Author: Bruce Buzbee

AI Prompt Builder in RootsMagic 11: Smarter Research Prompts

Bruce Buzbee 1 Comment

RootsMagic 11 introduces a brand-new feature that makes working with artificial intelligence easier and more productive: the AI Prompt Builder.

At its heart, the Prompt Builder isn’t AI running inside RootsMagic or trying to tell you how to use the program. Instead, it’s a practical toolkit that helps you create better prompts—well-structured instructions that you can copy into any AI service. RootsMagic now gives you a way to create those instructions quickly and reuse them whenever you like.

Watch the Video

How It Works

When you open the AI Prompt Builder, you’ll see a library where your saved prompts are stored. At first it will be empty, but it won’t take long before you begin filling it with instructions tailored to your own needs. Each prompt can be as simple or as detailed as you want.

If you are comfortable writing your own AI prompts, there’s a free-form editor where you can give your prompt a name, type out the request you want to make, and then decide which details about the selected person in RootsMagic should be included—names, events, and even relatives like parents, siblings, spouses, and children.

For everyone else, the guided “Build a Prompt” option acts like a step-by-step wizard. You select the role you want AI to play, the task you want it to perform, and the audience you want it written for. You can even set a maximum length, ask for historical context, or check the box to keep the AI from making up details. At the end, RootsMagic assembles the entire prompt for you. All you have to do is give it a name and save it.

Examples in Action

The video shows how flexible this can be. In one demonstration, RootsMagic creates a prompt that asks the AI to build a word search puzzle for a family reunion. The program automatically includes the ancestor’s name, key events, and basic family relationships in the prompt. Once copied into ChatGPT, the AI produces not only the puzzle grid but also a word list drawn from the family data.

In another example, a different ancestor is selected, and the guided builder is used to generate a prompt for a narrative biography. The prompt includes the genealogical details from RootsMagic along with the request to add historical context, but without inventing any fictional stories. The result is a concise family history piece that can be shared at reunions or added to personal archives.

Managing Your Prompt Library

As you continue to experiment, you’ll likely build a growing collection of prompts. RootsMagic makes it simple to manage them. You can edit a prompt if you decide to change its wording or the data it includes, duplicate one to create a similar variation, or delete the ones you no longer need. And whenever you want to use a prompt, it’s just a matter of highlighting it and copying it to the clipboard. From there, you paste it into your favorite AI service and let the engine do the work.

Smarter Prompts, Better Results

Many genealogists worry about AI “making things up,” and rightly so. That’s why RootsMagic gives you the choice of including or excluding certain details, and provides a built-in option to tell AI not to invent information. Combined with the ability to reuse your best prompts again and again, the AI Prompt Builder helps ensure that your interactions with AI are focused, reliable, and truly useful.

By itself, RootsMagic doesn’t generate the narrative or puzzle—it equips you with the best possible prompt so that when you hand it off to an AI, you get results that are meaningful and accurate. It’s a smarter way to take advantage of these new tools without giving up control of your family history.

Learn more and try RootsMagic 11 today →

🌟 Special Introductory Offer

To celebrate the release of RootsMagic 11, we’re offering a limited-time discount through the end of this month.

  • New users: Only $29.95 (regularly $39.95)
  • Upgrades: Only $19.95 (regularly $29.95)

Get RootsMagic 11 Now

Hurry—special pricing ends September 30, 2025 at midnight Mountain time.

Better Editing in RootsMagic 11: Edit Screen Enhancements

Bruce Buzbee 1 Comment

If you’ve used RootsMagic for any length of time, you know how much time is spent on the Edit Person screen—adding new details, updating information, and organizing sources and notes. With RootsMagic 11, we’ve made big changes to this screen so that data entry is faster, less “clicky,” and much more intuitive.

In this video we demonstrate the redesigned Edit Person screen and show how these updates can make your everyday work more efficient.

A New Way to Work with Notes, Sources, and Tasks

Three new views on the Edit Person form—Notes, Sources, and Tasks—give you a broader view of a person’s information and let you edit it right where you see it.

