Family Tree Maker

Family Tree Maker

Family Tree Maker is a desktop genealogy software that helps users build visual family trees, add photos and stories about ancestors, search historical records, and share their family history. It offers intuitive features to organize family information.
Family Tree Maker image
family-tree genealogy ancestry family-history

Family Tree Maker: Desktop Genealogy Software

Family Tree Maker helps users build visual family trees, add photos and stories about ancestors, search historical records, and share their family history with intuitive features.

What is Family Tree Maker?

Family Tree Maker is one of the most popular desktop genealogy software programs for building visual family trees and organizing ancestral information. First released in 1989 by Brøderbund, it allows users to easily record genealogical data about their relatives going back multiple generations.

Key features of Family Tree Maker include:

  • Intuitive family tree building with automated person and relationship linking
  • Integration with Ancestry.com family trees and records databases for easy research
  • Collaborative trees to connect with relatives also using the software
  • Customizable charts, reports and books for sharing family histories
  • Source citation tools and notes sections for recording genealogy research
  • Media storage for attaching photos, documents and audio/video records
  • Available versions for Windows and Mac operating systems

While more advanced hobbyists may prefer genealogy software with more robust research capabilities, Family Tree Maker strikes a nice balance between ease-of-use and functionality for casual and novice family history enthusiasts. Its tight integration with Ancestry.com makes the process of discovering and adding ancestor details efficient. For people looking to visually map out their family lineage over generations and preserve family memories, Family Tree Maker remains a popular choice.

Family Tree Maker Features

Features

  1. Create and view interactive family trees
  2. Add photos, stories, sources and notes
  3. Search historical records and build automatic profiles
  4. Sync trees across devices
  5. Share trees with collaborators and relatives

Pricing

  • Subscription-Based

Pros

Intuitive interface and navigation

Robust features for building family trees

Good integration with Ancestry family trees and records

Syncs across devices

Can share trees with collaborators

Cons

Requires subscription for full access to records

Limited integration with other services

No web version available

Must purchase desktop app


The Best Family Tree Maker Alternatives

Top Home & Family and Genealogy and other similar apps like Family Tree Maker


MyHeritage icon

MyHeritage

MyHeritage is a popular genealogy website and app that provides a platform for ancestry research and connecting with relatives across the globe. Launched in 2003 by Gilad Japhet and privately owned, MyHeritage has become one of the largest online genealogy databases in the world.Key features of MyHeritage include:Family tree builder...
MyHeritage image
Ancestry icon

Ancestry

Ancestry is one of the most popular online genealogy services, providing access to billions of historical records to help people research and build out their family trees. Founded in 1983 as a magazine for genealogists, Ancestry expanded online in 1996 and now has over 3 million paying subscribers.Key features of...
Ancestry image
Gramps icon

Gramps

Gramps is a free, open source genealogy program that allows users to record and organize their family history. Some key features of Gramps include:Flexible database to store information on individuals, relationships, events, locations, media files, sources, citations, notes etc.Generate different ancestry charts and reports to analyze family connections.Share data by...
Gramps image
Agelong Tree icon

Agelong Tree

Agelong Tree is a versatile mind mapping and brainstorming software used by individuals and teams to visually organize ideas and information. With an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, users can quickly create tree-structured diagrams to map out plans, workflows, concepts, note-taking, and more.Key features of Agelong Tree include:Mind maps with unlimited hierarchical...
Agelong Tree image
Simple Family Tree icon

Simple Family Tree

Simple Family Tree is a free, easy-to-use genealogy program that helps you visualize your family relationships and preserve your family history. With its simple and intuitive interface, you can easily build an interactive family tree diagram and family website to share with relatives.To get started, simply sign up for a...
Simple Family Tree image
FamilySearch.org icon

FamilySearch.org

FamilySearch.org is a free online genealogy service provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With billions of historical records from over 100 countries, FamilySearch helps people discover and share their family history.On FamilySearch.org, users can build their family trees by searching and linking historical documents like census...
FamilySearch.org image
Family Gem icon

Family Gem

Family Gem is a feature-rich genealogy program designed to help users research, record, and share their family history. With an intuitive interface and powerful tree-building tools, Family Gem makes it easy to visualize and explore ancestral connections.Key features of Family Gem include:Automatic sourcing - Sources are automatically created and attached...
Family Gem image
WikiTree.com icon

WikiTree.com

WikiTree.com is a free, collaborative family tree and genealogy website launched in 2008. It allows users to create, edit, and share personal family trees in order to grow an accurate single worldwide family tree that is available for anyone to access and contribute to.Key features of WikiTree include:Public profiles for...
WikiTree.com image
RootsMagic icon

RootsMagic

RootsMagic is a feature-rich genealogy software program used to record, organize, explore, and share your family history. First released in 2003, RootsMagic helps users build visual family trees, record ancestry details like names, dates, places, media, and sources, generate charts and reports for analysis and sharing, research ancestry records and...
RootsMagic image
Treemily icon

Treemily

Treemily is an innovative mind mapping and brainstorming application that helps individuals and teams organize their thoughts visually. With Treemily, users can create colorful tree-structured diagrams to map out ideas, concepts, tasks, notes, and more.Some key features of Treemily include:Real-time collaboration - Multiple users can work on the same mind...
Treemily image