RootsMagic Reviews

(based on 6 reviews)

13 of 20 people found this review helpful

Firstly this review site is well out of date, quoting 2022 and stating Family Historian 6 is "just released" when it was released 6 years ago and Family Historian 7 18 months ago. Still to the subject of Rootsmagic, I agree there is no MAGIC, just problems. This site lists V7 for Version 8 was released in 2021, still have many missing features and never ending problems with features that are present. I have found far superior software in Family Historian which you rate badly, think you need to get out more before advising others.

In summary, I would not recommend RootsMagic to a friend.

25 of 40 people found this review helpful

They No Longer Offer Phone Support now, but when I had purchase #3 version and then bought # 6 version they would talk with you. So to make a long story sort the # 3, # 6 and # 7 version along with the # 7 version book all going in the trash.

In summary, I would not recommend RootsMagic to a friend.

18 of 34 people found this review helpful

The free version is extremely limited in scope. All the good features are unavailable to those not willing or able to shell out however much they want for the software package. One example is that you cannot even check your relationship to others, which is kinda the whole point of doing genealogy.

Another big issue is that it takes at least three or four minutes to load my database, admittedly a rather large file of over 230,000 individual names. To be fair, some of their competitors will not even load the GEDCOM due to the file size.

There are a number of issues with the GUI that I do not like and the means of searching for individuals is less far worse than with PAF. One would expect the interface and functionality would improve over time, not de-evolve.

Hard to say what else to say about this because since it takes so long to download and will not even calculate your relationships, there seems little point in pursuing it. I will probably end up uninstalling it. I have no idea what magic they are talking about, but I don't see it.

In summary, I would not recommend RootsMagic to a friend.

193 of 342 people found this review helpful

If so, this software would definitely get one from me! I cannot afford an expensive program and began using RM6's free version. However, I soon found out it was a "teaser" and anything useful was only available in the purchased version so I finally saved up and bought it. I had already entered over 2,000 records and wanted to utilize some of the reports not available for free. While the existing records transferred just fine (thank goodness!) the "paid" parts of the program didn't even come close to what was promised. After entering about another 500 records, I wanted to run their "facts" report. As the majority of my ancestry is European nobility, and I was entering in the era before surnames were required, I would enter Otto IV with Otto in the first name field and IV in the suffix field. Well I ran my fact report using the "title" field (9 pages) only to discover that it SOMETIMES picks up the suffix but USUALLY it doesn't so I ended up with a report with 22 Henrys, 6 Richards, 4 Ottos, etc and now do not know who's who! I have to go back and forth to the screen... (Read the full review)

In summary, I would not recommend RootsMagic to a friend.

200 of 387 people found this review helpful

I have used this program since Family Origins in the DOS days. It is so easy to use that my mother in her latter 60 at the time, used it with little difficulty. I have been very pleased that updates have come for a lengthy time (for free) without trying to sell you a new version every 8 to 12 months. The improvements over the years especially photo and data management have been all I could ask for. There have been no problems with version 3 or 4 with instillations. With new versions of Windows there was a need to upgrade to a newer version. Not only compatibility was solved but a myriad of new features and enhancements came making it still a great value.

I have no connection with the makers of RootsMagic except as an end user. I am happy with the product. With that I would definitely recommend the program and have.

In summary, I would recommend RootsMagic to a friend.

268 of 494 people found this review helpful

Roots Magic 4.0 has several issues, all of which can be seen if you go to the Roots Magic forum where every problem encountered is talked about. While I enjoyed the Roots Magic 3.0 program and never had issues with it, it was not compatible with my new pc, so I went with the new program, and have quite a few issues with it. My latest problem is that the program will not create a new tree for me with my new source information added and tech support does not want to return my phone calls to resolve this issue. I am looking into purchasing another genealogy program to use at this time, so can not recommend Roots Magic 4.0 to anyone.

In summary, I would not recommend RootsMagic to a friend.