I really thought this would be no big deal and that any software I used (currently Legacy 6) would allow me to make a chart of everyone in my family tree, even those distant cousins. Apparently that is not the case. You can pick someone and see their descendents or ancestors but you normally cannot pick more than one person and rarely can you see everyone.

Legacy sells a $40 add-in software to allow you to see a chart of everyone (more than the cost of the Legacy Family Tree software). However I have found at least 2 softwares that can do this. Family Tree Maker 2006 and Genbox. Oh, and I just heard that Family Historian can do this too though I have not tried their demo.

Since Family Tree Maker does not have a demo and seems to be associated with Ancestry.com (with whom I had a bad customer experience and later were the subject of a legal class action from others feeling the same way) I tried Genbox. Although it looks good and there were loads of configuration options, I do not know if I would want it as my main geneology storehouse.

That being said their "Everyone" chart was wonderful and they even had a convergent chart where you could pick from 2 or more people and chart where the family lines converge. Even better, the charts can be edited before printing by simply dragging people boxes around on the screen!

To make either work if you already have a geneology program, simply export your family tree to the generic Gedcom format and then reimport it into either of these 2 programs. Since Genbox has a 30 day demo anyone can quickly try it out to see if it meets their needs. And that either program is still cheaper than the single add-on by Legacy.

Tags: family tree, chart