It even has a hashtag function for improved searchability and a location mapping tool so you can follow your ancestors’ travels as they moved between regions and countries. Beneath an individual information is a toolbar for adding research notes, medical history, stories and memories, photos, video, audio, sources, alternate names, event details and other facts. Legacy’s scrapbooking capabilities received an A+ for quality. You can also create comprehensive reports with charts using the book tool, formatting the information into a narrative you can save into printable formats and HTML for websites. It has 22 report options, each built around collected information rather than style. Like most genealogy software, Legacy has report tools to turn the genealogical information into a printable story of events, memories, relationships and more.

Perhaps with time and practice, I could have replicated the quality and style offered by Heredis, but that would really have lengthened the learning curve for the program. That said, you can add background images, and the Legacy software does give you a lot of control over how you display the charts. But the charts simply don’t have the frame-and-hang quality of the charts you can generate in programs such as Heredis. And the chart quality is certainly better than that of half of the programs I reviewed. With 29 charts, the software offers more options than most programs, including charts for DNA records. I don't know the numbers for FamilySearch, but I bet they're quite similar to Geni.My biggest criticism of Legacy Family Tree is the chart quality, which received a B grade in the evaluation. It's the smallest of all, with less than 3 Million persons, where WikiTree has 8 Million, and Geni more than 80 Million persons connected in a single tree, and a few Million more that are not connected yet. If you really want free, open (access), and open source, WeRelate is best. You may need permission from an 'owner', and the same is true for WikiTree, which is free, but not open.

Merging persons requires a paid membership, and you can't edit any person that you want. Moreover, if you're interested, you can use free versions of programs like Ancestral Quest or RootsMagic to synchronize persons and sources in your own database with the Family Tree. There is also no restriction on merging duplicates, meaning that you don't need anyone's permission for that either. There are no fees, and it is open in the sense that once logged-in, any-one can edit any person in the shared Family Tree. If you look for a site where you can work on a world wide tree that is open and free, I think that FamilySearch is the best choice. If you want to set up a site where you can invite others to work on shared persons, I support Randy's suggestion for webtrees.

The best free family tree software