Legacy Family Tree - Legacy 9

What’s New With Legacy 9?

New and enhanced features have been added to the best genealogy software program. Find out why Legacy 9 is today’s proven leader in this post where I will discuss 13 of the coolest additions. Excited? Well, please read on!

Legacy Family Tree - Legacy 9

* Affiliate Disclaimer *

Within this review, I first want to discuss the different bundles that you can choose from.

After that, I will explore the 13 new and enhanced features that have been added to this program.

I will give the pros and cons of this software and then finally state whether I recommend Legacy or not.

Legacy 9 Family Tree Rating and Details

RatingRating Stars - 5(5/5)
Normal PriceBundles vary from $34.95 to $99.95
Discounted Price (upgrade from Legacy 8)Bundles vary from $26.95 to $89.95
PlatformPC Disc and Download
CompatibleWindows
FeaturesCharts, Reports, Maps, Hashtags, Color Coding, and more!
ConnectsFamilySearch / Find A Grave (FREE)
FindMyPast / GenealogyBank / MyHeritage (PAID)
Help & SupportFAQs, User Groups, Email
Previous VersionLegacy 8 Full Review (read more what Legacy can do here)
Bottom LineAll Round Software!
BUY HERE   ==>
Legacy Family Tree Store

Start your family history journey with Legacy!

Legacy has been around now for more than 20 years so they certainly know a thing or two about helping your store and organize your family tree.

True their user interface is a bit dated, but Legacy is still the best program that you can purchase.

Many people all over the world use this leading genealogy software to create and build their family trees.

The same base format is used which helps retain their customer base as they are familiar with how to navigate the program.

20 Reasons Why You Should Buy Legacy

It is an easy enough program to use where you can get right into it and start on your genealogy research.

But if you have been looking into your right family’s history for years and are more adventurous then why not see what Legacy has to offer you.

Credit:   Legacy Family Tree Store

Discussed in this post:

Express Your Thoughts Below

Express Your Thoughts Below!

I would love to hear from you.

Bundles Explained!

Before I do look into what has been improved with this program I just want to cover the bundles that are on offer to you.

There are a few that you can choose from and I thought I tried my best to cover this now.

When you click through to the Legacy Family Tree Store you will be presented with a choice of 6 different bundles.

Each of these packages is unique and each of them depends on your needs.

The prices listed in brackets are discounted prices if you are upgrading from Legacy 8.

So, I found you do have the previous version then you do not need to pay full price for an upgrade. That’s pretty nice of Legacy to offer this discount.

Well, I think so!

Legacy 9 as a download and CD!

In the past, we would install any software onto our computer by a CD. And Legacy offers you that choice with the first three bundles.

With each of them, you can download the program if you wish.

With also the following:

  • Printed and PDF manual, 272-page guidebook, and webinar membership – $99.95   ($89.95)
  • Printed and PDF manual, and a 272-page guidebook – $54.95   ($46.95)
  • Printed and PDF manual – $39.95   ($31.95)

Legacy 9 Family Tree Software Bundle

What’s included!

Having a PDF manual is a great addition to your package. If you do get a little stuck then you can easily refer to it so that you can get on your way.

With the first two packages, you also get a 272-page guidebook that can help you further. It will show you how to get the best from this world-leading genealogy program.

And if you do want to learn more about genealogy research in general then Legacy offers you a subscription to their Legacy Family Tree Webinar videos.

Currently, there are 550 different classes for you to watch presented to you by 147 different genealogy experts.

Just a download and the following:

  • Printed and PDF manual, 272-page guidebook, and webinar membership – $79.95   ($71.95)
  • Printed and PDF manual, and a 272-page guidebook – $49.95   ($41.95)
  • Printed and PDF manual – $34.95   ($26.95)

Legacy 9 Family Tree Software Bundle

The second batch of packages offers you the same inclusions but except a CD as well.

And that is fine because you will easily be able to download this program and start working on your family’s tree right away.