Instead of clicking through multiple panels, the Notes view now displays every possible note connected to a person: general notes, event notes, family notes, name notes, and even associations. You can quickly see which items already have notes, edit them inline, and use a search box to instantly filter down to the exact text you’re looking for.

The Sources view works in a similar way. All of a person’s citations appear together in one list, where they can be edited on the spot. You can filter citations by fact or family, attach new citations exactly where they belong, and even drag-and-drop to reorder them. That order is respected in reports, making it easier to keep your documentation organized the way you want it.

Tasks now share this streamlined approach too. You can view every task tied to a person, whether it’s linked to a fact, a name, or an association, and edit them directly in the list without extra steps.

Clearer Visual Cues for Proof and Privacy

RootsMagic 11 also brings clarity to fact status icons. Private facts are now marked with a lock symbol, and proof statuses are easier to distinguish: proven facts show a green check, disproven facts display a circle with a slash, and disputed facts carry an exclamation mark.

A brand-new proof option—Proposed—adds flexibility for genealogists working with theories or hypotheses. Proposed facts are marked with a puzzle-piece icon, signaling that the information is tentative but worth tracking.

A Header That Does More

At the top of the Person page sidebar, the updated header now shows live counts for a person’s notes, sources, media, tasks, health items, and DNA tests. If an item doesn’t exist, the icon will be grayed.

These counts are not just informative; they’re interactive. Click any icon to jump straight to the relevant edit view for the person, or expand the header to see the actual numbers listed beside each category. This makes it easy to scan your tree and quickly spot where more information might be needed.

Editing Made Easier

Together, these improvements turn RootsMagic 11’s Edit Person screen into a more powerful and flexible workspace. Whether you’re attaching citations, refining your notes, or organizing tasks, you’ll find that the process is smoother and requires fewer steps. The end result is more time spent on research and discovery—and less time clicking through screens.

👉 Learn more about RootsMagic 11 at rootsmagic.com/rootsmagic

🌟 Special Introductory Offer

To celebrate the release of RootsMagic 11, we’re offering a limited-time discount through the end of this month.

  • New users: Only $29.95 (regularly $39.95)
  • Upgrades: Only $19.95 (regularly $29.95)

Get RootsMagic 11 Now

Hurry—special pricing ends September 30, 2025 at midnight Mountain time.

Introducing RootsMagic 11: Smarter, Simpler, and More Powerful

Bruce Buzbee 10 Comments

We’re thrilled to introduce RootsMagic 11, the latest version of our award-winning genealogy software. This release is more than just new buttons and menus—it’s about making your family history research easier, clearer, and more enjoyable. Every change we’ve made in RootsMagic 11 was inspired by user feedback, so you can spend less time wrestling with software and more time uncovering your story.

Watch our quick video overview of What’s New in RootsMagic 11

A Clearer, More Comfortable Workspace

When you sit down to work on your family tree, you want information at your fingertips without having to guess what a button does. That’s why we’ve simplified the interface in RootsMagic 11. Views like Pedigree and Family are now labeled directly on the page, while cryptic icons have been replaced with menus that spell out your choices.

On the People page, a new side panel header shows the basics about a person immediately—names, vital events, relationships, even icons for notes, sources, media, and DNA. Switching between spouses or parent sets is just a click away, so you’ll always know where you are in the tree.

A Life Story at a Glance

Sometimes you don’t want to dig through multiple screens just to understand someone’s life. The new Life Summary panel gives you a complete snapshot—life events, spouses and children, parents and siblings—all in one place. You can expand or collapse sections, quickly add relatives, or rearrange children and spouses with simple drag-and-drop.

Think of it as your research dashboard: one page where you can see a person’s story unfold and take action without losing your place.

Better Editing

RootsMagic 11 makes editing smoother and more intuitive. If you’ve ever struggled to track down which event a citation belongs to, the new Sources view puts every citation for a person on one screen—no more hunting around. Notes and tasks work the same way: a single view shows them all, with quick indicators so you know exactly where information already exists.

