Genealogy is a popular hobby and these days it’s also big business, as companies such as Ancestry.com have proven. The site also issues the very popular Family Tree Maker software program that many use to track their history.
Unfortunately the company apparently doesn’t see the benefit in continuing to issue and support its program and it will cease selling it on December 31st of this year. However it claims it will continue to support the desktop app through January 1st 2017.
In a statement issued by Ancestry.com the company says “We remain dedicated to helping people gain new levels of understanding about their lives, and who and what led to them, harnessing the information found in family trees, historical records and genetics. As a company, we’re also continually evaluating ways to focus our efforts to provide the most impact and best product experience for our users through our core offerings”.
While this is certainly bad news for the many customers, a lot of competitors are stepping in. One is RootsMagic which issued a statement saying “We understand that change isn’t easy, so we’ve worked hard at putting together some new tools and supports to make the transition to RootsMagic as painless as possible for Family Tree Maker users”.
Numerous others exist, such as Legacy (who is offering a discount and easy switching), Brother’s Keeper and more. You don’t need to rush into the move just yet, so make sure you pick the one that works best for you.