RootsMagic Review by Sandykj,  May 1, 2013

I have used FTM, Legacy and Ancestral Quest. Unfortunately FTM is proprietary and the only program that syncs with Ancestry.com and there are ways to work around that. Once I started with RootsMagic, I didn’t search any further. RM is the easiest interface, user friendly and easiest to teach. It now syncs with Family Tree on Familysearch.org and again is very simple to understand. There is a free version that is free forever without all the bells and whistles. Since the price is very competitive for the full version, it’s a no brainer to upgrade. You can search the web from with the programs, so it fills in the information for you. There are many built in searches for Google, Bing, FamilySearch, Ancestry, etc. And it is easy to add your own preferred searches. Adding sources and citations can be so confusing, and RM simplifies that process. They have online training with over 40 videos that are free to view online or download. I could go on and on. The only item I miss in RM is the fixed pedigree numbering that is found in PAF. I give RM A+++.

Biggest Pro: User friendly interface
Biggest Con: doesn’t do fix numbering system on the pedigree charts (PAF is the only one)

RootsMagic Review by Vicki Foley,  Apr 13, 2013

The programme has some brilliant features and capabilities, hence I bought it. I was using FTM 2012, and am going back to it.
You search through RM and then have to type in any new people to your tree, as RM will not import the name and relationship, as FTM does so very well.
If RM would do that, I would love to use it …….. As it is, it is not suitable for what I need - take too long to add people to the tree.

Biggest Pro: Easy to use. Full of features that makes using your tree easy.
Biggest Con: Cannot import data from the Internet (eg Ancestry) direct to your tree. Makes it poor for my needs.

RootsMagic Review by Doug McQuinn,  Mar 28, 2013

RM4 and RM6 have been great. They are reliable, easy to use, and have most of the tools I want.

My only other experience has been with FTM. See my review of FTM2012 (yesterday) on this website. I switched from FTM to RM4 for good reasons and now I’m staying with RM6 for equally good reasons.

I really like the ability in RM to include an alphabetical index at the end of a report.

I wish I could temporarily privatize my file in order to make a privatized report before sharing information as a pdf. It’s time consuming to privatize by exporting to a GEDCOM and import into a new RM6 file in order to share a privatized report.

Biggest Pro: Works great. Alphabetical indexes at the ends of reports.
Biggest Con: You have to export to GEDCOM and import in order to privatize.

RootsMagic Review by Dan Garnitz,  Jan 19, 2013

RootsMagic6 is a super program with a huge list of features, reports and other bells and whistles. I have been using this program for years since it’s origin as Family Origins. In reading the reviews here it appears that several users didn’t even give it a decent chance or try all the tools and features. I think every “complaint” I saw here is in RM. Sometimes GEDCOM problems come from the original exported GED file not the program being imported to. RM has full support of GEDCOM 5.5 standards. Have never had date problems, unless they were not entered ina standard date format that GEDCOM didn’t know, or the tag the export used was not GEDCOM standard (ie created by user, which happens a lot in FTM GED files). With merge features you can merge duplicates that you may already have in your file or that may be in the GEDCOM you just imported. Datafiles can be checked, reindexed, and compressed easily. Sources and places can be merged. Websites and online databases can be viewed directly from the program (ie Ancestry.com, Family Search, FindAGrave, RootsWeb, etc.) Overall RM seems to do most things a genealogist (amateur or pro) want to do.

Biggest Pro: easy to use full featured
Biggest Con: none

RootsMagic Review by Gary Roberts,  Jan 7, 2013

This is a great and easy program to use. I have used it when it was Family Origins and have tried a number of other programs, but always come back to RootsMagic.

Biggest Pro: Ease of use
Biggest Con: Nothing

RootsMagic Review by John Carruthers,  Jan 2, 2013

RootsMagic 6 has some very useful new features not found in many other programs.

Biggest Pro: Easy to use
Biggest Con: None

RootsMagic Review by Robert Lowry,  Jul 10, 2012

For the most part, I like RootsMagic. I’ve been using other software for about 20 years and RM4 for about a year. I like the look of the screen and navigation is easier than other products. I use it daily and have more than 90,000 individuals, all my own research, not imported from the work of other people. I’ve kept a list of little bugs I’ve encountered, most fairly minor, but some major in need of a fix. Here are those:

= The index does not refresh reliably. Some refresh immediately, some after days, some never. There’s no way to manually refresh it. Sometimes the index will not list birth dates that are estimates, such as c1910. Christening dates never appear in the index even when a birth date is not given. This is a major problem as most research over 100 years old is from church archives, which often only give christening dates.

= Some imported individuals are not editable. You have to delete them and enter them again to make revisions. I don’t see any way to merge two RM databases or to import one directly into another RM.

= The to-do list does not link to the individual needing work. Just gives a name, no dates, then you have to exit and find the individual.

= an option to automatically sort children in family view would be useful. Every family must be sorted manually.

= when creating a website, only the first media file is included

= reports do not list a person’s multiple marriages in chronological order

= and lastly, the first few times I politely contacted the company with questions, it was apparent that I was just an annoyance. Overall, it’s better than a lot of software on the market, I’ve tried them all, but don’t expect any support from the company selling RM. You’re pretty much on your own.

