Family Tree Maker 2005 Now Available

by Steve Johnson
August 11, 2004

Yesterday, the newest version of Family Tree Maker, dubbed, "Family Tree Maker" 2005, began shipping.

Family Tree Maker is the most popular family tree software on the market. Previous versions were identified with a number, such as "version 9", "version 10", "version 11", etc. This year, MyFamily Inc., the producers of Family Tree Maker, chose the market its software using the year.

This also marks the first time that a version of Family Tree Maker was designed and programmed by MyFamily Inc., instead of Genealogy.com, a company that MyFamily Inc. purchased in April of 2003.

Among the most notable changes and improvements:

• Family Tree Maker now fully integrates with the databases on Ancestry.com. When you add a person to your family tree, Family Tree Maker searches Ancestry.com for possible matches using its special matching technology. If you find a match that you want to add to your family tree, you can use the Merge feature to bring that person into your family tree.

• The old yellow background colors has been replaced by the Windows color scheme, taking whatever colors you have set up as your default scheme. If you love the old yellow background, you can still choose "Family Tree Maker Classic".

• Faster browsing of people. If your family tree is filled with thousands of people, you will find browsing people and family groups much easier with a people list located on the left-hand side of the screen, that you can also filter by family.

Family Tree Maker 2005 requires a personal computer running Windows 98, Windows ME, or Windows XP.

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