Legacy Family Tree 9 Software Review 

Legacy Family Tree 9 boasts strong features and storage capacity.  It is considerate of the many interests and concerns of today’s genealogists. It features a wide variety of tools that will make family history not only enjoyable, but useful. 

Whether you’re just starting out or have been researching your family history for years, Legacy Family Tree 9 has something to offer. With its easy-to-use interface and powerful tools, it’s one of the most popular genealogy programs on the market. Let’s take a closer look!

Core Features

Starting your work with Legacy Family Tree 9 is easy and intuitive.  You can use the Guided Startup Wizard feature to import a family tree. Or, you can choose to start from scratch, entering what you know about your family into a new file.  Once you are ready to begin working, you can view a series of tips that will help familiarize you with the software. 

Current Events

One of Legacy Family Tree 9’s best features is its focus on current events in the genealogy world. When you open the program, your homepage will display genealogy news and articles. Additionally, you will have the ability to see details about your project and a helpful list of to-do’s to help you further your research.

Project Views

There are three primary views for a project. The first is the Family View, which is similar to a family group sheet. You can view a couple, along with their children and parents, as well as related facts. Using the Pedigree View, you can see three to four generations of your ancestors at a time. The Descendant View allows you to look at all descendants of an individual at once.

Storing Facts

Legacy Family Tree 9 is powerful in its ability to store persons’ data. You can enter an unlimited number of individuals and each couple can have up to 60 children. A single person can have unlimited parents, spouses, media, and sources.

When working with an individual person, you can enter a variety of personal details. You can also organize them by Ancestral File Number if you are working with Latter-Day Saints resources. If you wish, you can create reference systems of your own to organize individuals. Notes can be added and classified for different purposes, including medical research. These organizational features will help you grow your tree efficiently and effectively.

If you ever need to merge data, this feature is well-developed within the software. You can quickly compare information in two files and create an accurate history of a person.

You can enter marriage data much the same way as for an individual. You have the option of turning on LDS resources to access ordinances. You can also keep track of whether a couple had children.

Sourcing

Sourcing is easy in Legacy Family Tree 9. When editing data for an individual or marriage, you can use the Source Clipboard to manage citations. Legacy Family Tree 9 also supports templates for proper citations. Using these templates, you can create footnotes, endnotes, and bibliographies.

Sharing

Publishing your research in charts can be a wonderful experience with Legacy Family Tree 9. You have the choice of ancestor, fan, descendent, hourglass, or bowtie charts. If you like, you can even show DNA relationships. Using Legacy’s printing services, charts can be professionally printed to share with family.

Reports and Charts

Reports available to you include traditional genealogical family group sheets, ahnentafels, and timelines. You can also publish lists of birthdays, accounts of events, LDS ordinances, and source-specific reports. Birthday reports in particular make wonderful keepsakes for specific relatives. In total, you have 33 reports to choose from, as well as the ability to print a book conforming to NEHGS criteria.

Legacy Family Tree 9 does support GEDCOM data, as well as Personal Ancestral Files. You can also add sound and video files, making your work even more compelling.

Standard Version vs. Deluxe

Some features make the Deluxe Version of Legacy Family Tree 9 stand out. These include hints, which will only be available in the Standard Version for a limited time. The Reports features are more comprehensive and robust, allowing you to even create medical and X-DNA reports.

The Standard Version omits some key features that improve the efficiency of research. For example, the Standard Version does not include color coding of ancestors. Also, use of tags and hashtags to identify ancestors is not available. Finally, only the Deluxe Version can search Find A Grave’s databases.

Compatibility

Legacy Family Tree 9 runs on Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7. It can also run on Mac computers with a Windows emulator installed. These include Bootcamp, Parallel, or Fusion.

The software also runs on a Linux computer with a Windows emulator like VMWare or Virtual Box by Sun. It is compatible with both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows.

Currently, there is not a version of Family Legacy 9 for Mac operating systems.

How Much Does Legacy Family Tree Cost?

Legacy Family Tree 9 Standard is available for free. You can download the program at Legacyfamilytree.com.  

Legacy Family Tree 9 Deluxe is available in the Legacy Family Tree online store. It comes in two versions. The first includes the software download, plus a PDF manual and subscription to Legacy Family Tree Webinars. This package costs $79.95. The second option includes only Legacy Family Tree 9 with the PDF manual. This package costs $34.95.

You can upgrade from a Legacy Family Tree 8 Deluxe or any earlier version of the software. If this is the case, you are eligible for discount pricing with your customer number. The upgrade including webinar subscription and manual costs $71.95. The upgrade including only the software and manual totals $26.95.

FAQ

Final Thoughts

Legacy Family Tree 9 represents creative thinking and design in genealogy. It allows researchers to build comprehensive and well-organized trees. It also allows them to conform to significant industry standards in citing, sourcing, and publishing. These factors make Legacy Family Tree 9 an excellent, affordable choice for researchers.