Category: Uncategorized

Spring is slowly coming to RootsMagic headquarters. Snow is melting, plants are peeking out of the ground, and on a good day, we can shed our winter coats as we venture outside.  To celebrate, we are starting “March Mapping Mania”. From now through March 31, 2010, you can buy our Family Atlas software for only $19.95 (plus shipping). That’s a savings of 33%!

If you’ve never seen Family Atlas, then you’re really missing out. George Morgan of the Genealogy Guys Podcast said, “Family Atlas is a truly stunning new software product. A real winner!”

Family Atlas makes creating custom family maps fun and easy!  You start with an interactive world globe that you can explore.  Family Atlas lets you import your family data directly from RootsMagic or other genealogy software, and then create markers based on relationships, names, event types, and more.  You can even hand-enter set of markers such as “Civil War Battles”, “Places Where John Smith Lived”, or “Family Vacations”.

As places are imported or entered by hand, Family Atlas automatically matches them against its list of 3.5 million place names and locates them on the map.

Enhance your maps by adding lines, text, bubble pointers, title, legends and more.  You can even save your customized maps so that you can open and edit or print them later.

And when you are ready to make your map available for others, Family Atlas lets you print your maps, or save them to PDF or other popular graphics formats.

To see Family Atlas in action, be sure to watch our online video tutorial.

It’s never been easier to create completely custom family maps!  And for only $19.95, now is the perfect time to order your own copy of Family Atlas.  But hurry, our Mapping Mania only lasts until March 31, 2010!

RootsMagic is pleased to sponsor the Genealogy Gems Podcast, produced by the talented Lisa Louise Cook.  This week’s podcast features a telephone interview with actor Lisa Kudrow who is producing and participating in a new family history television series, Who Do You Think You Are? premiering March 5, 2010 at 8:00 pm (7:00 pm Central/Mountain) on NBC in the United States.

It’s very exciting to see the growing interest and attention which genealogy and family history are now receiving in national media. Who Do You Think You Are? joins The Generations Project (also sponsored by RootsMagic) and Faces of America as current television series that follow individuals as they discover and connect with their personal family histories.  Not only are these programs entertaining for those already tracing their roots, but they introduce and inspire others to explore their own family trees.

To listen to the podcast and interview, click here to visit the Genealogy Gems website.

Well, last month’s escape to Arizona wasn’t as sunny as we had hoped.  Still, it was great meeting with our users in the area and teaching so many classes.  Hopefully we’ll have better luck finding sun when we head to southern Utah for the 6th Annual St. George Family History Expo!

We are pleased to sponsor the St. George Family History Expo on February 26-27, 2010 at the Dixie Convention Center, 1835 Convention Center Drive, St. George, Utah.   Visit our booth, attend our classes, or take away one of our over $1,000 worth of prizes!

Free Exhibit Hall!

Visit us at the RootsMagic booth in the Expo’s exhibit hall and experts will be on hand to answer questions about the RootsMagic software.  Don’t miss special conference discounts on various RootsMagic products. The Exhibit Hall also features family history vendors from across the world. The Exhibit Hall is free to the public and is open:

• Friday, February 26: 9 am – 6 pm
• Saturday, February 27: 9 am – 5:30 pm

Free RootsMagic Classes!

Come learn about the new features in RootsMagic 4 ( including our award-winning integration with New FamilySearch) in 2 free classes.  That’s right, these classes are FREE to anyone (but you do have to come pick up a ticket from our booth to attend).

• New FamilySearch Made Easy with RootsMagic 4 – Friday 11:30 am, Sunbrook B Room
• What’s New in RootsMagic 4 – Saturday 8:00 am, Sunbrook B Room
• New FamilySearch Made Easy with RootsMagic 4 – Saturday 1:00 pm, Sunbrook B Room

Free Exhibit Hall Mini-Classes!