This means less time clicking through windows and more time actually working with your data.

Better Searching

Searching is often where breakthroughs happen, and RootsMagic 11 gives you more powerful tools to zero in on the right people and facts. The Advanced Search has been redesigned so you can combine rules with AND, OR, or BUT NOT, search by multiple event fields, and even look for people without sources or those who aren’t linked into the tree.

When you find someone, the results now include a Life Summary so you don’t have to leave the search page to see the bigger picture. And because results can now be customized, printed or exported, you can take them with you into research sessions or share them with others.

Bringing AI Into Your Research

RootsMagic 11 introduces the AI Prompt Builder, a first in genealogy software. It helps you create clear, reusable prompts to use with the AI of your choice. Want to draft a life sketch, write an obituary, or get historical context for a person’s life? The AI Prompt Builder can structure the request for you, pulling in the details you want from your database while giving you options like “no fake info” or preferred output format.

This isn’t AI doing the research for you—it’s a way to make AI work smarter for you, helping you write, summarize, and explore ideas more efficiently.

Reports, Proofs, and Beyond

We’ve also added practical improvements you’ve been asking for: print relationship charts for any calculated relationship, mark facts as “proposed” to capture theories without cluttering your proven research, and use new proof icons to track your confidence in each fact. The Explorer now incorporates the Life Summary panel, making navigation smoother than ever.

And under the hood, RootsMagic 11 brings full support for the latest Mac hardware, faster performance, and dozens of small enhancements that make daily use more pleasant.

Ready to Grow With You

RootsMagic 11 was built to help you do what you love most—discovering and telling your family story. Whether you’re analyzing sources, tidying up your notes, exploring DNA connections, or writing narratives with AI, this release gives you tools that fit naturally into the way you work.

🌟 Special Introductory Offer

To celebrate the release of RootsMagic 11, we’re offering a limited-time discount through the end of this month.

  • New users: Only $29.95 (regularly $39.95)
  • Upgrades: Only $19.95 (regularly $29.95)

Get RootsMagic 11 Now

Hurry—special pricing ends September 30, 2025 at midnight Mountain time.

Exploring RootsMagic’s “Used” Lists

Bruce Buzbee 13 Comments

Folks who use RootsMagic know the value of organized and accessible data. One of RootsMagic’s powerful features is what we affectionately call “Used Lists,” a tool that simplifies the management of genealogical information.

What is a “Used” List?

Unlike many of the lists within RootsMagic, the “used” list isn’t just a single list. They are actually scattered throughout the program. If you’ve ever been looking at a record (citation, media, task, place, etc.) and wondered where that record is being used, then the “used” list is for you. But it is more than just a list of all the places a particular record is used. It is also a jumping-off point to view those uses in more detail.

Master Lists

One of the most useful places to find Used lists is when working with the master lists. For example, let’s say you are looking at the list of sources on the Sources page. Select any source, and you will see the number of places that source is used in the edit panel on the right. Here, the source is used 93 times in this database.

If you are interested in where this source is used, just click the button, and RootsMagic will display the “used” list for the source. The list will display the date, the type of record using the source, and the name of the person (or record) using the source.

At this point, you can simply click the left arrow above the list to return to the source or select any item on the list and use the toolbar buttons above it.

  • Unlink (minus): this will let you unlink the highlighted record from the source.
  • Edit (pencil): this will let you edit the actual record linked to this source. RootsMagic will open the edit screen for the linked person, event, association, or other record.
  • Edit Link (link): this will let you edit the link between the record and the source. This is useful if, for example, the wrong person or fact is linked to the source. You can easily switch to another person or fact.
  • Add Link (plus): Some used lists also allow you to add links to an item. For example, when viewing the used list for a media item, you can link other items directly to the media item without having to go to each person or other record individually.

Although our example shows where a source in the master source list is used, the “used” list is also available for the following as well:

  • Places: a list of every event which happened in the selected place.
  • Citations: a list of every event, person, or family which references a citation.
  • Media: a list of every record attached to a media item. This could be a person, event, citation, place, task, or other record type.
  • Tasks: a list of every record attached to a task.
  • Addresses: a list of every person, event, or family at a particular address.
  • Repositories: a list of any sources or tasks for the selected repository.

