

2008-07-31
I've been doing genealogy for over 15 years and for most of that time, I used Family Tree Maker. I've never been happy with the way it handled sources, which I've never felt was a particularly dynamic system, but I've always stuck with it. I used Heritage Family Tree Deluxe for awhile and liked it, but it is no longer being supported and, when it wouldn't even launch in Vista, I decided to go back to FTM. By this time, FTM 2008 had come out, and I managed to get my old HFTM tree imported into FTM.

What a horrible disappointment.

First, the interface is so nonstandard for a genealogy program that I can remember opening it up and just staring at the screen in disbelief. It took me a long time even to figure out how to enter a fact (birth, death, census, etc ... pretty standard stuff). I managed to figure out how to open an individual, then clicked Fact, and nothing happened. It took me awhile that I also needed to click the + button, three buttons over, to actually ADD a fact. If you mouse over the + and X buttons, it will say "Add fact" or "Delete fact", but there are "Timeline" and "Relationship" buttons between the nigh onto useless "Fact" button and the buttons you actually need to push to add or delete them.

When I imported my tree, it dropped half my source information straight out of the middle. For example, when I imported census information, it would say "Smith, William household, 1850 census, Essex County, Massachusetts, population schedule" and then whatever I had put on as a note, such as "age listed as 51, birthplace Vermont" but it had dropped all the information about city/village, enumeration district, page, lines, family or residence number, etc. So, now since I can't open my old family tree software anymore, I am in the unenviable position of having to re-enter everything, or the locations and publication information on all my source material will be absent from my trees.

I also hate programs that think they are smarter than you are. I'm not sure when it happened, but it replaced every empty place in birth, death, and marriage information with "Scipio, Cayuga, New York". So now I either need to remove over 800 instances of Scipio in my tree, including ones that might actually really BE Scipio, or, I do what I am doing: redoing my whole tree in a different program.

I hate that you can't turn off the linking to Ancestry, short of removing your Internet connection. Now, I like Ancestry, and have a subscription, but I don't always want to go look at it. If you are in Pedigree view and you see a green leaf, it means that there is some link in Ancesty it's found and thinks you might want to see. That's fine, but I click them by accident sometimes and the whole program slows to a crawl while it's bringing up information I didn't want to see. Also, I only use other people's trees as clues. I am a stickler for doing my own research whenever possible, and unless I see source material I can check myself, I don't generally trust everything I find on the Internet. I only want to start looking at other people's trees if I get hopelessly stuck. When that happens, I'm quite capable of logging onto one of many genealogy resource sites to poke around for more ideas. While I love Ancestry.com, I don't like to limit myself to just one online resource.

It also has flagged about 250 locations it seems to think are "wrong". My crime? I didn't stick "USA" on the back. It doesn't like Salem, Essex, Massachusetts; it wants Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. So they are flagged "unresolved". I'm scared to push the "resolve all" button, which seems to be my only choice.

So I bought RootsMagic instead, a program that's a lot less bloated, perhaps less "slick", but it has great source handling, good research tools, and a simple interface. And I'm inputting my entire tree all over again to get back the source material that FTM 2008 ate out of my old tree. Not looking forward to redoing over 2000 entries, but it's a good chance to review and revisit all my data and assumptions.

Superb Genealogy Software

2008-07-31
Discover how easy it is to explore, preserve, and share your family history. Whether you're new to family history or a seasoned genealogist, the Family Tree Maker 2008 Essentials Edition is designed to help beginners find results fast. One month of premium access to ancestry.com is included.

Family Tree Maker 2008 Features Disappointing

2008-07-06
I've been a faithful FTM user since 1992 and have had no problems or complaints with the product until now. In the years I've been using FTM I was able to create a book of my family history and either convert it to a PDF or text file for publishing. Now, FTM 2008 has done away with the book feature from previous versions and you are now limited to producing a book of a maximum of 250 pages through the Ancestry Press site. The book I created in FTM 16 was 1,300 pages and counting. I'm very disappointed that the book feature has been dropped in 2008 and I'm even sorrier that I wasted my money on this version. Going forward, I'll continue to use FTM 16 even though Ancestry will eventually stop supporting it. Before purchasing FTM 2008, and I wish I had followed my own advice, make sure that the features you used in a previous version are supported in FTM 2008 or you'll be disappointed as I've been.

Family Tree Maker old data will not upload into Vista

2008-05-21
Buyer beware. Research this product before buying. Be sure that your old data can be uploaded into the new program in your new computer running on Vista.

We've run the Family Tree Maker through several generations of computers and programs. But now our data in our old Family Tree Maker will not upload into into the new Family Tree Maker Program which we just installed in a new computer running Vista.

I am not a computer guru so don't know if Vista or the Family Tree Maker is at fault. The person who continually updates the data in our Family Tree Maker program was the person who tried and failed to update the old data in the Family Tree Program running on Vista.

Everyone knows that computers and programs are continually changed so people have to buy new programs when they get a new computer. Planned Obsolescence is a fact of life and it could be a factor here.

So we bought a new computer and a new Vista program and a new Family Tree Maker program. We're trying to play your game with you. But when we pay you for all these new programs don't you think we should at least be able to take our old data with us?

I welcome your advice and would also be glad go over what I have said above if it is not clear. I'm humble at humblefarmer dot com and I will come up in hundreds of places if you google The humble Farmer.

I'd be glad to give the new Family Tree Maker program five stars if you can tell me how to upload my old data into it.