There are New and Enhanced Features!

In total, I have counted 13 features that either have been added to Legacy 9 or have been improved that are worth mentioning in this post.

Even though this number may be regarded as unlucky it certainly hasn’t done Legacy any harm as it is still regarded as the best genealogy software program to purchase.

It just amazes me what gets added to genealogy software these days.

Just when you think that there can’t possibly be any more to update Legacy keeps adding them and continually improves on their software.

Lackluster user interface?!

The Legacy user interface has been described as outdated but to me, that doesn’t matter as it’s what it can do that matters.

There are plenty of features that make up for the lack of design.

For me Legacy 9 certainly delivers!

Family Tree Heritage 9 Interface

Note: There are dozens of more enhancements that have been added to this latest version of the Legacy Family Tree software.

However, I have highlighted here 13 of the coolest new additions that make Legacy stand out from all the other software programs.


10 New Features!

So, what can the new and improved version of this popular genealogy software program do?

Well, let’s start by looking at the ten new features that have been incorporated into Legacy 9.

I’m sure you’ll be interested to see it!

1. Get a hintLegacy Family Tree - Hinting

When you enter a new ancestor into your family tree the software will search four of the biggest genealogy search websites for records about your relative.

It searches billions of records that are already online.

All of this is done automatically.

You just enter a name, (and whatever else you know), and the program will do the rest.

From the example above you can see that there are five results returned for both GenealogyBank and FindMyPast, eight for FamilySearch, and an impressive 24 from MyHeritage.

I’m sure that you can see that MyHeritage has more records to offer.

These records may give you new information that you can enter into your software site well as possibly pictures and stories as well.

So, with this program you can connect with 4 genealogy search sites; GenealogyBank; FindAGrave; FindMyPast; FamilySearch; and MyHeritage.

Unfortunately, it does not connect with Ancestry.

Please note!

MyHeritage has purchased Legacy which means you can expect more exciting improvements in the future.

They are already planning a TreeSync feature where you can sync your tree on the MyHeritage site and in Legacy.

2. FindAGrave.com searching

Legacy Family Tree - FindAGrave

One of the things that I was interested in when researching my family history was where my ancestors were buried.

I was also curious to know what was written on their grave as this could give me new information and provide me with clues to find out more about my family tree.

Grave inscriptions can give you vital information that you may not already know about.

From them, you can find out when they were born, or how old they were when they died.

You can learn when they died, which parish they were from, or even what house they lived in, (this is something that I have personally found out about some of my ancestors).

Legacy 9 will link to the FindAGrave website where you can view your ancestor’s grave.

From there you can obtain an ID of their grave which you can then add to your records in this program.

This feature also allows you to create a list of ancestors that have an ID and a list who don’t

3. Online backup

Legacy Family Tree - Online Backup

The greatest fear that you can have when researching your family tree is to lose all of your work.

Can you imagine creating a tree that has over a thousand names with countless amounts of detail about each and everyone one of them?

The beauty of this program is that you have the ability to backup your tree online, to the Legacy Cloud.

From this feature, you can have peace of mind that a secure network is used to save your priceless research work.

In the past, I have backed up two versions of my family tree.

One has been on the computer while I have had another on a portable hard drive. It doesn’t hurt to have an extra form of your tree on the cloud.

So, for me, this is a priceless addition to the program.

One other cool thing about this feature is that you can transfer what you have saved onto the cloud onto a new computer.

All of this is done effortlessly and you can instantly resume your genealogy research.

4. Family stories

Legacy Family Tree - Stories

I got interested in family history because of the many stories and anecdotes that my father recited to me and my two brothers.

When I started to type up these stories never did I imagine that this would lead to researching my family tree.

At the time I just wanted to preserve our family stories but this project just snowballed into something so much more.

It grew into a tree comprising well over a thousand names that included ancestors and many of their descendants, including living cousins that I have made contact with.

Within Legacy 9 you can add many stories that can be attached to your ancestor’s file.

