Legacy 8

Legacy 8 – The Best Genealogy Program Today!

Regarded as the best genealogy software program on the market today for the family historian. Legacy 8 is not only packed full of different charts to present your family tree, but you can display it online as well.

Legacy 8

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If you are new to genealogy or you’re a seasoned genealogist then this program is definitely for you.

Legacy 8 Family Tree Rating and Details

RatingRating Stars - 5(5/5)
Normal PriceBundles vary from $34.95 to $99.95
Discounted Price (upgrade from Legacy 7)Bundles vary from $26.95 to $89.95
PlatformPC Disc and Download
CompatibleWindows
FeaturesCharts, Reports, Maps, and more!
ConnectsFamilySearch / Find A Grave (FREE)
FindMyPast / GenealogyBank / MyHeritage (PAID)
Help & SupportFAQs, User Groups, Email
Full ReviewWhat’s New With Legacy 9? <– NEW VERSION!
BUY HERE   ==>
Legacy Family Tree Store

This Legacy 8 review will explore the features that are included in this genealogy software program how it can benefit you!

Please note: Links will now direct you to the Legacy 9.0 shop as Legacy 8.0 is now unavailable.

If you do already own Legacy 8.0 you can easily upgrade to the new package at a discounted price.

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Legacy 8 – An Overview

You will find the interface for Legacy 8 is simple and easy to navigate. Its’ smooth and uncluttered design will lead to a pleasant and efficient user experience.

Credit:   Legacy Family Tree

The program also allows you to customize the ribbon bar so that you can quickly access the features that you use most.

Fonts and formats can also be customizable within the forms tab when you are presenting your family tree.

You can even produce PDF files of your results. This is particularly useful if you are working on your family tree with others. You just email them the PDF file.

Researching your family tree with other people is an essential part of genealogy. I followed on the research that my father had been working on for years.

During my research, I found several relations that were very willing to share their notes with me.

So, creating PDF files is a great way to share your information with them.

Let’s get back to the interface though!

The Family tab will allow you to add your ancestors and their details to your family tree. From this tab, you can view multiple marriages. Although as yet same-sex relationships are not yet supported.

Legacy 8

You will also be able to enter notes and attach media to individuals within this tab. During your research, you will find many types of records about your ancestors.

Adding these to their records within this program is a very important feature of the program.

Color coding is another feature of Legacy 8 that you can benefit from.

So, for example, if one of your ancestors had children from two different marriages then you can label each branch’s descendants a different color. A very useful feature indeed!

Another advantage of this program is the use of red warning symbols. These are used to highlight to you either duplicate entries or potential problems.

This is useful as without this tool you may not see these types of entries on your own. A common problem for any genealogist.

Create charts and reports showcasing your results!

Legacy 8 offers you a comprehensive range of charts and reports to present your family tree. This program offers the most out of all the genealogy software programs.

These charts are particularly useful if you are creating a family history book.

When I was writing my ancestry book I included many different charts. This program would prove useful for you in this respect.

You may wish to display both ancestors and children of a particular ancestor of yours. The Family Bow Tie chart is, therefore, best for this purpose.

Or, you may want to present all the descendants of an ancestor. The Descendant chart will allow you to do this.

Legacy 8 Chart

A family wall chart is also possible where you can add pictures of all your ancestors. You can color-code different branches of your tree, (as shown above).

You can even add videos and sound bites to members of your family. These forms of media can be added to a genealogy blog or slideshow as well.

Plot your ancestors’ lives and more!

If you use Microsoft Bing then you can automatically pinpoint and plot your ancestors’ lives within Legacy 8. You can view these maps as 3-D, satellite, or bird’s eye images.

Legacy 8 Maps

Viewing maps that show where your ancestors lived and migrated to has helped me to connect with them. It also helped me to appreciate the struggles that they faced to start a new life for themselves.

Citing your sources is a must!

When doing genealogy research you should cite your sources. This is particularly useful when you will return to work on an individual.

