Legacy Family Tree 10 has now been released by MyHeritage Legacy Family Tree. This is a huge update to the Windows genealogy database program line (which started in 1997) and is the first major release of Legacy Family Tree since its developer/publisher, Millennia Corporation, was purchased by MyHeritage back in 2017 (when Legacy Family Tree 9 was released).
The biggest new feature is that the entirety of Legacy Family Tree 10 is free. Completely free. You can download it right now if you’d like (it looks like it requires a minimum of Windows 7 or Windows 8):
https://legacyfamilytree.com/download
I find this aspect interesting, and at the same time, I’m slightly nervous, because MyHeritage is currently supporting TWO major genealogy programs – Legacy Family Tree 10, and Family Tree Builder. Back in 2007, MyHeritage merged with Pearl Street Software, makers of Family Tree Legends, another popular (paid) genealogy program, and they were after GenCircles (which is a story all on its own) and low and behold, MyHeritage made Family Tree Legends free, before discontinuing it in favor of Family Tree Builder (which incorporated some of FTL’s technology). I digress though – in this instance, we might see Legacy Family Tree displace Family Tree Builder – I have no numbers to back this up, but I feel like LFT is more popular than FTB. Anyways, on with the news.
Let’s talk about the new features. Here’s some of the new features and updates in Legacy Family Tree 10:
- FAN Club Report – FAN (Friends, Associates, Neighbors) – LFT10 identifies people within that group based on the shared events already in your database, and displays people linked to your ancestors, as well as others who have locations that are close to or at where your ancestors lived, etc. This is a big plus as it could help open up a few avenues of genealogy research for you.
- Reports – Ahnentafel Report added under Reports -> Ancestor Book -> Quick Options Box -> Ahnentafel Report.
- Names / Lifespans Only Report – a very condensed report to see only the ahnentafel number, name, birth and death years for each person.
- Pedigree Chart – Use Ahnentafel Numbers option is now available.
- Mapping – Google Maps integration from Legacy’s Geo Location Database
- BillionGraves Support – link people to their BillionGraves record.
- Improved Color Coding – you can see where lines intersect.
- Ribbon Bar – QuickAccess icons doubled from 10 to 20
- DNA Center – Track everybody in your database who has taken a DNA test.
- FamilySearch – FAmilySearch tools upgraded to use latest authentication/login technology.
There are many smaller improvements and additions, and I would urge you to check them out (they are down the page on the Legacy blog entry:
One thing that surprised and disappointed me: Still no Unicode support!!!! I understand that the language that LFT is programmed in is older and does not support Unicode, but still, it’s vital for this day and age, and exchanging GEDCOM files with other users. It looks like it still only supports the Western European fonts – English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages (see the link below).
You can watch a “What’s New in Legacy Family Tree 10” at Legacy Family Tree Webinars:
Note: 3 June 2024, Builder 10.0.0.177 is the version/build number, even though it was announced on 5 June 2024.