I have seen a number of questions about the Family Tree Maker 2008 SP3 update over the past few days. I know that the development team is closing in on finalizing this patch. I’ve delivered three versions of the patch to both our alpha and beta teams. The input has been very positive. A fourth […]

Last weekend I had the following conversation with my 5-year-old nephew, Alex.
Alex: “Where are you going?”
Me: “To the store.”
Alex: “Why?”
Me: “Because I want to buy some shoes.”
Alex: “Why?”
Me: “Because I’m a girl, and girls like shoes.”
Alex: “But you don’t need any shoes.”
Which, from an objective point of view, was certainly true. I had a whole […]

Dear Family Tree Maker Community:
We are interested in what you have to say. Your feedback and input directly influence future releases of Family Tree Maker – how it will look, feel and function. We invite you to take a survey and share your thoughts and feelings.
Please click here to complete the survey. We appreciate your […]

A couple of years ago, when I was living in New York, I went to Philadelphia to spend the Easter weekend with my sister and her family. The guests at Easter dinner included my brother-in-law’s sister. She brought Napoleon Dynamite lunch boxes for my nieces, who had seen the movie so many times that […]

A few months ago I heard a wonderful essay on NPR. The author was reminiscing about making a lanyard for his mother at summer camp when he was a kid. The essay was addressed to his mother. He said something like, “You gave me thousands of warm meals, 18 years of free housing and clean […]

Some comment about data entry flow from our U.I Designer:
Many people like the easy flow of entering and editing information from the Family view of Family Tree Maker 16.  As nice as it is, many also complained about having to open the “Edit Individual” dialog multiple times to enter common facts such as AKA, title, […]

Today we launched an exciting new feature that many of you have requested: the ability to share AncestryPress projects in a digital format. You can now invite family members and friends to view your project and, if they wish, order a printed copy of it. We’ve also made a navigation change that will make it […]

I would like to start a discussion about rating source-citations. Below are some steps to rate a source-citation in Family Tree Maker 2008.
Family Tree Maker lets you rate the reliability of your sources. You can rate each source-citation to note both the legibility of the source as well as its potential accuracy (i.e., primary source, secondary source, family […]

Family photos are the heart and soul of any AncestryPress project, and we’ve just added several new features that make it easier to showcase your photos through a custom book or poster.
Picasa and SmugMug
AncestryPress is now integrated with Picasa and SmugMug, two leading photo sharing web sites. So if you’ve uploaded your vacation photos to […]

On occasion I come across enhancement requests or questions about features that are currently in Family Tree Maker 2008. Here is a short list of some of those items.
Support for all media files
Users can link to any type of media by selecting “All Files” under the “Files of type” drop-down. The default is set to […]