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RootsMagic is a desktop software program that helps you organize your family tree. I have used the program since the announcement that Personal Ancestral File would no longer be supported by product developers. RootsMagic has been a useful tool for my genealogical research, and I have five reasons why:
Keep Track of Living
I do not like putting the information of living relatives online. I do not want to be responsible for anything happening to my relations because of what I share. I know that is not something millennials care about so much. Moreover, there are plenty of individuals who will add my children and me to their family trees. Thankfully they will keep their trees private because they have curate information about living relatives. However, I still won’t do that. RootsMagic is where I will put information about living family members.
Timelines Rock!
When I write my family histories, I add the distinctive flavoring of putting a family in context. What else was happening in the family that year (who else died, who else married, who else was born, and so on)? The timeline feature on RootsMagic makes this a BREEZE! I only which I could choose to add step-parents to a person’s timeline, and maybe grandparents. However, I can quickly hope around the tree and view different chronologies.
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I can also access all the notes and sources for each event from the timeline view. Timelines on RootsMagic keep the click to access data low, which speeds up my writing flow.
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Organizes My Computer Files
I do not print out my genealogy in pedigree charts and group sheets. My family tree is continually changing, and I do not want to kill trees unnecessarily. As such, I keep all of my genealogical data organized with RootsMagic. The program also helps me reduce the need to create a fancy media file organization system. When I add photos and scanned documents to the individuals in my tree, RootsMagic’s linking becomes my file organization system. I can name the files by what they contain and place them in an easy to access file folder. I love that my organization can be simplified.
Hints in One Spot
With so many websites having hints, it can be difficult to manage each platform. As such, I love that I can click on the lightbulbs on a relative’s name and see the hints for FindMyPast, MyHeritage, and FamilySearch. Soon, we should have hints for Ancestry.com (some have this, but only if you do not attempt to link a RootsMagic file to an Ancestry file, it’s too complex to explain in this post).
As I said before, I am a little random in the way I climb my family trees; this is one way that I find the shiny diamonds to explore.
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Helps Me Prune My Tree With Analysis Tools
I can find problem reports, such as all persons in my database lacking specific facts such as birth date and birthplace. RootsMagic print reports of everyone buried in one cemetery when I place a gravestone photography trip. I can clean up place names, so there is one single way to say Cincinnati, Ohio.
Just so you know, I’m not an affiliate of RootsMagic and I currently do not make any money for telling you about the product. Now, if the owners want to send me some money for writing positive remarks about the program, I will not turn that away. However, there are things I do not like about the program, so I am not sure they’d like bad press.
Those are the top five ways I used RootsMagic. Do you use the program? How do you use the program? I would love to hear about that in the comments below.
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