These may be stories that have been passed down through the generations, (like with my family), or personal stories that you remember about relatives.

Not only can you add stories but you can organize them and print out multiple stories for any of your ancestors.

5. Cause of death chartsLegacy Family Tree - Cause of Death Charts

Besides finding out where my ancestor was buried and recording the inscription on their grave I also had a ‘morbid‘ interest in what was their cause of death.

It may sound morbid to you but remember that I was curious to know everything possible from my ancestors.

And this, therefore, included how they died.

And sometimes finding out how they died can give you some important clues about your family tree.

For example, you may discover why they died at a young age.

This nifty new feature can show you a trend in your ancestors’ medical history.

Is there a particular disease that is more prevalent on one side of your family tree?

This can be easily seen with the aid of this particular chart.

As with any genealogy software program where you can create and print out several different kinds of charts you can also create a chart showing the cause of death of your ancestors.

The above example shows an ancestor chart that includes an ancestor that was gored by a bull a tree at the age of 70.

I wonder how that occurred. See, there’s a story straight away!

5 charts to choose from:

  • Ancestor
  • Descendant
  • Fan
  • Hourglass
  • Bow tie

6. X-DNA charts5 available charts that you can choose from include:

Researching your ancestry by DNA testing has become quite an exciting area of genealogy research these days.

I think that it has become quite popular because of the many ancestry TV adverts highlighting what DNA testing can do.

With Legacy 9 you can map your family’s X-chromosome via cool color coding.

This feature works very well as it uses a color scheme showing your various lineages.

Excuse the clarity of the example.

But it does show that male ancestors are colored as purple and female ancestors are in violet.

More color coding has been added to Legacy which is discussed later on.

7. Hashtags

Legacy Family Tree - Hashtags

Hashtags have become quite the phenomenon because of social media.

And Legacy has also incorporated this new searching aid into their software.

With this program, you can create a virtually unlimited amount of hashtags that you can assign to your ancestors.

There is also no limit to the number of hashtags that you can attach to them.

What is also useful about this feature is that there is also a glossary of your hashtags.

So, if you do forget what a hashtag is about then you can easily check up the description.

Another cool thing about this feature is you can print out everyone who shares the same hashtag.

Taking the cause of death for example then you can print out everyone in your tree who died from #pneumonia for example, or see all of your #civilwar ancestors.

8. Family dictionary report

Legacy Family Tree - Family Dictionary Report

Reports are great because they can show you at a glance what you have found out about your family tree.

And the latest report that Legacy has added to its software is called the Family Dictionary Report.

Ancestors are indexed by surname, followed by their first names, and then the usual vitals such as birth, death, marriage, and partner information.

All of this is displayed to you I need a dictionary-type report.

You can easily ‘thumb‘ through your ancestors to find a particular ancestor and see their details.

9. Family tree bingo report

Legacy Family Tree - Family Tree Bingo Report

There are several ways that we can encourage our children to be interested in their ancestry.

As I mentioned earlier I became interested in my family history because of the many stories that were passed on to me by my father.

Legacy has also taken on board this initiative and created a so-called Family Tree Bingo Report.

This takes on the form of a card that features pictures of your ancestors, descendants, cousins, immediate family, or any combination of these.

You can create any kind of bingo report that you desire. You can then play this game with your family.

This game is a great way to:

  • Pass the time with your family,
  • Get your kids interested in your family’s history,
  • Improve your knowledge about your ancestors, and
  • It is great to be played at family reunions.

10. Compare two people

Legacy Family Tree - Compare 2 People

As our family tree of ancestors grows we may become confused with several people in our tree that share the same name.

You may think to yourself, ‘is this or isn’t this the same person?‘.

From this added feature you can check whether you have entered the same person twice or is this a new member of your tree.

You easily select the two individuals from your list of ancestors and a Chronology Comparison Chart is displayed side by side for the two of them.