“Used” Lists When Editing People

But “used” lists aren’t just for working with the master lists of records. They are also available when editing a person. If you are editing a citation for a person, for example, you can quickly see how many other places that same citation is being used and view the used list for the citation just as easily as from the master lists. The used list is also available when editing an address, media item, or task for a person as well.

RootsMagic’s “used” lists are more than just a feature; they are an integral part of a genealogist’s workflow. By leveraging these lists, you can streamline your research and ensure data accuracy.

It’s here! RootsMagic 9!

Bruce Buzbee 30 Comments

We are thrilled to announce the official release of RootsMagic 9, the latest version of the award-winning genealogy software, which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history easy and enjoyable. With the release comes an update to the free “RootsMagic Essentials” product and a limited-time discount offer for both new and existing users.

NOTE: The limited-time discount has expired since the publication of this article.

Impressive New Features

RootsMagic 9 includes exciting new features that will help you to discover more about your family history.

  • With our innovative new “Associations” feature, you can track more than just family relationships. This powerful tool lets you record friends, associates, neighbors, enslavements, and more, giving you a more complete picture of your ancestors and their connections.
  • Enhanced color coding with multiple color code sets and color labeling makes it easier to identify different branches of your family tree and see relationships at a glance.
  • With the ability to save and reuse search criteria and task filters, you can quickly access frequently used searches and save time on your research.
  • RootsMagic 9 also includes powerful new database tools, which can help you to identify and correct errors in your family tree data. This can lead to a more accurate family tree and more informed research.
  • The RootsMagic 9 note editor has been completely rewritten to be more responsive and now includes spell-checking.
  • For Windows users, RootsMagic 9 is now available in 32-bit and 64-bit formats.
  • And RootsMagic 9 includes dozens of new features designed to make working with your data faster, easier, and more enjoyable.
Learn More

New Book

We’re also excited to announce the return of our “Getting the Most Out of RootsMagic” book, written especially for RootsMagic 9.

Many people barely touch the tip of the iceberg of RootsMagic’s features. If you are one of these people, “Getting the Most Out of RootsMagic 9” is the book for you. You start with basic data entry and continue by learning advanced techniques such as custom reports, citing sources, research tasks, creating user-defined facts, powerful tools, and much more.

“Getting the Most Out of RootsMagic 9” is available for $19.95 and is printed and shipped by Amazon.com.

Get the Book

New Videos

To help users become familiar with the new version and features, we’ve created a new set of free tutorial videos, including “Getting Started with RootsMagic,” “What’s New in RootsMagic 9,” and shorter videos showing individual features in more depth.

Watch videos at RootsMagicTV.com

Free “RootsMagic Essentials”

RootsMagic 9 is also available in an updated, free edition named “RootsMagic 9 Essentials”.  RootsMagic Essentials is available for both Windows and macOS and contains many core features from the RootsMagic software.  The two products are fully compatible with one another.

Many people are curious about their family history and don’t know where to begin. RootsMagic Essentials is the perfect way for someone to get started risk-free. It’s available for download at https://rootsmagic.com/try.

Try RootsMagic 9 Essentials

Discount Offer

RootsMagic 9 is normally available for only $39.95.  Existing RootsMagic and Family Origins users may upgrade for only $29.95.

But for a very limited time, RootsMagic is offering RootsMagic 9 at the special price of $20.  Until Friday, March 10th, 2023 at 11:59PM Mountain time, any customer may purchase RootsMagic at this special $20 price. After March 10, RootsMagic 9 will return to its regular price, with the standard discount for upgrades.

Get the special 50% discount

Join the thousands of family historians who trust RootsMagic as the place to plant their family tree and get RootsMagic 9 today!