As many records are being put online all the time it is without a doubt that you will be returning to a particular ancestor of yours.

Legacy 8 Citing

This process of citing sources does take longer though than other programs. But it does allow you to create correctly formatted citations.

The Index tab is useful for when your family tree gets to be quite large. Within this tab, you can access all of the information that you have entered for each of your ancestors.

Then there is the Research tab which connects you to your sources of information. Also, within this tab, there is a to-do list so that you can plan what you need to do next.


How Legacy 8 Can Benefit You?

Nowadays genealogy software programs have the feature of connecting to genealogy search websites.

Legacy 8 can link up with the more popular sites Ancestry and FamilySearch to help further expand your family tree.

So, not only can you create and build your family tree within the program but you can research it as well.

An embedded browser is available with this program so that you can work within the same window. This is handy as you do not have to switch between programs.

Doing so can make you lose your concentration, something which you need when working on your genealogy.

However, unlike other genealogy software programs Legacy 8 does not offer web hints.

For other programs, this feature is useful as you can see whether there may be records connected to your ancestors.


But wait there’s more!

Another advantage of connecting with Ancestry is that you will have access to other members’ family trees. Here you may make connections with living relatives.

This is something that I have personally done and have found great joy with.

Members

I did not expect this when I first started with my genealogy research. It was a great way for me to expand my family tree.

To access material on the Ancestry website you will need to pay a subscription. This is something that all genealogists must accept. If you decide to join Ancestry you will then be able to link to over 14 billion records.

The community has about 2 million subscribers, and there are also more than 60 million members trees.

You may wish though that you would rather find information on your ancestors for free. FamilySearch is the largest free genealogy search website.

It has over 3 billion names and millions of records in its database.

The FamilySearch website is available in more than 110 countries.


Even More Benefits!

Another way to collaborate with other family members is by GEDCOM files. You can create these types of files with Legacy 8 and then email them to your relatives.

If there is sensitive information that you do not want others to see then you can export just a single branch of your tree.

Flash Drive

One cool advantage of creating a GEDCOM file is that you can back up your research. You can not only store these files on your computer but also onto flash drives as well.

This is particularly handy in the result that your computer crashes. It would be devastating if you lost all of your work.

Would you start all over again?

If you do decide to join Ancestry then you can load your family tree onto the site. The benefit of this is not only done you have access to a wealth of information but also this site offers hints.

So, when you view your ancestors you may see records connected to your ancestors. You can then export your tree from these sites and put it into Legacy 8 and carry on working on them.


The Negative

Despite this software package being on the market today, there are a couple of drawbacks.

Firstly, no web hints will appear next to your ancestor’s name. This is an essential aspect of helping you further trace your family tree as it can highlight which direction and records are available for you to check out.

Another disadvantage is that same-sex marriages are not currently supported.

However, is though a planned update that will fix this flaw.


My Final Thoughts

Even though this program has a few minor issues this is still the best genealogy software available to trace your family history.

It is packed full of charts and reports that can help you present your family tree.

So, to buy Legacy 9 click here.

A genealogy software program like Legacy 8 is a must for any family historian. I cannot imagine just how much research that I would be have been able to do without using such a program.

Not only does it allow you to simply enter your ancestor’s details but access and edit them as well.

Can you imagine doing that with the old filing cabinet?

You wouldn’t get far!

The sheer number of charts that are available to you is also a bonus as well. When I was writing my family history I included a number of them in my book.

These helped me show anyone interested in my ancestry the relationship between my ancestors and me. It also helped me form a connection with my ancestors as well.

Further Information!

If you would like more information regarding Legacy Family Tree then please head on over to Wikipedia.

There you will find a discussion on the included features, what languages the software is available in and the history of each version thus far.

What do you think?

If you decide to buy this software program then please come back and let me know what you think of it. I would love to hear how it is working for you.

All Round Software!

Setting a new standard in genealogy software!

