Dick Eastman's Review of Family Tree Legends 2.0
  By Dick Eastman
Family Tree Legends is a very impressive genealogy program for Windows. I wrote about its super easy-to-use features nearly a year ago in the November 1, 2002 newsletter. You can read that article at http://www.eogn.com/archives/news0245.htm.
Pearl Street Software, the producer of Family Tree Legends, constantly makes minor upgrades to the program, all of which can be downloaded and installed automatically by registered users at any time they are online. In this manner, a Family Tree Legends user always has the latest version of the program.
Within the last few days, a major new update has appeared:
version 2.0. I had an opportunity to use this new release and must say that it
is impressive.
First, to list some of the things that made the previous version
"stand out" from other genealogy programs:
This program is aimed at all levels of genealogists. Beginners will find Family Tree Legend’s user interface and liberal use of icons results in one of the easiest to use genealogy programs I have seen. You can see that in the screen shots at http://www.familytreelegends.com/products/tour/main/1.Yet this program has a lot of power "under the hood" to meet the expectations of seasoned genealogists. It records full source citations, allows for contradictory data, and more.
Other genealogy programs may create automated backups, but I
have not seen any that do it as well as Family Tree Legends. This program
optionally writes a backup file, record-by-record, to a private area of the
Family Tree Legends Web server. There is no need to do a GEDCOM export or a
separate backup at the end of the session. If connected online while using
the program, minute-by-minute backups of this transactional file system
ensure that a scrambled database can be restored to its condition of just a
few minutes before the problem occurred. If not connected online, the backup
is stored on the local hard drive, and the user may optionally save it to
the Web server on a subsequent connection to the Internet. All data is
encrypted with a 128-bit encryption key before being saved. Your personal
data is not visible to anyone else unless you specify otherwise.
Data transferred to Pearl Street Software’s servers may be
displayed as Web pages, if desired. In other words, you can publish your
data on the Web automatically. You don’t even need to upload a separate copy
since the data was already transferred during that data entry process. Pearl
Street Software’s servers can use your backup data to create Web pages for
you. Here again, the publishing of data on the Web is optional. The user can
specify to never publish the data. Should he or she decide to publish, the
user also can specify several different levels of privatization: show data
about living individuals or not, show names but not places or dates, etc.
Another feature of Family Tree Legends is WebFacts – data
pieces that can be searched online. For instance, if you find a new record
that specifies a town that you have never heard of, you can right-click on
the town’s name, and a pop-up menu will appear. This menu allows the user to
search for information on the Web about that place. The information obtained
typically includes the geographical coordination, elevation, aerial photos,
road maps, and more. It will also find surrounding locations, such as
courthouses in adjacent towns or counties.
The best part of Family Tree Legends, however, may be its
SmartMatching technology. The program compares data in its local database
with that stored on GenCircles.com, a major online genealogy database.
Family Tree Legends seems to do a better job of finding people than most of
the other online databases. It really shines when searching for common
surnames. Other online databases search for names, and most of them will
also try to identify the years. However, it is common to search online for
John Smith in Arkansas in 1840 and then find men of the same name 40 or 50
years later in Oregon, Alaska, or Massachusetts. Sure, they might be the
same person, but how do you pick out the right one from the hundreds of
records displayed on the screen?
SmartMatching does not display hundreds of hits for one
person. Instead, it shows one occurrence of the name and then has links to
sources of the information. These links are sorted in a manner defined by
supporting evidence in other records. Family Tree Legends "votes" on
matching records. First, it finds matching bits of information in other
records. It may find a name and birth date in your database and then look
for matching records. Some of those records may have the same name and birth
date as well as a death date that you do not know. It is assumed that these
new records match. Then these newly-found records are compared against the
entire database. Now, perhaps a person with the same name and the same death
date is found in still more records that also show the names of parents.
Again, this data is a match even though it contains still more data not
found in your database. This is a form of intelligent linking. The search
algorithms also handle conflicting data by two methods: (1.) by voting to
see if there are additional records that corroborate the data, and (2.) by
showing both to the user for his or her decision.
When I used SmartMatching for the first time, I was very
impressed with its accuracy. When I clicked on an icon, Family Tree Legends
automatically sent my data of about 3,000 people to the Web server and then
advised me to check back in a few hours. When I did so, I found that the
software had returned several hundred matches. In many cases, the newly
delivered information included data about parents, spouses, and siblings. I
scanned through the list and could not find one single entry that was NOT an
ancestor of mine! In my case, it was 100% accurate. Every single person
listed is, indeed, an ancestor of mine. I have never seen that degree of
accuracy on any other online data matching service that I have ever used.
Each listing gave details and, in some cases, might have contained new
information that I did not have previously. The company owners assured me
that this is a typical experience. They say that they have seen a handful of
mismatches, but the mismatches are rare. I have never seen any other online
name-matching database with this degree of accuracy.
