The Master Genealogist 5.0 still captures every ancestral detail—with a boost for beginners.
Meticulous, detail-oriented and obsessively organized. That's you, right? Come on, admit it. If you're a typical genealogist, you take great care to organize every family fact you find—or at least you'd like to.
Any genealogy software will help you get your family history in order, but The Master Genealogist (TMG) stands out for its ability to record every detail, properly cite many kinds of sources, track your correspondence, maintain a research log and produce the most professional books. It's the ideal program for the persnickety—er, I mean, serious researcher.
Given all its features, it should come as no surprise that TMG has a steeper learning curve than other genealogy software. But the latest upgrade, version 5.0, is not only more user-friendly, it also boasts many other improvements, including:
Ease of Use—Beginner Data Entry Mode helps the new user get acquainted with TMG before tackling more advanced features. A click on the right mouse button brings up a list of current options. Hints appear each time you start the program and context-sensitive help is available from just about any screen.
More Charts—The new hourglass chart shows an individual's ancestors and descendants. Box charts can now include artistic frames in many styles, including classic wooden frames, colorful patterns and American, British and Irish flags.
Enhanced Multimedia—Create slide shows with pictures, sound and video and send them to relatives with the included viewer.
TMG 5.0 is an essential upgrade for current users and a good choice for any serious researcher. It costs $30 to upgrade from version 4.0 or $59 from TMG's sister program, Family Tree SuperTools (see the April 2002 Family Tree Magazine for a review). New users can opt for the $79 Gold Edition or $39.95 Silver Edition. Both require Windows 95 or higher, a Pentium-speed processor and 64MB RAM (a 250MHz processor and 128MB RAM suggested). Download TMG 5.0 at www.whollygenes.com or contact Wholly Genes Software at (877) 864-3264.
Rick Crume wrote the cover story for the October 2002 issue of Family Tree Magazine.