RootsTech 2023: In-person & Online; Special Discount on RootsMagic 9

Bruce Buzbee 4 Comments
RootsTech-Booth-2017

It’s the return of the live version of the largest genealogy conference in the world- RootsTech! It’s also the event where we are premiering our latest creation- RootsMagic 9!

It’s being held Thursday, March 2, through Saturday, March 4, 2023, online and in-person at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve been there from the beginning, and we’re pleased to again sponsor this event in 2023. If you’re coming in person, we hope you’ll join us for our special in-booth demonstrations of RootsMagic 9.

Relatives at RootsTech

There is also an improved “Relatives at RootsTech” feature that lets you see how you’re related to the other 650,000+ RootsTech attendees. Just use RootsMagic to update FamilySearch Family Tree to see how you connect to interested genealogists worldwide.

Expo Hall

Don’t miss the expo hall with the largest gathering of genealogy products and services in the country. Be sure to visit the RootsMagic booth #1003 (right up front) to meet our staff, ask questions, view demonstrations, and get special discounts on RootsMagic products.

View Map of the Expo Hall

Expo Hall hours (subject to change) are:

  • Thursday, March 2, 2023, 9 am – 6 pm
  • Friday, March 3, 2023, 9 am – 6 pm
  • Saturday, March 4, 2023, 9 am – 3 pm

In-Person RootsMagic 9 Class

While the virtual RootsTech is free, the in-person event in Salt Lake City includes the Virtual Pass, PLUS:

  • Exclusive classes from expert genealogists
  • Access to the world-renowned FamilySearch Library
  • Face-to-face connections with friends and industry experts

Plus, if you are attending in-person, you can come to the very first RootsMagic 9 class, taught by the RootsMagician himself, Bruce Buzbee!

What’s New in RootsMagic 9
Friday, March 3, 4:30 – 5:30 pm
Salt Palace Convention Center, Room 155 E

Special RootsTech Offer (In-Person and Online)

At our booth, take advantage of our special conference pricing. You’ll get RootsMagic for only $20!

Those who can’t attend RootsTech this year can get the same conference special by visiting www.NotAtRootsTech.com. The offer is only available starting Monday, February 27, at 11:00 am MST through Monday, March 6, 2023, at 11:59 pm MST.

Save up to 50% off of RootsMagic 9

See You There!

We’re excited to show you what we’ve been up to and to meet with so many of you in person. For those of you fortunate enough to be able to attend RootsTech in person, we look forward to seeing you. And if you won’t be able to join us there, be sure to participate in the virtual sessions and take advantage of the special offer at www.NotAtRootsTech.com.

RootsMagic 2021 Year in Review

Bruce Buzbee 13 Comments

With the new year, we’d like to take this opportunity to look back at all that has happened with RootsMagic in 2021, as well as look forward to our plans in 2022.

RootsMagic 8

Of course, our biggest event of 2021 was the community preview and official release of RootsMagic 8.

Although this wasn’t the first time we have rewritten the RootsMagic code, it was by far the biggest project in our company history. We rewrote RootsMagic to support the latest genealogical technologies available today while building a foundation for future functionality that would have been impossible with our older code.

One of our main goals was to create native Windows and Mac versions with identical functionality, so we selected a development platform that allows us to create both with a single code base. This means that when we add new features in the future, those features will be available on both Windows and Mac.

In addition, we added an all-new interface that supports easily switching between different types of information without losing your place, the ability to edit multiple persons at the same time, reusable citations, a completely rewritten report engine, and the ability to save reports directly to Word (.docx) or Excel (.xlsx) files.

After working insanely long hours for months on end, we were able to officially release RootsMagic 8 on October 1, 2021.

New RootsMagic Community

In 2021 we also announced a new online community for users to connect and ask questions, share ideas, and discuss how to use the RootsMagic software. This community replaced our old forums which were based on a platform that had long since become obsolete. The new RootsMagic community is based on the Discourse platform and can be found at https://community.rootsmagic.com. Everyone is welcome to view or read posts, but a free account is required in order to post or comment on messages.

New Website

Our official website also received an overhaul with a responsive design, updated content, and easier navigation.