Any differences between the two will be color-coded so you can see at a glance whether they are two separate people or not.


3 Enhanced Features!

So, that’s what’s been added to the latest version of the Legacy Family Tree software.

But what has been enhanced to this program since the Legacy 8 version.

Well, I can tell you that three improvements have been made to the existing features of the program.

11. Color coding

The color coding initiative worked well with the previous version of this software.

Legacy has taken this initiative even further and has incorporated it into the Index View and Name List.

Because of this visual impression of your ancestor you can see which branch of your family tree that you are looking at.

12. Multimedia

When we research our ancestors we find out so many interesting facts such as when and where they were born, married, died, etc.

All of the top genealogy software programs allow us to add multimedia to our records such as pictures and audio files.

Legacy can arrange the pictures that you have uploaded into the program and auto-sort them into date order.

A cool new option has also been added where you can globally sort your media as well.

13. Tagging

The Name List feature now allows you to view all 9 Tags.

What this means is that you can see at a glance the pre-defined tags that you have assigned you your ancestors in this particular view.


Pros & Cons

Pros

✔   13 new and enhanced features with Legacy 9!
✔   Red warning symbols to highlight errors
✔   Connects to FamilySearch/Find A Grave (FREE)
✔ Connects to FindMyPast/GenealogyBank/MyHeritage (PAID)
✔   Sync trees to web
✔   Web hints are now available!
✔   25 different charts and 20 reports
✔   Print books and wall charts

Cons

❌   Same-sex relationship not possible
❌   No email or telephone support, (but does have online resources, printed material, video tutorials, and FAQs)


Do I Recommend the Latest Legacy Family Tree Software?

I was amazed at the initiative of Legacy to include these improvements and enhancements into their latest version.

They have pushed on what you can do with color-coding which will make it easier for you to look at your ancestors at a glance.

This can further help you to research your ancestors.

Accessing genealogy search websites such as FindMyPast and MyHeritage is also a great bonus as you have access to billions of records.

And this is done effortlessly and instantly by the program. Granted though that you will have to sift through these records to see if they ‘relate’ to your ancestors.

Note: You will need to be a paying subscriber to these third-party sites to see the full transcriptions and images.

Finding your ancestors’ graves is also another cool feature that I like about this program.

Searching for your ancestors’ grave is a bit of a hit and miss though but I do like that Legacy has included this into this version.

You don’t have to be a paying subscriber to access any of the records that you find on this external site.

Legacy Chart

The new reports and charts are great additions as well. Some thought has gone into this area of the program.

The tagging and hashtags particularly help you to navigate through the mass of ancestors that you may have accumulated. I know it certainly helps me as I have so many within my family tree.

Other customers review Legacy Family Tree Software!

Most people on the GenSoftReview website appear to like Legacy, however, there are many complaints that I would like to do here.

Complaints about Legacy Family Tree Software!

Most people on the GenSoftReview website appear to like Legacy, however, there are many complaints that I would like to do here.

One of the complaints refers to the poor customer service and also the delay in shipment.

Drawbacks of Legacy Family Tree Webinars

I cannot comment on each particular case but I will say that sometimes when we deal with support or sales service can be somewhat less than desired.

And this can be said for any company. Some people have no trouble at all, while others have nothing but praise.

So, I am on the fence about this one.

As for the delay in shipment then all I can say is to download the software and you are well on your way in an instant.

Other complaints!

Another complaint is that you have to purchase again when there is an update.

Firstly, to make improvements there needs to be testing and research to be conducted behind the scenes.

And purchasing an upgrade helps with the costs involved.

Secondly, you do not have to pay full price if you have the previous version of the software.

So, I think that that is the kind of Legacy to offer that. Other companies would charge you the full price no matter if you had that last version or not.

The bottom line!

In a nutshell, I recommend Legacy Family Tree.

It has everything that you can expect from all genealogy software programs these days and more.

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.

