Customer Reviews

Family Tree Maker Version 16 Deluxe

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If the "free" Ancestry.com subscription is a consideration in your decision to purchase Family Tree Maker, you might want to know there are strings attached. Even though the 9 months are free, Ancestry.com requires a credit card number along with your name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address. Why would they want that information unless they intend to automatically bill you and extend the subscription at the end of 9 months? No information is provided on how to to cancel the subscription at the end of the free period.

I really enjoy using this program, much better than what was out there 5 - 10 years ago when I last worked on genealogy. I love the Ancestry.com feature, it is wonderful to go find your grandparents, great-grandparents and even great-great grandparents in the US Census. I have found out a few things that I didn't know, unfortunately my Mother recently passed away, and I have no one to verify some of it with. I would suggest that anyone contemplating this program gets it now, and starts working while you still have elders who can help you sort through the information you find. I also found a family tree out there from someone who only lives a few blocks from where we used to live. She has traced her family back to the 1500's in Germany...and it appears that they are related to us. It was strange to go to her website and find a picture of my Great Grandparents headstone. It was just another branch of the family. Buy it.

When my old computer gave up the ghost and crashed I lost 10 years of research on my family roots. I had backup cds but they were from a previous version of FTM. After several conversations with the FTM tech folks. they assured me that the new FTM 16 would do the job for me.
After I loaded FTM 16 with a patch for MS vista, which I received from FTM forum, the backup disk loaded the data flawlessly. I am quite happy with this new program & the speed it arrived from Amazon.com .

Bob S

Please don't expect to get the rebate. I was very disappointed in the rebate offer. I sent it in when I received the software. The rebate never came so I checked on it they told me how to fax it to them. Didn't hear anything after I did that. Everytime I tried to check on line it did not show again. So I started trying everyway I could to contact them. Finally, I got a response back to fax it again. Right away, I started contacting them with no answer until finally one day in January-I got two responses-"sorry this promotion is out of date now". This is after I felt I had to get nasty with them sending messages through the website to customer service that no one was answering me. So don't expect to see your rebate. They didn't care at all about the fact that it was sent to them and I started contacting them in time. I feel that it is a "come on". It is a good product-just don't lie to your customers.

Without an instruction manual, doing more than the obvious is pretty difficult. Entering family information is very easy -- but figuring out how to make reports, or create a gedcom to post online, or use the citation features is definitely not. Also, there is are links to ancestry -- but unless you logout after each individual use, Ancestry cuts you off for a 1/2 hour. (Seems like you should be able to at least look at everything on a list, rather than each entry, before being cut off.) Some things don't work as advertised -- fastfields (completes a place entry without your having to type the whole thing) is very nice in the areas where it works, but would be nice if it worked, for example, in entering cemetery information. I wish this were more user friendly or came with an instruction manual. It is probably very good software, but who would know without guidance? Not me.

be careful with this product!!! You might end up on the internet for hours researching your family and lose track of time. The fact that I got 9 months of on line subscription was a bonus.

This was a gift for my wife. She has only been using it for a few days so far, but is very satisfied with ease of entry, etc. Installation went well, and she was able to start using it immediately. The only issue is the size of the print in the user manual. I know many programs no longer provide user manuals, so perhaps we should be grateful for it, but it should have come with a magnifying glass! This is not a function or our old-age eyes. My eyesight is good with my glasses (which I have worn all my life), but the print looks to be about 4 point. Fortunately my wife has not had to rely on the manual, so I guess the program is well-structured and user friendly.

My Uncle has compiled a very good list of connections in our family tree and after using another program we switch over to Family Tree Maker which has many helpful tools and easily encorporated all our data and allows easy editing and updates as well as images and document storage. Very nice.

Exceptional product. Much easier and better quality than my old version 6. Works well with lots of usable features. I did a lot of research before buying this version 16 Deluxe.
Buyer Beware of the newer version. FTM 2008 stinks. More like a cheap imitation than an upgrade. Don't waste your money on the new 2008. Many good features removed from 2008.
Amazon also has the best prices. I paid almost 1/2 the retail cost on Amazon.

Well put together; still lacking some bells and whistles; navigation could be a bit simpler; over all still a fantastic tool for doing genealogy research.