RootsMagic is one of those applications that allow keeping track of someone’s genealogy. It has multiple features and, as a result, its interface is rather complex, with lots of different windows. Therefore, it’s easy to get lost when you aren’t familiar enough with the program.
The tool can store varied information about a person and, luckily, it’s flexible enough as to allow adding relationships beyond those found in a nuclear family. For each person, it’s possible to save information related to multiple types of events, such as birth, marriages, divorces, adoptions, death and burial. Moreover, you can also create custom fields. This data can be entered manually, but it can also be copied or merged from other databases. Luckily, the program supports other formats apart from its own, particularly standard genealogy file types. Not only that, it lets you create separate databases for different families.
The tool supports searching online databases, like Ancestry, FamilySearch and MyHeritage. Besides, it can also find information using major search engines. Furthermore, it can use the stored information to create websites or print charts.
All in all, RootsMagic supports building huge family databases. Unfortunately, some of its features cannot be tested without payment. Moreover, the program is difficult to use. Personally, I forgot to add birth data about the people in my family and I couldn’t find a way to add the information at a later time.
v6.3 [Jul 18, 2013]
Publish Online
- Publish your family information to My.RootsMagic.com
- Dynamic sites with pedigree, family and individual views for each person
- Can include notes, sources, and media for each person
Enhanced Timeline View
- Shows a full timeline of the current person's events and those of their parents, siblings, spouses, and children
- Shows a graphical timeline of the person's events
- Edit events, names, directly from the timeline view (without having to open the edit screen)
CountyCheck Explorer
- Lets you look up counties and states (US, Canada, UK, Australia) to view information about them
- Access the FamilySearch Wiki page for counties and states
- Access an interactive state map showing historical county boundaries
WebTags
- Attach links to websites to any person, source, citation, place, or research log item
- Instantly jump to a web page tagged to a record
- Print a list of WebTags you have added to your database
Find Everywhere
- Find every record containing text you enter
- Find people, families, events, notes, sources, places, to-do items, research logs, media items, and more
- Edit any found record directly from the results screen
Enhanced searching and selecting
- Search for people by the number of spouses, children, parents, or siblings that they have
- Select people based on genetic lines (Y-STR and Mitochondrial)
Enhanced WebSearch
- Create a WebTag directly from your search results
- Optionally use an external browser for search results
Enhanced Place List
- View place detail information directly from the place list
- Edit place detail notes, media, etc. directly from the place list