New RootsMagic Wiki

With the release of RootsMagic 8, we also introduced our new RootsMagic Wiki. The wiki contains the online version of help for RootsMagic 8, which means we can instantly add to and update the RootsMagic help, as well as include videos, links to webinars, and other multimedia options.

New Webinars

And speaking of webinars, we brought back our free webinars on getting the most out of your RootsMagic software. To help users become familiar with the new version and features, we’re offering a new series of free webinars; the first being, “What’s New in RootsMagic 8”.

Webinars will also be live-streamed on our YouTube channel and recordings will be available there.

2022 New Year’s Resolutions

RootsMagic Updates

When rewriting RootsMagic 8, we did so with an eye on the future and emerging technologies. In the process, several features in RootsMagic 7 weren’t ready in time. Since then we have added several of those features to RootsMagic 8 in free updates, such as custom reports.

In 2022, watch for regular updates to your software with improvements, fixes, and new features.

Future RootsMagic

The future of RootsMagic is bright. We are no longer constrained by obsolete programming tools and technologies, and can focus on adding the exciting new features we’ve been dreaming of all these years.

It’s here! Presenting RootsMagic 8

Bruce Buzbee 50 Comments

We are thrilled to announce the official release of RootsMagic 8, the latest version of the award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history easy and enjoyable. With the release comes an update to the free “RootsMagic Essentials” product, as well as a limited-time discount offer for both new and existing users.

Built For the Future

RootsMagic 8 is the biggest release in our 30-year history. We’ve rewritten RootsMagic to support the latest genealogical technologies available today while building a foundation for future functionality that would have been impossible with our older code.

Impressive New Features

RootsMagic 8 boasts an impressive list of new features including an all-new interface that supports easily switching between different types of information without losing your place, the ability to edit multiple persons at the same time, native Windows and Mac support, reusable citations, a completely rewritten report engine, and the ability to save reports directly to Word (.docx) or Excel (.xlsx) files.

Other exciting new features include fan charts, streamlined search capabilities, an enhanced person editing experience, and a powerful new task management system.

Learn more about RootsMagic 8

New RootsMagic Community

We’re also excited to announce a new online community for users to connect and ask questions, share ideas, and discuss how to use the RootsMagic software.  The RootsMagic community is based on the Discourse platform and can be found at https://community.rootsmagic.com.  Everyone is welcome to view or read posts, but a free account is required in order to post or comment on messages.

Visit community.RootsMagic.com

New Webinars

To help users become familiar with the new version and features, we’re offering a new series of free webinars; the first being, “What’s New in RootsMagic 8”. Visit https://rootsmagic.com/webinars to register.

Webinars will also be live-streamed on our YouTube channel and recordings will be available there.

Register for Webinars

Free “RootsMagic Essentials”

RootsMagic 8 is also available in an updated, free edition named, “RootsMagic 8 Essentials”.  RootsMagic Essentials is available for both Windows and macOS and contains many core features from the RootsMagic software.  The two products are fully compatible with one another.

Many people are curious about their family history and don’t know where to begin. RootsMagic Essentials is the perfect way for someone to get started, risk-free. It’s available for download at https://www.rootsmagic.com/try .

Try it Free

Discount Offer

RootsMagic 8 is available for only $39.95.  Existing RootsMagic and Family Origins users may upgrade for only $29.95.

For a limited time, RootsMagic is offering an additional discount for both full and upgrade copies.  Until October 17, 2021, the full version will be available for $34.95, and upgrade pricing will be $24.95.  After October 17th, the price will return to its regular price.

Buy Now

Thank You

Thank you to all of the users and testers who have worked with us as we’ve journeyed this long road to get to this point. This wouldn’t have been possible without your testing, feedback, and patience. We’re excited to finally deliver RootsMagic 8 to you and for the future plans that we have for our software.