If you did like this review then why not check out what Legacy Family Tree Webinars has to offer 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 post reviewing Legacy Family Tree Software and what the latest version, Legacy 9, has to offer. If you have any questions or comments then please leave a comment below.

Please share with family and friends if you think this post will help others by using the social media buttons below.

Summary
software image
Author Rating
1star1star1star1star1star
Aggregate Rating
5 based on 1 votes
Software Name
Legacy 9
Operating System
Windows
Software Category
Genealogy
Price
USD $34.95-$99.95
Landing Page

24 thoughts on “What’s New With Legacy 9?”

  1. I have been using Legacy 8 deluxe for years now but it suddenly stopped printing. After much correspondence with the support team they were unable to find a solution.
    I was going too but Legacy 9 but am worried ii the same problem occurs. Also many other reviewers say 9 is very buggy with things that are not fixed – what is your view on this please?

    1. Hi Daisy,

      Sorry for the late reply. I was not notified that I had a query.

      Have you tried to uninstall and install Legacy 8 again? That’s always a good option to use.

      Has anything changed with your computer since this printing issue? Curious why you would suddenly experience issue.

      You may want to check out Legacy 9 Standard Edition first which is free? And if all goes well for you then you can go the Deluxe route.

      Hope this helps and please let me know how you go.

  2. I LOVE Legacy 9!
    Honestly, it’s probably the best genealogy software I have ever used and I have used several of the big ones.
    I only have one complaint. It really needs to be compatible with Ancestry.com.

    Is there a version 10 in the works?

    1. You’re right John about linking with Ancestry. I’m sure that if it did then it would be more popular.

      No idea about a version 10 but when there’s news I’ll put it up here.

  3. What are your views now Family Historian have purchased Legacy I note one purchase site i went to had removed Legacy was this down to FH. slowly removing it. I am ready to purchase and was going for Legacy until I read this news.

    1. Hi David,

      Apologies for the late reply, my system didn’t inform me of your message.

      I would stick with getting Legacy. They are still number one and I don’t think that they would want to stop providing it. Even if this was the case I’m sure all the great features of Legacy would be put into a Family Historian program.

      1. Owain,
        It appears I also had the same problem and only just picked up your reply, sorry to say I bit the bullet and purchased Family History as on visiting one site to purchased Legacy it stated no longer for sale. I am very disappointed with my purchase as it appears exactly same software as Family Tree which I purchased back around 2014 and so I feel I have almost been robbed.

  4. How many family trees can you keep on Legacy? I want to track my maternal, paternal, spouses, and also as much of each extended family member as possible. On Ancestry I currently have 4 trees with over 160 family members. Will Legacy be able to handle this. Also I need this for Mac platform.

    1. Hi Angie,

      I’ve done some checking as with regards to the number of trees. As far I can see it doesn’t matter as long as you load one in, work on it, close it and then work on the next.

      Legacy at the moment will only work for Windows. You could try Family Tree Maker 2017, Roots Magic 7 or Family Tree Heritage 9.

      Please check my Best Genealogy Software Review to see which one is right for you.

      Hope this helps. Let me know how you get on.
      Owain

  5. I have Legacy 7.0 and quit using it as it does have the option for same sex marriages. Our family has several and I wanted to include them all as they are part of our history. When will Legacy be upgrading their new software to include the same sex marriage/relationship option? I want to purchase the version 9 but want to wait for the upgraded version. I also have the Charting Companion version 2 and liked it very much.
    If you have an idea of when please let me know. Thanks.

    1. Hi Izzy,

      Thanks for the query. I have emailed Legacy to find out when/if this will be added.

      In the meantime I did see a workaround for this to work. You can find it here.

      Whether you want to fiddle around with it all it’s up to you. Personally though I would wait until it is supported. I will get back to you as soon as I get a reply from Legacy.

