Notes and observations By Jonathan Milne-Fowler:

These notes relate to the free version of MyHeritage Family Tree Builder Version 4.0 which was downloaded on 2 January 2010 on behalf of a relative wishing to enter details of her forebears into a family tree diagram.

The website information indicates that the latest version of the program is easy to learn and fun to use while offering a useful range of capabilities.

Downloading was quick and installing the program was straightforward; it requires on-line registration to complete the process. An extensive User’s Guide (320 pages) may be downloaded once installation has been completed and this is recommended particularly for new users.

To familiarise myself with the program I installed it on an Asus Eee 901 netbook, and to test its capabilities loaded a GEDCOM file containing more than one thousand individuals and a folder containing more than one hundred and fifty photos.

The User’s Guide is a pdf document but does not include all the usual navigation features - only “Next page”, “Previous page” and “Back to first page“ buttons work; it is not possible to navigate by typing a required page number in the page display box.

Within the Table of Contents double clicking on a heading brings up the designated page. Entering basic information about family members is simple but recording source information requires conscious effort and is easily overlooked as the Citations window can not not displayed alongside the main window; what is more, the Citations window does not display which fact source is being cited.

Linking photos to individuals is simple but time consuming - when I reopened the project after my first session of linking photos the images had not transferred and the exercize had to be repeated! There were a lot of blank images associated with individuals which had to be deleted manually.

The User’s Guide indicates that photos are displayed in Tree View but this feature did not seem to be working. The guide is less helpful than it could be when it comes to resolving problems; there does not seem to be a users group established for the purpose of assisting users to solve problems; nor is there a “contact us” option in the “Help” menu which would simplify seeking help from the program developers.

The My Heritage web site has to be navigated to find an inconspicuous tag called “Forums” where in a section headed “FAQ” it was established that at present there is no automatic inclusion of photos in charts or reports even though the photos have been “Associated” with individuals; see To display a photo in diagrams and reports it is necessary to tag a selected photo as “Personal”.

If photos have already been imported into the FTB project they may be displayed in ”Table” arrangement which shows which photos have been “Associated” with people listed in the database. Right clicking on a photo displays it in the “Edit Photo” window - click on the “Associations” tab, then on the name in the widow and tick the “Personal Photo” box - then click “OK”.

The variety of charts which can be created with the free version of the program is limited to “Ancestors” or “Descendants” or “Close Family”; all may be either horizontal or vertical and the first two may be in fan configuration.  There are a number of options available as to what information is displayed.

There does not seem to be a way to display more than one occupation for an individual and this is unfortunate as many people change occupation during their working life (double clicking on an individual opens an “Edit” window and clicking on the “Facts” tab displays all the facts recorded for that person).

Only one chart or report can be opened at a time and there is no provision for locking a displayed document while looking at another although it is possible to navigate between documents under the “View” menu.

One of the Report options is to produce a book using The Complete Genealogy Reporter software. This creates a fully indexed pdf document with sections detailing ancestry and descendants, direct relations and indirect relations, and family trees (generally for four generations); if efforts have been taken to cite sources for all significant facts and biograpical notes included where the infomation has been found a significant part of the document may be taken up with notes, sources and indexes.

This free software is a very competent tool for organising a family history database but it is not without shortcomings. An experienced family historian might be satisfied to use it for a small project but is likely to prefer a more sophisticated alternative. Whether the “Premium” version is significantly better I can not judge and the website does not give much information for comparison with the free version.