We had terrific feedback on our mini-classes in Arizona so we’re trying it again.  We’ll be teaching free RootsMagic mini-classes in the exhibit hall.  These mini-classes will be about 15 minutes long and will be held at our booth during the break between the regular classes.

• Getting Started with RootsMagic 4 – Friday 9:10 am, RootsMagic Exhibitor Booth
• New FamilySearch Overview – Friday 9:30 am, RootsMagic Exhibitor Booth
• Fun RootsMagic Tools – Friday 11:05 am, RootsMagic Exhibitor Booth
• Creating a Shareable CD – Friday 12:35 pm, RootsMagic Exhibitor Booth
• Mapping and Geocoding in RootsMagic 4 – Friday 1:00 pm, RootsMagic Exhibitor Booth
• Entering Evidence Explained Sources – Friday 2:35 pm, RootsMagic Exhibitor Booth
• Reports, Reports, Reports – Friday 4:05 pm, RootsMagic Exhibitor Booth
• Data Clean-Up in RootsMagic 4 – Saturday 9:10 am, RootsMagic Exhibitor Booth
• Creating Wall Charts in RootsMagic 4 – Saturday 10:35 am, RootsMagic Exhibitor Booth
• Running RootsMagic from a Flash Drive – Saturday 12:05 pm, RootsMagic Exhibitor Booth
• Publishing a Book with RootsMagic 4 – Saturday 12:30 pm, RootsMagic Exhibitor Booth
• Using RootsMagic’s Research Tools – Saturday 3:35 pm, RootsMagic Exhibitor Booth

Fun Prizes!

And to help show off some of the great features in RootsMagic 4, we’re going to give away these great prizes in each of our free RootsMagic classes.

1. Two 4GB flash drives pre-installed with RootsMagic 4.  That’s right, RootsMagic 4 will run directly off a flash drive.  And with the included RootsMagic To-Go program you can easily transfer your data back and forth between your desktop computer and your flash drive as well.
2. Two $25 gift certificates from Generation Maps.  Generation Maps makes it easy to print those large wall charts you’ve created in RootsMagic 4.
3. Plus a bunch of stuff just for fun: RootsMagic tote bags, badge holders, genealogy ties, and more!

Other Classes!

Over 100 other classes will be presented by industry leaders and experts from the local and national genealogical community.  Products and services from genealogy companies will also be showcased in an exhibit hall where you can meet with specialists for free personal consultations on research questions or problems.

If you wish to attend the other classes, registration is just $75.00 for both days or $40.00 for a single day.  Individuals who want to attend only one or two classes and visit the Exhibit Hall can register for single classes at $12.00 each.

Expo details and the class schedule are available online at: www.FHExpos.com.

We at RootsMagic are pleased to sponsor The Generations Project, a new television series that explores the extraordinary family histories of ordinary people.  Have you ever wondered why you’re such a great musician? Where you get your love of politics? Why you’re so independent? The answer just might be found in the lives of your ancestors.

The Generations Project is a new reality series that helps those who have questions about their family history investigate their own identities by walking in the shoes of their ancestors. As they undertake these journeys, they often uncover the hidden identities in family pasts, and come to see that in many cases the best way to know who you are is to know who you came from.

The series will premiere on Monday, January 4, 2010 at 6:00pm MST on BYU Television with repeats shown throughout the week.  New episodes will air every Monday.  BYU Television is available on Dish Network channel 9403, DirecTV channel 374, many local cable systems, or online.

“RootsMagic Essentials” Brings Free Tools for Family History

SPRINGVILLE, Utah. — November 18, 2009 — RootsMagic, Inc. announced the immediate availability of RootsMagic Essentials, free desktop genealogy software based on their award-winning RootsMagic 4 system.  RootsMagic Essentials contains many core features found in its namesake that allow the public to easily start tracing their family trees.

