Genealogists received disappointing news last December when Ancestry announced dropping Family Tree Maker (FTM), the nation’s largest family tree software program. The reason is mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are taking over the world and desktop or laptop computing is declining rapidly. Ancestry decided to put more emphasis on their online family tree program, which most Gen Yers and millennials using mobile devices prefer from past surveys.
Five years ago, the pundits said online computing, better known as cloud computing, will dominate the planet because of the proliferation of mobile Internet devices. Five years ago, another popular family tree software program, Personal Ancestral File, was cancelled, followed by several others during the last several years. However, Software MacKiev has recently purchased the FTM software with plans for new features.
It’s apparent that Ancestry, FamilySearch, and MyHeritage, three of the largest worldwide genealogy database providers are switching from home computing to online computing for their family tree programs. Even larger software providers such as Microsoft, Adobe, and similar vendors are quickly changing their main software programs to cloud computing for lower cost, quicker updates, more features, mobile friendly, higher security, and providing multiple storage methods.
Interestingly, Ancestry is giving the same features online as they did with their home version program. Features include the popular shaky leaf with hints of new genealogy records, auto create family history stories, and provide sources from their available records. My Heritage and FamilySearch are following Ancestry on these features. The benefits of online trees help find faster ancestor matches, expand user trees, find missing ancestors, and meet new cousins.
~ Bob Larson is an instructor and speaker for Larimer County Genealogical Society. Please visit their website at www.lcgsco.org or their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/lcgsco to learn more about genealogy and their many upcoming events.