The Road to RootsMagic 8: An Important Update

Bruce Buzbee 127 Comments

My mom often accused me of not being able to learn from my mistakes. Years ago, I got burned by giving a date for a feature we were adding, and I promised myself I would never do that again. Then a couple of years later, we pre-announced a deadline for finishing work on our Ancestry integration, with mostly the same result. So, of course, I still haven’t learned my lesson, and once again tried to guess a release date in advance, this time for RootsMagic 8.

RootsMagic 8 is the biggest upgrade in our software’s history. I usually just say something like “it will be done when it is ready” and leave it at that, but we began telling folks that we hoped to have it out by the end of this year (2019). It seemed like a safe estimate, but like those other times this has bitten me, I underestimated the effects of outside influences on our development.

I underestimated the number of times we would have to stop work to fix breaking changes made to APIs that version 7 uses. I underestimated the number of times we would have to rewrite libraries we are using in RootsMagic 8. To be honest, I never thought we would have to actually rewrite commercial libraries from scratch because of their deficiencies, but we have actually had to do that multiple times. I also underestimated the amount of time tracking down bugs in other company’s libraries to help them fix issues that negatively affected performance in version 8.

So, where are we now? RootsMagic 8 won’t be released by the end of the year. And if you ask me for a new release date, I’m not going to say. But here’s what I am going to do…

Several months ago, we started doing blog articles with screenshots. But writing them pulled us off of actual software development, and were less than satisfying to you as a user. We want to do a better job of keeping you up to date on where we are, so I have recorded a 30-minute video below to show you precisely what RootsMagic 8 looks and feels like. As development continues, we’ll try to release more videos (although probably not this long) to keep you in the loop.

We know many of you can’t wait to get your hands on RootsMagic 8, and we are excited to be working on it. We just want to make sure that when we release it, you can depend on it working right.

And if you’re adventurous, we are still looking for more beta testers of all backgrounds to help us make version 8 the best it can be.

I want to thank you personally for your patience and understanding. Hopefully, you can see from the video the extent of the improvements and work that we’re putting into this release. We’re really excited by the feedback that we’ve received so far and we hope that you’ll find it worth the wait.

Happy 30th Birthday, RootsMagic!  Part 12: Growth and New Products

Bruce Buzbee 45 Comments

NOTE: This is Part 12 of our ongoing series documenting the history of our company. If you’re just joining us, be sure to read Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.

Once RootsMagic 4 and RootsMagic Essentials were out the door, we tried to concentrate on upgrading the software and adding new functionality.  But we were hearing from our users that they wanted to be able to take their data on their new tablets they’d gotten for Christmas. The only problem was that we had no programming skills on tablets, either iOS or Android.

Rather than hire new programmers just to write apps, we decided to outsource them.  We got a bunch of bids from companies all over the world, but finally ended up selecting a local company here in Utah.  We knew that genealogy software is actually very complex, and this company was actually already familiar with RootsMagic and genealogy software in general.

If you’ve ever hired out programming, you know it can get very expensive.  And we were faced with the decision how to recover the costs of creating these new apps.  In the end, we decided to leave them as read-only to keep our costs down, and to make them available for free.  We released our iOS app in Dec 2012, and didn’t know it would take another year of development before we could get the Android version out.

RMapp

Back when we released RootsMagic 4 we assumed we’d never have to rewrite the program again.  But as we got more and more requests for a Mac version it became clear that we might get to do just that.

We knew there were a couple of options… write a separate Mac version (or have another company write a Mac version for us), or rewrite the program so that we could compile the same program to both Windows and Mac.  We’ve seen too many programs where their Windows and Mac versions are quite a bit different (both interface and functionality), so we really didn’t like the first option. The second option would ensure that both Windows and Mac users would always have the same functionality, yet redesigning the program again seemed daunting.

So in the summer of 2014 we began rebuilding RootsMagic so that we could compile natively to both Windows and Mac.  But having done this multiple times, I knew firsthand how long it could take, and the Mac users were getting more and more vocal.  So as a temporary fix, we contacted a company called Codeweavers that wrote software to let Windows programs run on a Mac. We had them build a custom wrapper for RootsMagic, and in September 2014 we released MacBridge.

