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GENEALOGY SOFTWARE - MY PERSONAL CHOICE & WHY
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The Change Made - 10 Years Running!
Once upon a time, I used Family Tree Maker (FTM).  In fact, I had it for 8 years.  I paid each year to upgrade the software which made it more difficult to decide to make a change at all. Moreover, the enormity of the challenge was buried beneath my frustration with FTM.

After months of thinking about it, and weeks of researching and trying other available software, in January 2008, I made the jump to LEGACY!

In spite of the challenge, moving to Legacy was in my mind, the best choice and 10 years later I still have no regrets.

As an aside, it appears FTM has been sold, again, to MacKiev Company. I don't know what this means, if anything.
You Did This WHY?
In just one word - FRUSTRATION!

FTM, it seemed to me, had become yet another Corporate Machine whose ONLY concern is to "make money". While making money is good for a company, it should not be accomplished by forgetting that it is the customer who is paying the bills.

No technical support, and doing away with "upgrade" pricing were just two reasons to start looking.

Add the elmination of certain features to the UPGRADED version and the deliberate attempts to coerce users into "freely" placing their research on Ancestry.com, a "pay" site, you get "CHANGE".
The 2018 Update / Facts
I will recommend Legacy Family Tree by Millennia, now owned by My Heritage.  Yes, they too have succumbed to the way things are today - who buys who next.  Time will tell if they go the way of so many others - making things more difficult for the end user.  I am hoping for the best.

In the meantime, I cannot say enough good things about Legacy as, in my humble opinion, there is not now nor has there been before, a family tree database as strong, user friendly and feature rich as this one.

I have opted to retain this page, slightly revised 10 years after it was originally written to serve as a reminder to all that switching "ain't so bad".
USING LEGACY
My initial use of Legacy exposed multitudes of errors that I made over the years with FTM.    While I thought I had fixed them all, here I am, 10 years later and I am still finding and fixing errors as a result of my use of FTM.

Just  a note to viewers, besides the "on-line" data-base being updated only once every 6 months or so, errors remain in spelling, dates, places, even names.

Please remember, for information that is more current and more accurate, please contact me directly.
DATABASE CONVERSION
Converting from FTM to Legacy had challenges. Telephone calls AND emails were well recieved by Legacy staff and questions were answered quickly and understandbly.

I do not believe telephone calls are an option anymore.  Like so much today, support is email based.  I do not like this aspect of the change but alas, as Bob Dylan noted back in 1964, (the times they are a changin').

Whatever became of "live" customer service?  I know for a fact, I miss that part of life!
THE DOWNSIDE
Much like the Ink Spots sang, "into each life some rain must fall" - there is always work to be done, as I suspect there would be ANY time a change in software is made.  It is not the fault of Legacy that I had to work to make corrections...it is my own ignorance of what was right and what was not when I started doing genealogy.  With Legacy's built-in help, "someday the sun will shine" and I will have made all of the corrections.

If you're thinking about making a switch, be prepared for the extent of work that may be required to get it right.
MASTER LISTS - PERFECT
Legacy allows you to both view and edit master lists of various things, including locations. In just ONE example, I had Saint-Barthélémy Québec spelled at least 5 different ways:
Saint-Barthélémi
Saint-Barthélemy
Saint Barthélemi
St. Barthelemy Berthier
St-Barthelemi, Berthier
With the so many places in Québec, you can imagine how many places I have spelled differently...I'm am still, after 10 years, cleaning up as I go. Legacy makes this much easier with their use of "Master Lists".
MAKING YOUR OWN CHOICE
Please find out for yourself - check out the Legacy Website - be sure to read the product comparison charts and the reviews, not to mention user comments. I don't care to list them here but I will say that I agree with just about every single user comment listed.

Initially, I was so impressed, I purchased the deluxe edition very quickly after trying their free trial version. Even the cost is reasonable.

Believe me when I say I looked at several options, beginning with a "Google search" for the term "genealogy software reviews" without the quotes.
FIND SOME REVIEWS ON LINE
Review sites have come and gone as have some of the desktop genealogy software programs out there.  These review sites were available as of March 2018. 
And there are others out there. Go searching.
All said and done, the best software is what you personally prefer.  As for me, the best remains Legacy...and I really don't want to try to change again...too much like work!
MY PERSONAL CONCLUSION
I did what I believed I had to do.  I only wish Legacy had been around first. If it had been, with the power it has behind it, I wouldn't be continuing to spend hours fixing my mistakes.

If you're going to do it - I recommend, without hesitation, LEGACY Family Tree!

PS:  I am not against Ancestry.com but I do believe they are far to high priced which prohibits many from using their services (perhaps inlcuding myself someday). I also believe that while they do provide a good service for some, many more are taken advantage of by way of making people pay for access to the research of others. Rootsweb is coming back and hopefully it will remain free and helpful.  It appears that it will remain affiliated with Ancestry where much of the same information is available.

And finally, new "family tree" desktop software programs are hitting the market as well.  As the saying goes, "let the buyer beware".  Do your homework and make a wise choice.
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Larry Lachance
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