Biggest Pro: easy to use
Biggest Con: inferior unreliable indexing, reports not flexible enough

RootsMagic Review by Peter Pham,  Jun 16, 2012

For the last 15 years I have been searching for genealogy software that FULLY support Unicode but none of them satisfies my simple requirement, RootsMagic 5 included! Some of them claimed that they support Unicode but they lied in their advertisement. Sorry RootsMagic is no exception. In one of my enquiry to RootsMagic support regarding Unicode support, this is what I got “The wall charts does not support unicoding”!

Biggest Pro: Easy to use
Biggest Con: No Unicode support

RootsMagic Review by Gary Flor,  Apr 18, 2012

RootsMagic successfully combines an easy, friendly user interface with a robust set of tools. Continuous upgrades further improve ease of use and add new tools. Customer service is responsive.

Biggest Pro: Ease of Use
Biggest Con: No Mac version

RootsMagic Review by Sherry Lloyd,  Apr 1, 2012

Great software and easy to use.

RootsMagic Review by D. L. Johnson,  Mar 31, 2012

The first thing that greeted me when I ran the free trial version was incorrect dates in the index panel. I translated a PAF file and the dates were correct in the individual records but not in the index panel. In the “born” column I find the christening date instead of the “born” date for individuals who have both dates recorded.
I also find it inconvenient and inconsistent that I cannot change the primary person in the pedigree view without first showing him in the family view then switching to pedigree view.
Maybe these are two flaws in the trial version, but the trial version should be perfect if they want me to risk buying something that may be even more unreliable.

Biggest Pro: easy to use, fast, and pleasing appearance
Biggest Con: possible structrual flaws

RootsMagic Review by John Carruthers,  Jan 2, 2012

I like the RootsMagic To Go and the Sharable CD features. I also like the new Timeline, On This Day, and County Check that came with the new RootsMagic 5 version.

Biggest Pro: Easy to use. Fast. Reliable
Biggest Con: None

RootsMagic Review by Eugene,  Dec 6, 2011

Roots Magic does most things well, but creating web pages is not one of the good things about Roots Magic. If you own or can get a copy of Roots Magic version 3, use it. Avoid version 4 or 5. What used to take one minute to create a web page in version 3, now takes about one hour in version 4. Version 5 is no better than version 4. This is my one complaint with the newer Roots Magic versions, but it is a big problem as web creation is the most popular way to publish your genealogy info.

Biggest Pro: Ease of use
Biggest Con: Web page creation

RootsMagic Review by DearMYRTLE,  Oct 10, 2011

Best overall for export of genealogy data including sources, and importing that same GEDCOM file back into RootsMagic. To me this means that RM writes and reads a GEDCOM file with the same rules for sources.

Biggest Pro: Drag and drop feature to importing data from another database.
Biggest Con: Birth events of children are not listed automatically in the time line for parents.

RootsMagic Review by Annette Towler,  May 6, 2011

The Wikipedia Encyc…. article on comparison of genealogy software does not include the research tools that RM 4 has. Looked at Legacy and it has them in tab order. RootMagic 4 includes the reports for Research Notes, Sources and To Do Lists plus being able to transfer your gedcom to GenSmarts for additional helps with researching. RM4 also uses templates for Sources to make adding the footnotes easier to use.

Biggest Pro: Sourcing, notes being added, add your own events and a good research tool.
Biggest Con: none

RootsMagic Review by Connie,  Mar 19, 2011

I have been using Roots Magic for a couple of years. I have been impressed with the clean screen appearance and ease of use. Other leading programs often cram too much into one space and the screen becomes confusing. Data entry is simple for beginners.

Biggest Pro: Ease of use and clean appearance.
Biggest Con: none

RootsMagic Review by Brett,  Jan 16, 2011

Good program but the integration with Ancestry does not work too well.

RootsMagic Review by Dave,  Dec 14, 2010

I have tried nearly every version of genealogy software out there. Family Origins became my favourite and when that disappeared, I found Roots Magic. They are the same people who created Family Origins under contract. The new Roots Magic is a pleasure to use and a great interface. You can open several files at the same time and even drag and drop portions of gedcoms back and forth. It includes a great web search for genealogy information (FamilySearch) which looks through stored gedcoms, birth/death and census records. The program provides a map for each placename plus the ability to search through your gedcom for duplicates and merge them. The program will create a web site or a shareable CD. The features are endless and they have great tech support. I would not use anything else.

Biggest Pro: Ease of use and web search.
Biggest Con: Honestly can’t think of one.

RootsMagic Review by Pete Skinner,  Nov 5, 2010

Have looked at other software and tried some trial software but I found that Rootsmagic was best suited to my needs. I recommend it to others who are not as technically capable as I am because of it’s easy to use interface.

Biggest Pro: Easy of use. Can’t beleive how user friendly the interface is.
Biggest Con: Have some probems with the stock Fact Types but they can be customized as needed.

RootsMagic Review by Lisa Franklin,  Jul 19, 2010

Version 3 was GREAT! The new version 4 is a complete rewrite that lost many of the best features the software previously provided. The new version 4 is also MUCH more difficult to use, basic functionality changed from previous versions and is not easy to use. Numerous glitches and problems with the software now make me suspect loss of data integrity overall and have led me to look for another application to use that I can feel more confident and at ease with. Such a shame since Family Origins and Roots Magic have been staples for me since my days of writing genealogy software reviews in the early 90s.