Family history is a fun, rewarding hobby that connects you with your past - and brings you closer to your present family. Just getting started? Family Tree Maker 2009 makes it easy to explore and preserve your family heritage. Already an expert? You'll appreciate the program's robust features, including flexible data-management options and a wide variety of output choices.

If you're familiar with a previous version of Family Tree Maker - the #1 genealogy software since 1989 - you'll notice that the program has a fresh new look and feel.

Some of the new features include:

• Create essential genealogy reports (Register and Ahnentafel)
• Share your family tree with several new charting options: hourglass, bow tie, and fan. You can also use custom templates or design your own
• Streamline your data entry with one-click editing of individuals from any workspace in the software
• Simplify sourcing with “cut and paste” source citations
• Track AND print your ancestors’ migration paths on interactive maps
• Enjoy faster startup times and improved file performance
• Find your ancestors more easily with improved Web Search. You can even choose to ignore irrelevant results.

Family Tree Maker 2009 integrates seamlessly with Ancestry.com, allowing you to quickly merge new facts and records into your family tree. Ancestry even does automatic searches for the people in your Family Tree Maker files and suggests records that may contain relevant information.

For more information, visit the Family Tree Maker 2009 product page.

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This in-depth guide will help you use Family Tree Maker 2009 to create a family history that you and your family will treasure for years. Start building your tree by entering what you already know. Then follow the author's step-by-step instructions to locate more information about your ancestors online, add photographs and rich media files, and design charts and reports to display and share.

Learn the why, how, and when of using its most popular features; get advice for mastering advanced tasks; and read quick lessons that will make your family history research fast and fun. All in a fully indexed format complete with screenshots and straightforward instructions written specifically for the newest — and best — Family Tree Maker ever.

The Official Guide to Family Tree Maker 2009 — your complete guide to creating a family history you and your family will treasure for years to come.

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No scholarly reference library is complete without a copy of Red Book. In it, you will find both general and specific information essential to researchers of American records. This revised third edition provides updated county and town listings within the same overall state-by-state organization.

Whether you are looking for your ancestors in the northeastern states, the South, the West, or somewhere in the middle, Red Book has information on records and holdings for every county in the United States, as well as excellent maps from renowned mapmaker William Dollarhide. In short, the Red Book is simply the book that no genealogist can afford not to have.

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In today’s world, bizarre baby names have become the province of the rich and the famous—yet another way to separate themselves from mere mortals by saddling their offspring with names like Apple, Moon Unit, and Fifi Trixibelle.

However, throughout history, people have chosen to name their children truly terrible things regardless of their wealth and social status, and the authors at Ancestry Publishing, which is part of the largest genealogy company in the world, have the census records to prove it. BAD BABY NAMES (Ancestry Publishing, $9.95) shines a light on thousands of names that have to be seen to be believed. And the best part? All of the names were given to real people, as recorded in surviving documents from years past (going back as early as 1790, when the U.S. census began).

BAD BABY NAMES is part hilarious compendium, part serious genealogical research. For instance, it explains how names that were not funny at the time have become funny to us now—the name “Fanny” was perfectly acceptable in the earlier half of last century, but few would expect the girl with a name like Fanny Large or Fanny Pack to last through middle school today. Sometimes you have to wonder, though, if parents could use old-time standards as an excuse, with universally eye-popping blunders like Ima Pigg (there are over two dozen “Ima” names in the book alone, all paired with deliciously twisted last names).

And the names only get worse. Sometimes they pose a question (Wanna Towell?). Sometimes they count (Four Nickels). Sometimes they threaten (Paul Hell Burnes). Sometimes they seem to confuse children with pets (Good Dog). And sometimes they add insult to injury (Tiny Hooker).

BAD BABY NAMES is more than just a long list of names. It’s a romp through history and psychology through the eyes (or at least the names) of the people who lived it, complete with fun photos, crazy illustrations, and images of the names themselves from real census documents. You would have to be a Major Nutt not to enjoy it.

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This best-selling, easy-to-use family tree software will help you create, grow, and share the story of your own ancestors. Family Tree Maker 16 includes FTM 2006, plus two other popular family history tools – GenSmarts and Our History in Images.