Essential Features for Everyone

“Many of our users have told us that they have friends and family members who are interested in getting started in family history but aren’t ready to invest in a more comprehensive package like RootsMagic,” said Bruce Buzbee, president.  “RootsMagic Essentials gives them the features they need to start researching and recording their family tree at a price that can’t be beat—free!”

RootsMagic Essentials shares many of the same features with the full RootsMagic software including clean and friendly screens, the ability to add an unlimited number of people and events, pictures and media management, the SourceWizard to write your source citations for you, powerful merging and clean-up tools, dozens of reports and charts, support for international character sets, FamilySearch integration, and the ability to share data with other people and software programs.  The full version of RootsMagic is available for purchase and includes features not available in RootsMagic Essentials.

Free and Available Now

RootsMagic Essentials is available now for free at http://www.rootsmagic.com.  Users of other genealogy software products will find it easy to experiment with RootsMagic Essentials using their own data.  RootsMagic Essentials can directly import data from PAF, Family Tree Maker (through 2006), Family Origins, and Legacy Family Tree.  It can also read and write data using the popular GEDCOM format.

“We’re excited to make RootsMagic Essentials available to the community,” said Michael Booth, vice-president.  “Our mission is to provide ‘software to unite families’ and our hope is that RootsMagic Essentials will encourage more people to record their family trees and connect with their family histories”.

About RootsMagic, Inc.

For over 20 years, RootsMagic, Inc. has been creating computer software with a special purpose—to unite families.  One of our earliest products- the popular “Family Origins” software, introduced thousands of people to the joy and excitement of family history.

That tradition continues today with “RootsMagic”, our award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history fun and easy.  “Personal Historian” will help you easily write and preserve your life stories.  “Family Reunion Organizer” takes the headaches out of planning those important get-togethers.  And “Family Atlas” creates beautiful and educational geographic maps of your family history.

For more information, visit http://www.rootsmagic.com.

Source: RootsMagic, Inc.

With the exciting launch of Windows 7 today, we’ve had several inquiries wondering how our software works with the new operating system.  We’ve been using and testing our software with the beta version of Windows 7 for several months now and the release version of Windows 7 for the last few weeks.

We’re pleased to report that RootsMagic 4, Personal Historian, and Family Atlas all work great on both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

New RootsMagic Update Available

We have just released a new update to RootsMagic 4 (version 4.0.5.0).  This update is primarily a bug fix update, although there are a couple of new items.

If you have the RootsMagic News screen come up when you start RootsMagic, it may have already notified you of this update.  If not, you can do “Help > Check for Updates” from the RootsMagic menu to download and install this update.

You can also download the update from http://www.rootsmagic.com/download.

Here are the new, fixed, and updated items in this update:

NEW

– Children in narrative reports that are in the next generation now print birth, marr, and death info in the child list
– Added “Search > Move to primary position” to move the highlighted person (really only useful in pedigree and descendant views)
– Added a button to FamilySearch match and sync screen to view the person on the FamilySearch website
– Added birth year to FamilySearch sync screen for relationships (both RM and FS sides)
– Added FamilySearch import to import a tree from New FamilySearch into an RM file (File > FamilySearch > FamilySearch Import)
– Added Remove to the FamilySearch ordinance request screen to unreserve names