Since we had to pay Codeweavers for every copy of MacBridge we distributed, we sold it as a separate program so we could keep track of the numbers.  The MacBridge program allowed you to install the Windows version on your Mac, but the process was somewhat unwieldy, and it was hard to explain to users how it was supposed to work.

We decided we needed to simplify this whole Mac “wrapper” thing, and worked out a license with Codeweavers where we could pay a flat amount every month and be able to distribute unlimited copies.  This not only allowed us to create a “RootsMagic for Mac” standalone installer, but also meant we could distribute free RootsMagic Essentials with the wrapper as well. And yes, we continue to eat the cost of that monthly license to this day 😉

While we continued to work on the new Mac/Windows version, we decided to release a new version of RootsMagic based on the older code with some exciting features we had been working on.  RootsMagic 7 included a new feature called WebHints, which would display hints from FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and FindMyPast, and let you click on a little lightbulb to jump to those sites to see the hints.  We also announced MyRootsMagic, where registered users could easily post free websites of their family tree.

Then in December 2015, Ancestry dropped a bombshell that they were discontinuing their Family Tree Maker program.  About this same time they contacted us and asked if we were interested in working with their API and integrating RootsMagic with Ancestry.  Of course we jumped at the opportunity. I had been asking Ancestry to work with their API for years without any luck, so this came as a very pleasant surprise.  After crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s, we jointly announced that we would be working together on February 2, 2016.

We optimistically guessed that the new Ancestry features would be done by the end of 2016, but we underestimated the complexity that lay before us.  And as we began work on the integration, we noticed that our RootsMagic 7 sales were dropping. We realized that users were holding off buying RootsMagic until the Ancestry features were released, so we announced that the Ancestry features would be a free update to version 7.  Sales immediately picked back up, but we realized this meant that RootsMagic 8 which we were working on separately would have to be put on the back burner until the Ancestry integration was done.

We tried to be as transparent as possible about progress on the Ancestry features.  Normally we wouldn’t pre-announce a new feature, but in this case Ancestry wanted it to be known that we were working on this functionality.  So it left us open to a lot of second-guessing by users as the development went past our estimated release.

During the latter part of development, I started growing a beard and started joking that I wasn’t going to shave until the Ancestry features were released.  Finally, on June 28, 2017, we announced to the world in a short live video from our “secret underground laboratories” that it was finally here.  It was kind of a ridiculous video, but was also kind of an emotional release from all the hard work we put into those features.

After releasing the Ancestry integration it was tempting to just take some time off, but we knew we needed to get back to work on RootsMagic 8 since it had been pushed to the back burner for a year and a half.  We also knew that we needed to release an update to our Personal Historian software which we had been working on prior to the Ancestry announcement.  The update was already close to ready, but we hit a little snag with the main new feature, importing from Facebook.  In order to import from Facebook, we were required to submit the program to Facebook.  Normally that would have been a simple procedure, but Facebook was in the news for allowing companies to take users data and use it in ways the user didn’t want.  Facebook cracked down on accepting new developers with products that could read data from Facebook.  We were finally able to get approved since we were able to show that we (RootsMagic) didn’t get the data ourselves; that the data was simply downloaded onto the users own computer.  At first we were concerned about releasing an update that read from Facebook, but then we realized we actually were providing a feature that Facebook users needed… the ability to get a copy of all of their data downloaded onto their own computer.  Personal Historian 3 was released in March 2018.

So where are we today?  And what does the future hold for RootsMagic?  When we started this blog years ago, the main purpose was to give a sneak preview of our soon to be released RootsMagic 4, and for the next little while we’re going back to those roots to give you a peek at RootsMagic 8.

Of course everyone wants to know what new features will be in version 8 (we all like new features).  And while we’ll have new features, let me just say that  RootsMagic 8 is being designed with our current users in mind, simplifying existing functionality, reducing “clickiness”, and other improvements requested by users.  Underlying code is being redesigned to provide us with a framework for additional functionality in the years to come.

So stayed tuned to this blog as we begin to unveil the most exciting version of RootsMagic ever.