• Family Tree Maker 2006: Search and capture information from Ancestry.com records, merge online data into your family tree, and store and share your work. ($29.95 value) Minimum System Requirements: Windows 98/ME/XP, 333 MHz Pentium or compatible processor, 128 MB of memory (RAM), Super VGA (800 x 600) video adapter (1024x768 recommended), Hi-Color (16-bit) color quality, a CD-ROM drive for program installation, 150 MB free hard disk space, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
• GenSmarts: A virtual research assistant that analyzes your Family Tree Maker files and shows you which records to search – and why. ($32.95 value) Minimum System Requirements: Microsoft Windows® 95 or higher, 130 Mhz or better Pentium II, 32 MB of memory or more, and 25 MB hard disk space
• Our History in Images: Add real visual excitement and historical context to your family tree with more than 3,000 images and maps, including images of well-known wars and conflicts. ($29.95 value)

For more information, visit the Family Tree Maker v16 product page.

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umpstart your research with the ultimate genealogy reference set – full access to 20 of the most important genealogy reference texts in print.* This collection is fully indexed and instantly searchable, providing you a comprehensive roadmap to the world of family history research.

Discover which states and countries provide the richest sources of genealogical data. Learn where to find important databases, indexes, libraries, and other repositories, and find out how to deal with private, town, county, state, federal, and international repositories of historical and genealogical information.

Books included in this collection:
- The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy
- The Library: A Guide to the LDS Family History Library
- Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County, & Town Sources
- The Archives: A Guide to the National Archives Field Branches
- US Military Records: A Guide to Federal & State Sources
- Guide to Genealogical Research in the National Archives
- The Library of Congress: A Guide to Genealogical & Historical Research
- The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans
- Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the 19th Century
- Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army
- Biographical Directory of the American Congress: 1774-1949
- American Biographical Notes
- Daughters of America, or Women of the Century
- The Biographical Cyclopaedia of American Women
- Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691
- They Became Americans: Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins
- Ancestry's Concise Genealogical Dictionary
- The Dawes Commission and the Allotment of the Five Civilized Tribes
- Printed Sources: A Guide to Published Genealogical Records
- Family History Made Easy

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Now compatible with Family Tree Maker 2008 and all earlier versions of Family Tree Maker.

View, customize, print and publish your Family Tree Maker file in more ways than ever imagined. Choose from an incredible variety of formats and more than 16-million color options.

No data entry nor GEDCOM file required. Charting Companion for Family Tree Maker reads your Family Tree Maker family file directly. Simply open your family file, choose your subject, select your chart and print! Or, to share with family and friends, choose the publish to PDF option and send your chart by e-mail.

Browse through generations of your family tree using the onscreen tree views. Use Charting Companion for Family Tree Maker's extensive search capability to find elusive information you may have stored in your Family Tree Maker file.

You can even customize your charts. You can choose the number of generations, the events to include, the content of your box charts, date format, photos, etc. Save charts in a range of file types for sharing and printing.

With the "Cousin Smart" option of Charting Companion for Family Tree Maker, you can avoid duplicate individuals on charts. For international users, Charting Companion for Family Tree Maker accommodates different paper sizes (eg. A4, B3), metrics unit of measure, and western European characters with diacritics.

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Whether you are coming to Ancestry.com for the first time or have used it for years, you need The Official Guide to Ancestry.com. Written by noted genealogist and lecturer George G. Morgan, this official guide takes you inside the #1 website for family history research for an unprecedented tour.

Become more proficient with searching the site. Explore obscure databases you didn’t know existed. Create and develop your own family tree. You will learn to do all of these things and more in The Official Guide to Ancestry.com. You’ve always known Ancestry.com was a valuable resource. Now you can learn to use it like never before.

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Answers. Solutions. Advice. Stories. Know-how. How-to. And Your Personal Mark on History. It’s all here in Ancestry Magazine.

Whether you’ve been family hunting for a short half-hour or a long half-century, when you want expert guidance through a game of ancestral hide-and-seek, you want Ancestry Magazine.

Six times a year, Ancestry Magazine delivers family history insight and ideas that tackle the tough questions about your family’s yesterdays and provide the latest ways you can pass on the legacy for tomorrow.

Learn more about who your great-great-grandmother really was, why she made the choices she did, where to look for the rest of her family, and how it all made you the person you are today every time you open an issue of Ancestry Magazine.

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New and improved, the Deluxe Ancestry Reference Library 2008 provides instant access to 15 of the most important reference works on Genealogy published by Ancestry. This DVD-ROM allows you to search across the entire collection of titles as well as allow you to simply browse a selected title. The Ancestry Reference Library 2008 will be the key to your genealogical research!