Under the user’s control, newly discovered data in the
Family Tree Legends/GenCircles Web server database may be automatically
imported into the local Family Tree Legends database stored on the user’s
hard drive. In the case of conflicting data, the user may choose to ignore
the new data, replace the old data with the new data, or else add the new
data as a secondary record that is subservient to the older data. That last
option is a good method of recording "possibilities" that need further
investigation.
Version 2.0, of course, keeps all the above features and adds a
number of new items. The SmartMatching interface has been completely re-written.
As good as it was before, the new version is even easier to use. This time, to
make the searches, all I did was click on the "SmartMatches" icon; a
SmartMatching window then appeared. In the top half of the window, a list of
names in my local database is displayed. As I clicked on the names, probable
matches from the GenCircles online database appeared on the screen, showing
name, date and place of birth, date and place of death, and the name of the file
on GenCircles.com from which this data was obtained.
I found that I could click on any of the entries to see a
side-by-side comparison of my local database’s entry for this individual with
that found on GenCircles.com. All the details were shown, including names of
parents, spouse(s) and occupation, if the information is available.
Now for the best part: with a single click of the mouse, I found
that I could either immediately merge all the data from GenCircle.com’s
displayed record into my local record of that individual, or else I could go
through a step-by-step merge. The step-by-step merge takes the user through each
piece of data, one at a time, and prompts the user whether or not to copy each
fact to the local database. I certainly recommend you use the second option,
reviewing each piece of information before adding it to your primary database.
The merge process also contains several options for merging
source citations. I would suggest that you select the option to copy all source
citations from the GenCircles.com database that also adds the words "via
GenCircles" to each of those citations. That makes it easy to later identify and
verify those citations. (I never believe anyone else’s citations; I always want
to verify them for myself.)
Version 2.0 of Family Tree Legends has added a number of new
features. In my review last year, I mentioned that the program didn’t yet have
as many printed reports as most of its established competitors. I was delighted
to find lots of new reports available in version 2.0. For instance, it now
produces a full descendants report that is loosely based on Register report
format. I also liked the "Individual Timeline" report, showing significant
events in the life of an individual. For instance:
TimeLine for Washington Harvey Eastman
| 1810 |
Apr 03 |
Birth in Maine |
| 1811 |
Apr |
Birth of wife Sarah Nichols
|
| 1831 |
May 22 |
Marriage to Cynthia Tyler |
| 1833 |
Dec 08 |
Birth of daughter Elizabeth Eastman |
| 1835 |
July 26 |
Birth of daughter Maria Eastman |
| 1838 |
Sep 26 |
Birth of son Orman Eastman in
Corinth, Maine |
| 1840 |
|
Census in Corinth, Maine |
| 1845 |
Dec 02 |
Death of wife Cynthia Tyler |
| 1862 |
Jan 28 |
Marriage to Sarah Nichols in Corinth,
Maine |
| 1887 |
May 22 |
Death in Corinth, Maine |
| 1887 |
May |
Burial in Evergreen Cemetery,
Corinth, Maine |
| 1888 |
Dec 12 |
Death of wife Sarah Nichols in Maine |
Each of the above items has a reference to the events cited.
Version 2.0 now supports pictures in charts and reports. It also
produces reports in PDF format. It has a built-in spell checker that can be used
when entering text notes. LDS members will also be pleased to learn that version
2.0 now exports TempleReady files.
As much as I have written above, I still have hardly described
all the features of Family Tree Legends version 2.0. For more information, look
at http://www.familytreelegends.com and especially at
http://www.familytreelegends.com/products.
All in all, Family Tree Legends version 2.0 is a significant
improvement to an already first-class program. It is powerful and easy to use
and now is maturing into a strong competitor against the established products
that have been available for some years. If you are looking for your first
Windows genealogy program, or if you are not happy with the one you are using, I
would strongly suggest that you investigate Family Tree Legends.
Family Tree Legends version 2.0 requires Windows 95, 98, 98 SE,
ME, 2000, or XP operating system. It also requires a 166 MHz or faster
processor, 20 megabytes of disk space and 32 megabytes of RAM memory. In short,
it will run on most Windows computers built in the past few years. Internet
access is needed only for the optional backup, SmartMatching, and Web publishing
features.
Family Tree Legends has a list price of $49.95 (U.S. funds).
However, Pearl Street Software currently is selling it at a discount price of
$39.95. You can safely order it online via Pearl Street Software’s secure online
order system. You can also order it via mail, using a credit card, check, or
money order.
For more information about Family Tree Legends or to safely
order it online, go to:
http://www.familytreelegends.com
Copyright 2003, Dick Eastman. Reprinted with permission. This article originally appeared here: http://www.eogn.com/newsletter/#FamilyTreeLegends
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