Product Review and Giveaway: Legacy Family Tree Genealogy Program

** THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED **

Before I got married, my mother had turned the family genealogy search over to me, as I was more computer savvy and the internet was really taking off and allowing genealogists to retrieve info that would have taken them years and numerous air and travel miles to find. I started with my baby book, her baby book, and all the family bibles and got to work.

I reached a point where I had lots of info, but at a quandry how to store it. So I did some research and decided on a genealogy computer program (those of you who use them will recognize it by it's 3 letter acronym, which I am not stating). It worked well, as I did not have alot of info-by which I mean I had LESS than 4,000 names on my family tree!

THEN by computer crashed. Ate dust, went bye-bye, kicked the bucket. AND then I found out that that program had a bug and while it saved backups, they would NOT work when loaded into the download of the computer genealogy program (which I had to switched to, as my old cd was not compatible with the new windows system on the new computer. PROBLEM, BIG problem.

So it was time to search for a BETTER program and that was when I found Legacy Family Tree (or as Legacy as I will be calling it) . And as they show in the commercials, light dawned eternal, trumpets sounded the alleluias and I found nirvana in a genealogy program. Now yes, I DID have to reenter ALL my info, BUT it was good! You see the Legacy program forced me to do better entries on WHERE i found the info. it also had a MUCH better problem checker and let me know immediately where discrepencies lay. AND more importantly, it allowed me many many more choices on available entries, and the ability to enter my own. Nirvana! The old program did not have a choice for Adoption, that would list the adoptive parents then as the parents, problem for me, as I had numerous instances of this! THUS, legacy was automatically King!

I've used Legacy ever since and totally LOVE it still. Every time I open it, it lets me know when there is an update. I highly recommend it and as it let's you download a FREE (yes i said that, let me repeat it, FREE) standard version of Legacy.  So you can try it and see if you like it! HOWEVER, the DELUXE version will give you additional feature like mapping, wall charts, relationship calculators, advanced editing and document attaching, and better ways to keep sensitive info PRIVATE, when sharing your info online. Check online and the comparison chart will help you decide which best fits YOUR needs!

I had the deluxe version, but had not upgraded in over a year. So when Legacy offered me the chance to review (download a upgrade) AND giveaway a copy, I was delighted!

I wanted to show you some screen shots, so you could see how the program looks in real-time scenario, By the way, the info I'm showing you is online under Rootsweb, and all people are LONG time deceased,  so there is no privacy issue! This is the typical Family screen that you will see when you enter a married couple, or a child and his parents. The parents are in the middle, all their children listed below them. grandparents listed at the top. As you can see by the top tabs, you can go back to the Home page, family Pedigree chart, Descendant chart, Chronology for the family/person, Index of names, and Research guidance.You can see alot of info at one look, as you can see.

As you can see from the screen at the right, the program walks you through entering information on a single event for an individual, including prompting you for source info. You can also add notes, which will be printed on reports. This is a great feature if you want to add recordings of family members, or notes on different variations of a family story! I love that it also allows me to underline, italicize or put info in BOLD print, to make it more reader-friendly, and to emphasize words!

If you click on the Research Guidance tab, this is what you see. You can see the Timeline for the person, a Preliminary Survey, Suggested Sources (a HUGE help, in case you have no idea for the area the person was from!0 and a To-Do List (even bigger help, if you've got alot of info you need more resources for/checked out. It can allow you to check off when you find info! It's really hard keeping track of info when you get over 4,000 names. MOST genealogists have a minimum of 10,000 names in the files. WHEW!

Here is a sample of the Suggested Sources screen. As you can see, it shows me different goals, and the possible sources for each to retrieve the info.IF the source is online, then I can click on the checkmark and it will open up a new tab for that website. EASY peasy! LOVE this feature! Now be warned alot of the info now belongs to Ancestry.com, which is PAID after a 14day free trial- and it IS expensive!

Under Review Timeline,I can see where I may have gaps or problems that need to be addressed. Seeing all the kids in one timeline screen is really helpful, when you are tying to figure out where a family lived during a certain census period.

So as you can see, the program HELPS even the beginning genealogist to verify and check info, as well as to have good record keeping habits. It helps you know what info is out there that you need to look for. Consider it a free genealogy mentor! NOW let me give you a caveat here. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, like pulling out an old document from an archive and seeing your ancestor's name. It gives you such a feeling of continuity and belonging. Computer programs can give you some of that, but it's not the same, and I highly recommend checking out as many local sources as possible. Plus I'm a big believer of keeping paper backup of all my genealogy records. One computer crash taught me that the hard way when I had info I transcribed into laptop at genealogy library with NO paper backup, and no way to retrieve it, but to go BACK to the library!

I also love the different types of reports you can print and export! I can easily export my family pedigree via a Gedcom file to locations such as Rootsweb, as see if others who have the missing info I need find me!

AND when I'm ready, I can upload/scan photos and documents into my file and PRINT our a book about our family. Isn't that a great idea for a family Christmas present? PLUS, if you download the Legacy Charting Program, you can make come pretty impressive wall charts for family reunions!

I love that Legacy has a blog with great tips on using the program to it's full potential, and info on the annual Legacy trips, including a cruise! Plus they have local user groups, where you can get together and share online and in person! 

So are your ready to search your family tree?

The Giveaway

One Winner will win their own Deluxe Edition of Legacy Family Tree genealogy program !!

Mandatory Entry:

Go to the Legacy Family Tree store and tell me
another Legacy product or add on, that you would also like!
(must be done, or extra entries do NOT count)
 

Extra Entries:

Make sure I have an email address, with your comment, so I can contact you, if you win!   
If I don't have a way to contact you, you will forfeit your win!

USA/ Canada
 

3 day winner's rule : Winner has 3 days to acknowledge they won prize,
and confirm address, if no contact, then new winner will be picked in their place. 

 
Please post each entry separately, i.e. 2 posts for Subscribing:

• Follow this blog on Google Friend Connect (1 entry) 
• Follow me on Twitter (1 entry)
• Follow Legacy Family Tree on Facebook (1 entry)
• Follow Legacy Family Tree on Twitter (1 entry)
• Subscribe to this blog (2 entries) 
• Qualified for the  Welcome to Fall Ya'll Button Earlybird Bonus(2 entries)
  
• Signed up for the New Year, New Self Program on this Blog  on the Original Post  (2 entries)                                               
• Stumble this post/giveaway (2 entries) 
• Have the Welcome to Fall Ya'll Button (3 entries)
  
• Have the “New Year, New Self Program” Button on your blog (2 entries) 
• Have / Put the "Bless Their Hearts Mom Blog" Button on your blog or website (2 entries)
• Tweet about this contest (3 entries), please include @BTHM1 in your tweet!  (this can be done DAILY for 3 entries PER day)  
• Blog about this giveaway (4 entries)

BONUS:   Enter this post link in a Giveaway Linky on another site (5 entries)** MUST provide link to the Giveaway Linky!

Contest will end on October 28th, at midnight. Winner will be picked by Random Number (random.org) on October 29th, and emailed. As soon as winner's info is received, I will email their info to Legacy, and they will send the winner their gift code to access the download of Legacy!

Disclosure / Disclaimer:  I received the deluxe download of Legacy Family Tree, free of charge, for review purposes. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about the program. 

NOTE: Pursuant to posting this post, I did sign up to be an affiliate for Legacy Family Tree, as I believe in the program THAT much! So some of the above links, will be affiliate links.