Software Review: Legacy Family Tree 8.0

 

Though Legacy Family Tree has many features, it remains easy to use. You can watch a free 40-minute Legacy for Beginners video online. Right-click on any element and a pop-up menu displays all current options. The new ribbon bar and color schemes give the program a modern look and feel. The family and pedigree views make it easy to navigate your family tree, and you can set bookmarks to return to specific people. Although Legacy conveniently shows a person’s age at each life event, the individual view is a bit cluttered, and the clipboard tool for adding sources uses unintuitive icons.

File management
You can simultaneously display up to seven views of the same family file, or two different family files. Then you can compare the files and drag and drop people from one file to another. Legacy makes it easy to find and merge duplicate individuals. The AutoSource feature can assign a master source citation to each person or marriage you import or export. That way, you can keep track of each record’s origin and add your name to records you share. Legacy can back up your family files and associated multimedia files at the same time.

Charts and multimedia
Legacy’s charting options include ancestor, descendant, fan, hourglass, bow-tie and even DNA charts, all customizable with themes, colors, borders, box styles and background images. Several improvements involve charting and multimedia handling: The Bow Tie chart shows the ancestors of the husband and wife, and now you also can add the couple’s children. The left-to-right option for the descendant chart is often more compact than the top-to-bottom layout. The Media Relinker finds missing pictures. The Media Gatherer can copy or move your genealogy pictures to a common folder to simplify sharing.

Documentation and publication
The SourceWriter guides you through a series of questions to document your sources. Now you can record each source’s quality. The Source Clipboard makes it easy to reuse sources, if you can remember what the icons mean.
Legacy creates outstanding pedigree charts and family group records, as well as calendars, timelines, questionnaires, research logs, reports for your website and more. Pedigree charts can now include source citations, but citations for females’ events are missing. You can print reports in multiple languages.

This version introduces several interesting reports: The Origins Report shows where your ancestors came from and your ethnic breakdown. The Migration Report displays the geographic range of a person’s descendants. Family File Statistics provides many figures by century, but the report on average life­spans seems inaccurate.

Searching
Legacy has powerful tools for searching for people in your file. Use the simple fill-in-the-blank form, or search on dozens of fields. Now you can combine multiple conditions using AND and OR. View the results individually or as a list.

This version lets you optionally integrate your family file with the FamilySearch Family Tree, a huge collaborative online tree. Legacy compares the names in your file with the online tree, so you can fill in gaps in your own tree. Legacy doesn’t automatically search a large collection of databases.

The verdict
This upgrade’s modern look, tools for organizing photos and integration with FamilySearch Family Tree maintain Legacy’s position among the best genealogy programs. Most current users will find the upgrade well worth the price.

From the July/August 2014 Family Tree Magazine.SwiftPreview70694{width: auto;height: auto;display: block;position: static;background-color: transparent;border: 0;margin: 0;padding: 0;overflow: hidden;visibility: visible;}.SwiftPreviewImg70694{width: auto;height: auto;display: inline;position: static;background-color: transparent;border: 0;margin: 0;padding: 0;overflow: auto;visibility: visible;}div.SwiftPreview-container70694{pointer-events: none;position:absolute;overflow: hidden;display: none;top:0;left:0;z-index:99999;}div.SwiftPreview-content70694{padding:7px;background-color:black;border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;overflow: hidden;}img.SwiftPreview-img70694{left: 7px;top: 7px;position:absolute;overflow: hidden;-webkit-transform-origin: left top;}div.SwiftPreview-cover70694{pointer-events: none;top:5px;position:absolute;z-index: 999}img.SwiftPreview-loading70694{display:none;position:absolute;}iframe.SwiftPreview-iframe70694{display: block;overflow: auto;visibility: visible;border: 0;padding: 0px;margin: 0pxwidth: auto;height: auto;position: absolute;left: 7px;top: 7px;-webkit-transform-origin: left top;background-color:white;}

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