FIXED / CHANGED

– Color coding now works on Timeline Chart
– Spaces are trimmed from name parts when adding a new person
– If short footnote is left blank, RM will use the full citation in its place
– Changed default for color coding to “Highlighted person”
– Box charts in wordwrap mode don’t sometimes truncate a person’s info anymore
– RM warns you when you try to print a group sheet that would be blank
– GEDCOM import doesn’t sometimes duplicate city/state/postal code in second street field anymore
– Drag and drop doesn’t create a blank death fact for people who had their “Living” flag unchecked
– Disputed or disproven alt names now display red crossout
– Fixed several screens / reports where an “unknown spouse” could have phantom events
– GEDCOM import / export now supports “proof” settings
– Drag and drop now preserves “proof” settings
– Added person’s name to title of Individual Timeline list
– Source list prints a person’s suffix for citations
– Changing title of descendant list holds now
– NFS sync screen name matching color coding works properly now
– PAF import handles user defined divorce events now
– When running RM from a flash drive, File > New now defaults to a folder on the flash drive
– NFS Sync options list repositions if necessary to remain completely on screen
– Group sheet doesn’t display wrong Seal to Spouse info when a person wasn’t married
– Submitted ordinances in group sheet print as “Submitted” instead of date to prevent confusion
– Submitted ordinances in NFS sync screen display as “Submitted” instead of date to prevent confusion
– Fixed several issues when printing FORs from NFS
– NFS Match and Sync only shows primary names in list (doesn’t list people multiple times in list anymore)
– Description field in events now transfers back and forth from NFS

New Family Atlas and Personal Historian Updates Available

We have also just released updates to our Personal Historian and Family Atlas programs to provide support for importing the new RootsMagic 4 files.  These are free updates for registered users of Personal Historian and Family Atlas.

To download the update for Personal Historian, go to:

http://www.personalhistorian.com/Support/Updates.aspx

To download the update for Family Atlas, go to:

http://www.familyatlas.com/updates

Latest Version of Leading Genealogy Software Now Available to the Public

SPRINGVILLE, Utah. — March 25, 2009 — RootsMagic, Inc. today announced the official release of RootsMagic 4, 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 a free trial version of the software as well as a discount offer for owners of other software products.

Impressive New Features

“RootsMagic 4 is the biggest release in our 20-year history of making genealogy software,” said Bruce Buzbee, president. “We’ve updated RootsMagic to work with the latest genealogical technologies available today, while staying true to our mission to make family history easy, accessible, and fun.”

RootsMagic 4 boasts an impressive list of new features including integrated web search, improved SourceWizard for citing sources, sharing events among multiple persons, creating pre-defined groups of persons, person and place mapping, recording DNA tests, and improved navigation and data entry. RootsMagic 4 is also one of the only desktop genealogy programs certified to work with “New FamilySearch”.

Freeing Your Data

“A common request that we hear from people is that they don’t want their data to be trapped in their computer,” said Michael Booth, vice-president of development. “One of the most popular features in RootsMagic 3 is our ‘Shareable CD’ which puts your data and pictures onto a CD or DVD along with a special copy of RootsMagic. You can then give the discs to family and friends and they don’t have to buy or install anything. It’s all there on the disc.”

“We’ve taken that a step further in RootsMagic 4,” explains Booth. “One unique and exciting new feature is ‘RootsMagic To-Go’. It allows you to install RootsMagic onto a USB drive and transfer data between it and your computer. This gives you the freedom to take RootsMagic and your data wherever you go- to work, on vacation, to the library- anywhere.”

Free Trial

A free trial version of RootsMagic 4 is available at http://www.rootsmagic.com.  The trial version allows a person to import their data, add information, and play with RootsMagic’s major features without any time limitation. “We’re so excited about this new release, we wanted to give everyone a risk-free option to try it for themselves,” said Buzbee.

Users of other genealogy software products will find it easy to experiment with RootsMagic 4 using their own data. RootsMagic can directly import data from PAF, Family Tree Maker (through 2006), Family Origins, and Legacy Family Tree. It can also read data using the popular GEDCOM format.

Pricing

RootsMagic 4 is available for only $29.95.  Existing RootsMagic and Family Origins users may upgrade for only $19.95.

Discount Offer

For the first time in company history, users of other genealogy software programs can receive a competitive upgrade discount.  Through May 31, 2009, users of Personal Ancestral File (PAF), Family Tree Maker, Legacy Family Tree, or The Master Genealogist  may purchase RootsMagic 4 for only $19.95, saving $10 off of the regular price.

More information about the competitive upgrade can be found at http://www.rootsmagic.com/upgrade.