Legacy Family Tree - Legacy 9

Buy Legacy Now!


Thank You and Please Leave A Comment

I hope you enjoyed this Legacy 8 review and how it can help you. If you have any questions or comments then please leave a comment below.

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Summary
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Author Rating
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Aggregate Rating
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Software Name
Legacy 8
Operating System
Windows
Software Category
Genealogy
Price
USD $34.95-$99.95
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22 thoughts on “Legacy 8 – The Best Genealogy Program Today!”

  1. My genealogy file contains thousands of names collected over 30 years oh Genealogy work.
    It is all contained in Software named personal ancestry file or PAF, which was supported by the Mormon church until several years ago.
    Will your program support PAF?
    Paul Thompson

  2. My friend who has recently passed helped me with my genealogy. I have a lot of information on a thumb drive. However, I cannot share with my family because it was a Easy Tree Tree8 uds program. And I don’t have the software. Can you recommend an easy program to transfer my information without loosing anything? And can I share with my family easily?

    1. Hi Lynne,

      Thanks for your query.

      I’ve been doing some digging and found that the only way to open a .uds file is to purchase the Generations program.

      You can download the program by following this link – Generations Download.

      It’s a UK site, but I don’t think that will be a problem.

      Once you open your work then you can save/export your family tree as a GEDCOM file. This is the standard file that can be shared with your family.

      You may like to check out my Best Genealogy Software Programs postehere I give an overview of the top 5 programs IMO.

      Legacy 9’s interface is a bit dated but the program is quite powerful. Family Historian 6 on the other hand is more modern and is easy to use.

      Hope this helps.

      Please let me know how you get on.

      Thanks,
      Owain

  3. Hi there. This review is very helpful. I want to have an off-line version of my tree. I have never used a pc based family tree program. How do you rate this for a new comer? Will I be able to get my entries in after a few hours of studying the features?

    Also, do you have to connect to Ancestry? I have a flash drive chocked full of records that I can just load and attach to an off-line tree. I don’t plan on using the search function much since I will focus on the 5 years worth of research results I already have and need to upload.

    Are the displays of the charts simple and clear?

    1. Hi there EmilyAnn, thank you for dropping by and commenting with your queries.

      The latest version, Legacy 9 is one of the easiest genealogy programs that you can use. So you will be entering all of your data in no time at all.

      You don’t have to connect to Ancestry if you do not wish to. I haven’t when I have been using genealogy programs in the past. You can whenever you are ready.

      And yes the charts are both simple and clear. And Legacy 9 does offer the most comprehensive range out of all the programs available today.

  4. Owain – I have two questions:

    1) I assume this software is not cloud based. Is there some way I can save to an outside server?
    2) If I use the free software and then decide to purchase the software package, will the information I’ve already entered easily convert?

    Thank you for any assistance you can provide.

    1. Hi Carol,

      Thank you for commenting and asking about the Legacy Family Tree Software.

      1) You can save your work on this software as a .FDB file type. That stands for Family DataBase. Or you can save as a ZIP file. You could then upload either file to a cloud server of your choice. Alternatively you can export your work as a GEDCOM file.
      2) Yes you can easily convert over to the paid package whenever you are ready to do so.

      Hope I have been of assistance. If you do have any other queries regarding Legacy or anything else then please feel free to contact me.

      Thanks,
      Owain

  5. Hi Owain,

    This sounds like a very interesting software program. When I was reading through it, I was thinking that it sounds like a version of Ancestry. I would assume that this is the type of software that Ancestry uses to create their databases.

    I like how the program uses Microsoft Earth for plotting points of people’s lives. This way you can tell a story or just have a better visualization of what that person’s life was like when they lived in a certain area.

    Say my Great Grand Father was some type of war hero and he earned a Purple Heart medal. Is there a place within Legacy 8 where I can put their achievements? Maybe even picture area with some captions so that my family can relive those moments? I have never been on Ancestry but I assume that they have a spot where you can add things like this.

