Famtree is an outdated genealogy software that does not incorporate the power of the computer or today’s programming capabilities. Without automated functions, you do all the work in twice the time.

The data entry form for individuals is incomplete. This is fine for an address book but insufficient for genealogy work. There is no automatic date formatting, and you’ll have to click a button to repeat an address. You can enter names, occupation, address, phone, email, birth and death details, and notes. Sourcing is available for birth and death only. You’ll go to a second screen to add, amend or delete a marriage, but there are no additional fields for events and attributes – standard in genealogy software.

There are a few things to like about Famtree genealogy software. Installation is super simple, and we like the fact that you can surf the web from within Famtree genealogy software. You will want to do this often as you research your family’s history. It makes sense to integrate this function into a piece of genealogy software. The more you are able to locate and share information with relatives the better. Someone may have already done the research for you on certain of your family’s branches.

Linking individuals to family groups is an unnecessary extra step in this genealogy software. We spent a lot of time figuring out how to link family members together with this software. That is a real shame considering how many of these genealogy software programs do all of that automatically. Famtree adds steps at virtually every stage of the family tree building process, and earns a very low score in ease of use.

There are four types of tree displays available from this genealogy software. Other programs have more, but four is not bad. They’re not the showiest of chart designs either. We definitely saw nicer-looking ones from other genealogy software, but at least the information will be well-organized for future generations. Famtree genealogy software allows you to save your work as HTML files, which can then be used to easily publish your work online. The designer put some thought into the way you save your family tree information, which we think users will appreciate. One of the graphics for saving is a little disk with a red person on it, indicating you can save while hiding the personal information of living family members in order to protect them from identity theft.

We hesitate to be too hard on this genealogy software because it was written by a hobbyist for fun. Also, it does cost less than other programs in our lineup. We still expect a little more than just a flimsy email address with one designer’s name attached to it for customer help and support. If you’re going to charge any money at all for your genealogy software it is worth setting up more robust help options.