The humble Farmer in Maine

FTM 2008 after SP3 release

2008-05-12
FTM 2008 is simple to use. For those familiar with FTM 16 or earlier version, it is different and unknown but think about the things you want to do and look around on the work area. FTM 2008 SP3 has improved its performance. While it is still not as fast as FTM 16, opening a file under XP is reported to be improved by 40%. Several individuals with 100,000 plus individuals state their performance has improved.

The Plan work area - is dedicated to all the various things you do with files or as FTM 2008 calls them, Trees. Data base statistics are there, All tasks (general and individual specific) are there. You can open additional trees in new windows. I've had as many as 4 trees open at one time. Need to go to some of the more common genealogy web sites - they're there.

People work area - is dedicated to individuals and their facts. For those familiar with FTM 16 - to work with individuals and facts, you needed the Index, Family View, Pedigree View, Edit Individuals (Facts, Notes), Scrapbook and Sources. In FTM 2008, you need only the Family tab (combination of Family view, input area, Index and Pedigree view). You can easily add a child, spouse or parent from this single work area. Want to add any fact to the selected individual, the default is to add Birth, Death and Marriage facts but you can "customize" the facts shown and include any or all on this work area and then you can add, edit or delete any information for any fact.

To work with all facts, you need the Person view (which lets you work with individual selected facts, you can see a timeline for the individual and you can see the immediate relationships with other family members. For Personal Notes, Media (Scrapbook) and Tasks are at the bottom.

For Facts - Notes and Media - available at the bottom of the right pane. Neither were available in FTM 16 and earlier. For Fact Sources - available at bottom of right pane. To add a fact Click the blue Plus icon. To delete a fact, Click the red X. To edit fact information, just type. No more having to open different dialog boxes. Want to see the father or mother's facts, just click the name at the top. No more having to close the Edit dialog, return to the Family view, select the parent name, click Edit to open the facts dialog box.

To Add or Delete an individual - one click on either the Family or Person work area.

Places work area - is dedicated to managing all place names within one work area. You can see a list of all places in the data base, map any selected place name using MicroSoft's Virtual Earth, Add/Edit/Delete a place name from one work space. You can also see every individual and fact linked to the Place name.

Media work area - is dedicated to managing all media items within one work area. You can see thumbnails of all items linked to all individuals and facts in the data base. You are told where the item is stored (path) and file name. You can add/edit/remove the caption and description without opening additional dialog boxes or menu options. Want to see who and what is linked to a media item, switch to the Detail work area. You can view the image, select different zoom levels, rotate the image, see all individuals/facts/source-citations linked to the image. Want to rename an image file, select the media item, click the right mouse button and select Rename. Want to provide the story behind the image, write it in the Media Notes area (1 mb). All from 2 work areas which can be easily opened.

Sources work area - is dedicated to managing all Source-citations within one work area. You can group the source-citations by All, Source Title, Repository, Person and the Source-citations for the selected group are displayed in the top center pane. Add/Delete/Link/Unlink all from one area. Make changes if you want. Link to multiple individuals/facts, add a note, and link a media image.

As a safe guard, to work with Source Titles, you need to open a special dialog box. To do this Click File, Manage Sources. The separate dialog window lets you work with the Source title (same thing as the old Master Source).

Publish work area - consolidates all reports and charts in one work area. They are grouped into different categories. Just click on a group title and see the individual reports/charts. Or you can also preview the report/chart. Here is a list of reports/charts available in FTM 2008 SP3:
Charts - Pedigree Chart, Descendant Chart, Hourglass Chart, Relationship Chart, Vertical Pedigree Chart
Genealogy Reports - Register and Ahnentafel Reports
Person Reports - Individual Report, Custom Report, Research Note Report, LDS Ordinances, Task List
Relationship Reports - Famiy Group Sheet, Kinship Report, Marriage Report, Parentage Report, Outline Descendant Report (SP3 updates this so you can now include any fact to the report)
Place Reports - Place Usage Report
Media Reports - Media item, Photo Album, Media Usage Report
Source Reports - Source Usage Report, Source Bibliography, Documented Facts
Books - Ancestry.Press is all that is currently available, Sadly desk top book publishing has not yet been included.
You can now save cherished charts and reports for reuse at a later time. So you can format a chart/report - get it to looking just the way you like, include the select individuals and save it.

Web Search work area - extremely flexible. In FTM 16 you had to close the web search window and use the Family View to navigate to a new individual. Not so with FTM 2008, Click on a name at the top of the work area or use the Index (the Index card icon). If you change the search individual and click People work area, that individual's record is opened.

In fact you can click between any of the work areas at the top of the window and you are taken to the same information displayed when you left the work area. The exception is as I said you change the focus individual, you are taken to that individual's record in the People work area.

I jump around checking data, viewing what I was working with earlier. No more paging sequentially through all of the last views. The transfer is immediate. It is just like having multiple windows open on your desktop and switching from one program to another.

There are areas which still need to work but

Family Tree Maker 2008

2008-05-10
As an avid user of Family Tree Maker for over 10 years, I am less than satisfied with this new product. Software makers continually strive to reinvent the wheel, even after perfection has been achieved. In this case, the new package has transformed the round wheel into a square one. The old familiar format was too good to last; now multiple features appear on one page, causing fonts to appear small. It is no longer possible to change views to access familiar operations; In my opinion, Family Tree Maker has killed the goose that laid the golden egg.