About RootsMagic, Inc.

For over 20 years, RootsMagic, Inc. has been creating computer software with a special purpose- to unite families. One of our earliest products- the popular “Family Origins” software, introduced thousands of people to the joy and excitement of family history.

That tradition continues today with “RootsMagic”, our award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history fun and easy. “Personal Historian” will help you easily write and preserve your life stories. “Family Reunion Organizer” takes the headaches out of planning those important get-togethers. And “Family Atlas” creates beautiful and educational geographic maps of your family history.

For more information, visit www.rootsmagic.com.

Source: RootsMagic, Inc.

Leading Genealogy Software Receives Awards for “Best Dashboard” and “Easiest to Sync”

PROVO, Utah. — March 10, 2009 — RootsMagic, Inc. today received two 2009 FamilySearch Software Awards at a banquet held in conjunction with the 2009 FamilySearch Developers Conference at Brigham Young University. The purpose of the awards is to publicly and formally celebrate the software achievements of those developers and companies that are making important contributions to the Family History and Genealogy Industry.

Both awards were for features in RootsMagic 4, the latest version of the award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history easy and enjoyable. On hand to accept the awards were Bruce Buzbee, president and Michael Booth, vice-president.

Easiest to Sync

In the Desktop Syncing or Tree-Cleaning category, RootsMagic 4 received an award for “Easiest to Sync”. RootsMagic 4 has the ability to link people in your desktop genealogy file with matching people on the New FamilySearch website. Once linked, RootsMagic 4 makes it easy to share data between your personal file and New FamilySearch. With a few clicks, you copy facts and events between the two systems and dispute incorrect information. You may also add, link, combine, and dispute fathers, mothers, spouses, and children, all on the same screen.

“We’re very gratified to receive the ‘Easiest to Sync’ award because that has been our focus from the very beginning,” said Buzbee. “We know how overwhelming it can be for people working with the New FamilySearch system. Our goal has been to take what could be very complex and difficult chores and make them into simple, friendly tasks. This award validates our goal.”

Best Dashboard

RootsMagic 4 received a second award in the Desktop Productivity category—“Best Dashboard” for its “FamilySearch Central” screen. FamilySearch Central is a feature in the RootsMagic desktop genealogy software which brings together all of its powerful FamilySearch tools into one convenient screen.

“FamilySearch Central puts it all at your fingertips,” said Booth. “No need to hunt around through endless screens to find what you’re looking for. It shows you the status of your work, what’s new on FamilySearch, and what tasks you still need to do. And it’s all in plain English. This is something my mom can use and understand.”

Free and Available Now

RootsMagic 4 is currently in public beta and is available for free at http://www.rootsmagic.com/preview. “We’re so excited about this new release, we wanted to give everyone a risk-free option to try it for themselves,” said Buzbee. Each person who wishes to participate will be given a registration key which will allow them to download and experience the software for the duration of the public beta period.

Users of other genealogy software products will find it easy to experiment with RootsMagic 4 using their own data. RootsMagic can directly import data from PAF, Family Tree Maker (through 2006), Family Origins, and Legacy Family Tree. It can also read and write data using the popular GEDCOM format.

For those interested in using RootsMagic 4 with the New FamilySearch system, a series of video tutorials is available at http://www.rootsmagic.com/fs.

About RootsMagic, Inc.

For over 20 years, RootsMagic, Inc. has been creating computer software with a special purpose- to unite families. One of our earliest products- the popular “Family Origins” software, introduced thousands of people to the joy and excitement of family history.

That tradition continues today with “RootsMagic”, our award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history fun and easy. “Personal Historian” will help you easily write and preserve your life stories. “Family Reunion Organizer” takes the headaches out of planning those important get-togethers. And “Family Atlas” creates beautiful and educational geographic maps of your family history.

For more information, visit www.rootsmagic.com.

Source: RootsMagic, Inc.