What the Reviewers Have Said…
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July 2008: The UK's largest consumer organisation tests 8 genealogy software programs. Family Historian comes out top with the highest overall score and a Best Buy award. |
Which? Computing |
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“The diagrams are superb” “Family Historian 3.1 makes entering family data and source material simple ... Exploring the options within the forms will acquaint new users with the powerful capabilities of the program ... But what I especially like about Family Historian 3.1 is its use of diagrams and trees to make family relationships clearer ... The diagrams are superb and flexible, and you are more likely to be limited by the size of your monitor than by any other constraint.” National Genealogical Society News Magazine, October-December 2007. |
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“Packed with features, but the charts alone put this package in a class of its own.” Windows XP: The Official Magazine, August 2007. Family Historian 3.1 was declared winner, and Editor's Choice, in a software group test comparing 4 genealogy programs (the others being Family Tree Maker, Roots Magic and Legacy). |
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“Brilliant and dead easy to use” “The programme is brilliant and dead easy to use and is ideal for beginners and experts alike. It comes with small but readable manual and had a good help system built in but to be honest you won't need it ... From beginners to experts, all mode of users are catered for, so there is no need to upgrade to a more sophisticated programme further down the line ... Strongly recommended.” Dr Harry Brown, Univadis, July 2007 (www.univadis.co.uk). |
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“One of the best, if not the very best, in its class” “With the release of version 3 Family Historian has become one of the best, if not the very best, in its class. The range of charts is unrivalled, with total control of both layout and content, while the handling of pictures sets a standard others fail to reach. It's good to see that website creation is now included, which leaves just one minor grumble that PDF files of charts and reports still have to be produced with an external program. Apart from that, and taking into account the excellent reports, queries and the GEDCOM merge capabilities, you have a winning package.” Australian Family Tree Connections, August 2006. |
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“The best genealogy package just got better” “Previous updates to this excellent program have been free - once you've bought the basic package. This new version is a ... paid-for upgrade ... I believe that the upgrade to version 3 is well worth £22, if only for the changes that have been made to charting ... the best genealogy package just got better”, Family Tree Magazine, July 2006 |
Family
Tree magazine
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“An excellent genealogy
package for beginners or professionals” “One of the cheapest and easiest ways to organise family
records ... Family Historian 3 is a very powerful genealogy program
that will organise |
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“The best just got better” “When I first tried Family Historian ... I was immediately impressed ... I had tried other programs before and more since and have found that the only thing better than Family Historian in its original format is Family Historian 3 ... I could go on about picture-handling and multi-linking, or the fact that this program is reputed to have 100 per cent GEDCOM coverage (meaning more classifications within an imported file will be included) compared to other major programs which don't even make 30 per cent. At the end of the day I recommend you try it out for yourself. You will not be disappointed.”, Norfolk Roots magazine, Issue 11, May/June 2006. |
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“An excellent tool for any genealogist” “Creating and updating a family tree is probably the most complicated database work anyone will do outside of work. This new version of Family Historian makes this as simple as possible without compromising on capability … It is very well designed and easy to find the correct menu item or shortcut without having to constantly refer to help files … Photos, audio and video files can be added to family records. Each can be linked to one or more individuals related to the material. Impressively, not only can a whole photograph be linked to an individual but also just a section of it. This works best when picking faces out of large family photographs to link to individual records … Another impressive feature of Family Historian is the high degree of customisation that can be applied to the family tree … almost every aspect of reports and queries can also be tailored to your requirements…The range of features and sheer ease of use makes Family Historian an excellent tool for any genealogist.” Personal Computer World, May 2006. Click here to read the full review. |
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“Superb picture handling and the best set of charts around” “Users of Family Historian have enjoyed a series of free upgrades that have made the software one of the best genealogy programs around. Now, with the arrival of version 3, is the first time they have been asked to reach for their credit cards ... Is it worth upgrading to version 3? Our verdict is definitely. Apart from the range and flexibility of the charts there are new narrative reports, queries and a host of options for almost every aspect of the program. The handling of pictures and the ability to assign areas within them to people is unequalled in our experience ... Buy it for... Organising data, superb picture handling and the best set of charts around..” Your Family Tree (www.yourfamilytreemag.co.uk), May 2006, Issue 37. |
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“Family Historian's ability to handle pictures is excellent” “Family Historian is just as suitable for new users as
it is for more experienced genealogists ... Family Historian's query
engine is particularly powerful ... Family Historian's ability to
handle pictures is excellent. One advantage it has over other programs
is that you can link a single picture to multiple people, which
is essential when you have a photo of a group of people ... Family
Historian uses GEDCOM as its native file format which means it should
be possible to transfer data from internet sources and other software
without loss of information. The latest version, 2.2, includes the
facility to detect and correct GEDCOM errors introduced by other
software.” |
 Family Historian 2.2, Computer Shopper Magazine, August 2004 |
Family Historian has been significantly improved in a number of areas, since version 2.1. See What's New in 2.2? for a list of enhancements that have been added since these reviews were written.
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“A dream to use” “This Windows-based genealogy program is a dream to use
and what makes it even more impressive is the ability to easily
move data from other genealogy programs ... Family Historian has
excellent support for pictures and multimedia … Family Historian
is fast becoming one of the most popular in the market place.”
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“All of the features that serious genealogists demand in a modern Windows program.”