  6. I had Family Tree Maker and somehow or another I ended up with two trees with the same name on Ancestry and was indiscriminately adding information to both of the trees. One tree has ended up with more individuals and more media than the other.
    Will Legacy (or some other software program) allow me to merge the two trees along with all associated media?
    Once this is done, I also want to break up the trees into more manageable surname branches. Is that another possibility?
    Thank you,
    Dee

    1. Hi Dee,

      Thank you for your query. Legacy is great at merging two trees together. Not only will it look at particular individuals when merging but also dependants of that person.

      You can check out this link for more information – Details on Merging.

      Breaking a tree into separate trees is not something that I have done. But I have looked into this and it looks like it can be done.

      Once you have created a tree and save it as a GEDCOM file then you can do this. Just go to the person where your new tree will start from and then export and save as a GEDCOM? It should allow you to create a new tree from that.

      Let me know how you go.
      Owain

      1. As long as it’s pictures, video and sound it should be alright. I believe that they would merge as well.

        I am sorry I cannot give you a definite as so please check out the Contact Us page of Legacy. They will be able to help you further.

      2. Thank you so much for your help. But I do have another question about Legacy. When I try to merge the two trees, does it also merge the media/photos?

        And another question:
        My subscription is about to expire on Ancestry and it cost $289 to renew. Yikes!

        If I have read it correctly, Legacy has free access to Family Search/FindaGrave/FindmyPast/Genealogybank, but you need to pay for My Heritage…..how do you work with Ancestry (if I choose to renew) Does it automatically transfer over like Family Tree Maker used to do before Ancestry sold it to MacKiev?
        Sorry to ask so many questions

      3. Yep, as I said the media/pictures should be fine, but contact Legacy directly through the link that I gave for further clarification.

        Legacy does not sync with Ancestry I’m afraid. This is probably due to MyHeritage buying out Legacy, and I expect that the new owners of Legacy do not want to connect their family tree builder to connect to a competitor. With that said though you can connect to FindMyPast.

        This link will help you further. It shows you how to export your Ancestry tree to be used in Legacy – Does Legacy Sync with Ancestry.

        I’m sorry to say that it is a bit of a run around when changing over to new software. But once you get it all set up and then you’ll be away 🙂

  7. I love the bingo cards and the grave finder abilities. Also building the family tree seems to be a very important part of any research into my ancestry, Legacy 9 makes that look very easy.

    The video was very informative as was this whole review.

    Also, what is your favorite feature of the Legacy 9? And why?

    1. Hi Terry,

      Thank you for your comment and query. The bingo cards are cool. I can see that when my kids are old enough that I will be playing with them with my girls.

      I would have to say that the best feature for me is the connecting with the genealogy sites. You do get that with other programs. But some just connect with one or two sisters. With Legacy 9 you can connect with FOUR of them. I think that that is pretty cool and can really help you trace your family tree more.

  8. What an insightful post. I can really see you put in a lot of thought to it to help your readers. I have always been interested in Genealogy but never knew were to look. Now I know where to find the products that I need.

    I appreciate your honesty with the review and how you were not just being completely biased. We need more people like you in the industry.

    1. Hi Peter,

      Yes I did put a lot of effort into this post. That is because I really believe that Legacy 9 can help anyone with their genealogy research. Also there is a reason why this is the number one software program to use.

      Firstly it can help you store and build your family tree. You can connect with FOUR of the biggest genealogy search websites on the planet.

      Secondly it can do so much more if you look into the extra features that I have touched upon here.

  9. I didn’t know there were this many aspects to genealogy software. The Legacy 9 looks like it gives you lots of information. I especially like the BINGO for the kids to learn their family history and arranging the pictures in the multimedia. Thank you for the thorough review. By the way, your website looks amazing!

    1. Are so many areas to look into your family history. You can look for the usual birth, death and marriages, census records, military records, and so much more. You can also learn a lot about your ancestors by connecting to four of the biggest genealogy search sites.

      The game is good too. And I really love all the other latest features too.

      Thank you for enjoying my review and liking my site. I hope that it help make your decision as to which software program to buy.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *