Family Historian 5

02.07.2012
Many of us are keen to delve into the past and find out where we came from. There may not be a royal connection or a notorious rogue in your ancestry, but it's still fascinating to unearth details of forebears' lives and what life was like for them. is a genealogy program that makes the process easier.

The internet is great for research, but less useful for storing and managing the details uncovered. Having visited important family sites to view parish records or confirm birth dates it makes sense to catalogue your findings properly and log how you were able to verify and crosscheck details. Read more .

Some family tree programs offer the chance to present your findings on an 'antiqued' background with sepia vignettes of ancestors peering out. Family Historian avoids mawkish effects and instead focuses on helping you document and manage your research.

If you're serious about researching and documenting your ancestry, Family Historian 5 is one of the best options for UK users. It has a powerful database and querying tool that helps you fill in the knowledge gaps and make useful associations.

In almost any field you can flesh out details with free text. In the sample database provided, for example, people have a one-line description of something unique about them that gives an instant flavour of what they were like.

You can build up trees of people just as quickly as with more visual-based genealogy programs, but you have more control over the views and associations. A useful set of shortcuts and tips is provided, as is a detailed PDF manual of how to get the most from the program.