“Family Historian is an excellent Windows genealogy program from England ... I found the data entry method to be easy and intuitive ... Family Historian is a very visual program. It can operate in text mode, but most of the time I prefer to use the diagrams ... I found the use of these diagrams to be very intuitive ... I spent a lot of time with the diagrams. This feature not only has a pleasing appearance, but it also allows you to navigate around the family tree quickly and easily ... I was able to quickly zoom in and out among ancestors, descendants, cousins, brothers-in-law, and more. If you want to edit the information about a person, you simply double-click on the person’s "box" in the diagram to open an editing window ... I was very impressed with the speed of these diagrams ... There is no way that I can describe this operation in words; all I can say is that everything seemed to appear in a flash ... This is another advantage of Family Historian: you can store your own data in GEDCOM format, and you can also use the same program to quickly and easily examine other GEDCOM files that you receive from relatives or download from the Internet ... Family Historian is also one of the best programs I have seen for comparing and merging together two or more GEDCOM files ... A number of other programs can merge files, but on a record-by-record basis. Family Historian ... allows you to do a full file merge so that you make all the decisions about how the files are to be merged. Even more important, before you start any of the merge process, you can see exactly what the outcome of will be... Family Historian has excellent support for source citations as well as for notes and documents ... Family Historian has excellent support of pictures and multimedia ... One item that I used a lot is the Query Engine. In fact, its power did not become apparent to me until I started making some rather unusual and complex queries ... The Reports Window allows you to preview any report and browse it online ... You can even have multiple Report Windows open at the same time if you want to. You can change almost every aspect of a report "on the fly." ... Family Historian has all of the features that serious genealogists demand in a modern Windows program.” Dick Eastman in Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (Vol. 8 No. 20 - May 19, 2003).
Family Historian has been significantly improved in a number of areas, since version 2.0. See What's New in 2.1? and What's New in 2.2? for a list of enhancements that have been added since these reviews were written.
“I realised what a powerful program this was”
“[Family Historian] has the look and feel of a Microsoft Office product. Many programs of this type design their own on-screen interface with a parchment appearance and 'olde worlde' fonts that don't necessarily add to its usability ... The manual makes very few assumptions about the user's knowledge of Windows and explains each step in details ... My data was stored in FTM9 ... As far as I could tell all the data was transferred correctly, with the exception of photographs ... which was no great loss as I wanted to link to the originals using FH's far superior capabilities ... The other features you would expect in a good genealogical program are all present in FH. Source citations, queries and reports are all performed with the flexibility that is the hallmark of this software ... The first thing I noticed with this program was the clarity of the manual. It explains every feature of the software in great detail ... By the end of the tour I realised what a powerful program this was and how almost every feature could be customised to meet my requirements. If ... you need a powerful and innovative piece of software to store, present and query your researches Family Historian must be on your short-list of products to consider.” Mike Ratcliff, Leicestershire & Rutland Family History Society (www.lrfhs.org.uk), Journal No. 111, March 2003.
“It dares to be different”
“The creators have taken a fresh look at how genealogy software should work - it dares to be different and I think it succeeds … Family Historian offers extremely quick and easy use … excellent facility for comparing and merging two family files, something that has been tricky or even impossible with other family history programs … you have a great degree of control over the appearance and content of your charts … the trees are fully interactive and provide a very satisfying way of using the data … You can open or close branches on a tree … this is a particularly useful feature … quickly became my favourite way of working … helped me identify some neglected areas of my own research … program has a very clever way of creating buttons on family group portraits … I've often wondered why such a useful feature hadn't been adopted by other programs. Family Historian does it a little better though … search system is very comprehensive … one of the few family history programs to run properly under Windows XP … considering that this is a first release, it's a very mature and usable program with some excellent features … Family Historian is already a strong rival [to Generations] and has the potential to be much better. Since launch, the sales of its American rivals have apparently dropped and it looks set to become the UK's No 1 family history program.” David Tippey, Family Historian Monthly (Sept. 2002, No. 84).
“An excellent addition to the genealogical stable”
“The charting facility of Family Historian is extremely powerful in another area that I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I was able to click on a person, drag away from that person, and Family Historian ... allows you to create a new person with all their details ... Family Historian is an excellent addition to the genealogical stable and one that I am sure will endure … Many features included in this first release already make it stand out on its own” Mark Lang, Australian Family Tree Connections magazine (July 2002).
“Well ahead of any other similar program”
“Family Historian is not difficult to learn and use but it is very sophisticated and well ahead of any other similar program … The installation of Family Historian was smooth and fast … I would buy this program just for this one feature [Merge/Compare] which is superb … It's difficult to select which of the features of Family Historian I like the best … the Multimedia facilities are superb and provide linkages not possible with other programs … the fullest support possible is given for Sources and for Notes and Documents … I was very impressed with this program not just of the scope and speed but also because of the uncluttered design … The future of this excellent program looks good.” Anthony Spencer, Computers in Genealogy (published by the Society of Genealogists, March/June 2002, Vol. 7 No. 9).
“Very impressive”
“To my mind there is a lot that … makes this program stand out from the rest. … Very impressive indeed … Charting … is one of the major strengths … I could go on with what is possible using charting but do not have the space … The program has one of the most comprehensive search facilities that I have seen … it is packed with features that I wish were in some of the others … I, for one, will be using the program in the future” Genealogy software expert, John Hanson, in Family Tree Magazine (May 2002, Vol. 7). Read the full review, which includes 5 screen shots.