RootsMagic Essentials

It's always interesting to know where you're coming from, but going to City Hall in order to see this isn't too efficient and the records could be lost or deteriorated in time. It's time to gather the data and store those records on a digital support for safe keeping; Roots Magic is the software to use in this case.

You might have a new family member to add to that genealogy tree by the time the download is done. The installation package is about 20 Mb large, which is not much to ask from a current day hard disk but it's not easy going if your Internet connection is slow.

On the larger part of the program's main window you can opt for a simple but well made list where you can add your family members or an old school pedigree which extends all the way to grand-grand-grandparents. The interface is very well designed and thus it makes it easy to add and edit a family member. Just select one of the entries and click a button on the toolbar or double click the entry. A window will show up and you can add here basic information such as names, dates and places of birth, and additional info such as day and cause of death, day and place of burial. If you have it, you can also insert any kind of media for any family member, including videos.

Another good feature is the portability. You can easily install Roots Magic to a removable drive or just transfer your data to it. There is another, separate .exe file available for this. Run it and a window will prompt you to insert your device. It will automatically detect it and, with just one click, you can either install the program on the removable device or just your database.