This DVD-ROM includes the following titles:

* The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy
* The Red Book: American State, Country, and Town Sources
* The Ancestry Family Historian's Address Book
* Ancestry's Concise Genealogy Dictionary
* They Became Americans: Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins
* Finding Answers in the U.S. Census
* U.S. Military Records
* Military Records at Ancestry.com
* The Official Guide to Ancestry.com
* The Official Guide to RootsWeb
* Abbreviations and Acronyms: A Guide for Family Historians
* Hidden Sources: Family History in Unlikely Places
* Printed Sources: A Guide to Published Genealogical Records
* Library of Congress: A Guide to Genealogical and Historical Research
* The Archives: A Guide to the National Archives Field Branches (Out of Print)

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Now compatible with Family Tree Maker 2008. Years ago, a new type of genealogy software debuted - one which uses artificial intelligence to make research suggestions. GenSmarts works alongside existing genealogy software to explain records that should be researched and why. Today's GenSmarts Version 2 release represents a new level of usability and power for genealogy hobbyists seeking research assistance.

This software locates holes in your data and creates a digital "To Do" list (with links to available online research sites) to point you toward new research possibilities and sources. GenSmarts maintains an up-to-date internal listing of places, both on- and off-line, where you can conduct further research, including a description of the records available at each source. View or print your “To Do” list along with helpful background information. For census searches, this software even provides you with alternative name spellings and Soundex codes, and calculates your ancestor’s age at the date of the census.

Compatible with Family Tree Maker and GEDCOM files.

What's New:

• New Data Cleanup Reports - Print a list of all the counties GenSmarts looked up
• New Report File Save Options - Generate a Word document or a PDF file instead of printing on paper
• Source/Citation Analysis and Auditing - Point out when a suggestion is for a source you don't have
• Partial File Analysis - Get suggestions for only part of your file
• Data Color Coding - Customized colors and fonts
• Variable Screen Sizing - Adjust the sections you are viewing
• File Exports - Export into a spreadsheet or database file
• Add A Comment - Add comments to list suggestions
• Sticky Filters and Bookmarks - Start where you left off
• And Much More

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Anyone who has ever tried to write a family history knows that it can be overwhelming. Writing the Family Narrative offers a clear and concise explanation of how to write your history in a way that entertains as well as informs. Using his experience teaching creative writing, Lawrence P. Gouldrup has outlined a process that is tailored not for the serious novel writer, biographer, or essayist, but for the serious genealogist who wants to record his or her family story. He uses solid examples from both amateur and professional writers, making it easy for you to learn the process. The companion workbook to Writing the Family Narrative goes further, taking you through each step of the writing process. You’ll learn how to organize your records for writing, develop characters, include point of view, use dialogue, create an effective setting, and even edit and design your family history.

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If you’re the photographer in your family (or if you aspire to be), photo expert Maureen Taylor can tell you exactly what to look for, whether you’re trying to buy the perfect camera or take the perfect shot. In Capturing Memories you’ll find:

• Discussions about gear and gadgets for both film and digital cameras.
• Helpful (and money-saving) info on what and how to buy
• Practical advice on photo composition, lighting, backgrounds, and how to avoid common mistakes
• Tips on photographing gravestones, family heirlooms, and old documents
• Suggestions for using technology to get family photos out of the shoebox and into the hands of people who will love them as much as you do.

It’s easy to forget that family history is all around us. Research is about the past, but the materials used for genealogical inquiry – photographs, records, and artifacts – were all once part of someone’s present. It’s only because that person took time to sit for a photograph, write down the date of a birth or marriage in a family Bible, or save diaries and letters that you have a glimpse into your ancestor’s world.

Now it’s your turn to capture the important moments of your lifetime. It can be done a photo at a time.

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Answers. Solutions. Advice. Stories. Know-how. How-to. And Your Personal Mark on History. It’s all here in Ancestry Magazine.

Whether you’ve been family hunting for a short half-hour or a long half-century, when you want expert guidance through a game of ancestral hide-and-seek, you want Ancestry Magazine.

Six times a year, Ancestry Magazine delivers family history insight and ideas that tackle the tough questions about your family’s yesterdays and provide the latest ways you can pass on the legacy for tomorrow.

Learn more about who your great-great-grandmother really was, why she made the choices she did, where to look for the rest of her family, and how it all made you the person you are today every time you open an issue of Ancestry Magazine.

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