With a last name like Butzgy, you find yourself expecting a lot out of a genealogy program. As I have discovered during the last few years, digging around in your family roots is hard work. Family Tree Maker helps smooth the way for amateur genealogists, saving time, effort, and a lot of paper.
Although this is an excellent resource, it's important to approach Family Tree Maker from the proper perspective. Your family tree will not pop up as soon as you enter in the names of your grandparents, displaying your direct descent from Thomas Jefferson. Tracing the past takes time. You'll spend many hours quizzing relatives, entering information, and looking up documents. Family Tree Maker provides an easy way to arrange that information, and serves as a repository for your family's history. So far, it's helped me learn I may be related to Davey Crockett. It's a tool for exploration that would make the King of the Wild Frontier proud.
While Family Tree Maker is available as a separate diskette-based program, the CD-ROM offers something unique: the names of 100 million deceased Americans, drawn from federal records. While this is impressive, it's also a good place to insert a warning. The names on this disc will only guide you to other resources. Only the source of the information is provided, such as census or Social Security records, not the actual documents.
This program shines in the way it helps you arrange your information. As you build your family tree, you can view and print the information in different ways. These include the traditional family tree, medical reports, calendars, and my favorite feature, the kinship report. This chart lists every person entered in your family tree, and displays their relationship to you. This is great for identifying second and third cousins.
The accompanying manual is helpful, and has a nice added touch: family photos of the Banner Blue Software staff. The program also includes a helpful online guide about genealogy and tips on finding your ancestors. You can further research these records with additional CD-ROMs, available for purchase or found at some libraries.
