Just a few years ago, researching your family history meant filling in pedigree charts by hand, organizing your research with index cards and sharing photocopied charts with other researchers by snail mail. Today, genealogy software automates all of these tasks, from entering your findings and generating numbered pedigree charts to creating family tree books and publishing your family history on the Web.

Since we last compared genealogy software in June 2000, Ultimate Family Tree has dropped off the map, but two promising new titles, Family Tree Legends and RootsMagic, have just appeared. Many of the old favorites have had significant upgrades, and you can now choose between several excellent programs. Most are reasonably priced — or even free — and all have modest computer requirements.