    When working on stuff like this you are absolutely correct about saving it to a flash drive or some other medium. Hardrive life is around ten years without viruses and internet junk clouding them up. I don’t really like the idea of keeping in on a flash drive because I have had those fail as well.

    What I prefer to put important pictures and documents online. Some people cringe when I say that. Here is my logic on this ,however. If I have a platform I can send important information to with a strong password and the connection is secure during the transmission of the data then I’m okay. Why? The data is on a server in a gated building with cameras. The data once on the server is safer there than it is on my own hard drive.

    Thank you for this outstanding tutorial on Legacy 8!

    Cheers

    1. Thanks David for your comment and questions. All genealogy software programs are the same pretty much with the way you can build your family tree and access it. However, Legacy 8 has proved to be the best out of all the available choices on the market today.

      I like how I can view maps of where my ancestors once lived and worked. From this you can get anappreciation about their lives and their struggles. The distances that they may have travelled in order to find work I find particularly interesting.

      You can add achievements within the notes section for each member of your family. And you can add pictures too. It’s great when we have pictures of our ancestors as we can put a face to our ancestors and their life stories.

      At the end of the day I guess it’s the user’s preference how they want to back up their files, and also what they are used to. I was always using flash drives as they are pretty inexpensive. Now I put stuff on the cloud as well. Whenever I put stuff on flash drives I always use two. So if one does fail on me I could another backup.

      Thanks again for your comment David. All the best with your family history research.

    1. Thanks very much for that Jana. I have added plenty of guides, tips, strategies and reviews on this site so far. There will be much more to come.

      Enjoy your weekend also, and thanks again.

  6. Hi Owain, this program looks very useful but can I connect to program to dropbox. Because I have no idea how many usb drives which I have lost. Or do you have any suggestion for it?

    1. Hi Furkan,

      My only suggestion to you is to save your work on your computer and then upload to your Dropbox account. Hope this is of use to you. Legacy 8 is still a great program for anyone to use to research their family tree.

  7. Hi Owain,

    This looks like the complete package, a really great program, and your review is going to be helpful to so many people. What a wonderful gift this would make this holiday season for someone interested in their family’s history.

    I really appreciate how you’ve laid out this review. The step-by-step approach you take to take each section at a time and alternative between your images and your thoughts is really appealing, pleasant to look and easy to read. Keep it up. You’re well on your way to building THE authority for genealogy. You’re clearly putting a lot of time and effort into it and it shows!

    Best wishes,

    Kevin

    1. Thanks Kevin for your kind words and support. That really means a lot to me. I am certainly putting a lot of effort in creating the go to place for anyone who is starting out in genealogy. As well as people who are well on their way, lol.

      You are right. It would make a great gift for any researcher in the family. You get so more added features with this program. And as I have pointed out it is the best on the market today.

  8. This is very interesting, I would get myself so lost in this, researching my family tree. Its really cool that this thing also links up with the popular research ancestory sites as well.

    Heck this thing even has a satelliate map providing information of where your ancestors used to even live, what a deal!

    1. It’s great just how much you can do. Once you have created and started to build your tree then yeah you can hook up with the Ancestry or FamilySearch. Here you will get lots of information on your ancestry that you can add to your tree.

      The map is also a great way to explore your family’s history. When I first started to look at maps I got an understanding of their lives and appreciated my family more.

  9. Very nice and comprehensive review. A lot of information that I was not aware of. Didn’t know that there are so many databases and applications for genealogy.

  10. I have never thought that such a program even exists… Interesting, high-quality review, hope to buy it someday. But if I understand correctly, the simple version of this program is free? Or it’s just a trial version?

    1. Yes there is a free version of this. But with the upgrade you can do so much for. Such as find where your ancestors worked and lived on a map, record your DNA results, and even calculate how relatives are related to you. There are more features that come with the upgraded version. It’s well worth going for that one.

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