family tree maker 2025
Unlock Your Ancestry Like Never Before
What is Family Tree Maker?
Family Tree Maker is one of the most trusted and powerful genealogy software tools available, helping users from all over the world uncover, preserve, and share their family’s history. The 2025 edition brings exciting updates and new features designed to streamline the research process, improve collaboration, and ensure your family tree is as accurate and complete as possible. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced genealogist, Family Tree Maker 2025 offers everything you need to build and maintain your family’s legacy.
1. Enhanced Integration with Ancestry.com
In the 2025 edition, Family Tree Maker continues to offer seamless integration with Ancestry.com, one of the largest and most comprehensive family history research websites. Users can easily sync their family tree between Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com, ensuring that all the information stays up-to-date across both platforms. This automatic synchronization means you never have to worry about losing your progress—whether you’re working on your desktop or on Ancestry.com.
With this feature, Family Tree Maker 2025 enables you to:
- Automatically upload and download tree data to/from Ancestry.com.
- Access hints and matches directly within the software, ensuring that you’re always finding new records and potential relatives.
- Connect your tree to billions of historical records, including census data, birth certificates, marriage records, and more.
- Easily incorporate findings into your tree with a click of a button.
2. New and Improved Charting Options
Family Tree Maker 2025 expands its charting capabilities, giving you more options to visually represent your family tree. The new charts and reports can now be customized with greater flexibility, allowing you to create personalized family history books or visual family charts that you can share with others.
Key charting improvements include:
- Fan Charts: A beautiful way to see your ancestors in a circular, easy-to-read format.
- Descendant Charts: Display your descendants in a clear layout, which is especially useful for visualizing multiple generations.
- Pedigree Charts: Traditional ancestor charts with the ability to adjust the depth and format of each branch.
- Customizable Reports: Now, reports can be personalized, with the ability to modify color schemes, fonts, and layout for a polished, professional finish. This allows for the creation of family books or presentations that tell your family’s history in an engaging and customized way.
3. Advanced Search and Record Matching Features
Family Tree Maker 2025 introduces Advanced Search functionality that allows you to search through your family tree more efficiently than ever before. The new version now supports deeper filtering, making it easier to locate specific people, dates, or places within your tree.
Some of the search improvements include:
- Search by Relationship: Quickly find relatives of a certain type, such as siblings, grandparents, or distant cousins.
- Improved Location Filters: Narrow down search results based on specific geographical locations or regions.
- Better Date Searching: With the ability to filter by specific years or date ranges, users can track down events like births, marriages, and deaths that might otherwise be overlooked.
The software also enhances its record matching capabilities, making it easier to discover new documents tied to your ancestors, especially with the help of Ancestry.com hints. These hints are now more accurate and relevant, providing suggestions for your family tree from both online databases and your personal family history.
4. Enhanced Cloud Sync and Multi-Device Access
The Family Tree Maker Cloud Sync feature has been significantly upgraded in the 2025 version, allowing for easier access to your family tree across different devices. Now, any changes made on your desktop application will automatically sync to the cloud and be accessible via your mobile device or another computer.
Key cloud sync improvements include:
- Seamless Cloud Backup: Your family tree data is securely stored in the cloud, giving you peace of mind that your research is protected, even if something happens to your computer.
- Multi-Device Support: Whether you’re using Family Tree Maker on your desktop, laptop, or a tablet, your family tree is always available, and any updates are automatically synced.
- Collaborative Sharing: Now, family members or researchers you invite can view or contribute to your family tree, ensuring better collaboration in your genealogical projects.
5. Improved Collaboration and Sharing Tools
Family Tree Maker 2025 takes collaboration to the next level. Genealogy research is often a family effort, and the updated software provides you with tools to make sharing and working together more efficient. The new collaboration features allow you to invite family members, distant relatives, or fellow genealogists to contribute to your family tree.
Some collaborative tools added in 2025 include:
- Shared Tree Access: Invite others to view or edit specific branches of your tree, making it easier for relatives to add information or correct any inaccuracies.
- Real-Time Updates: Receive notifications when collaborators make changes to the tree, ensuring you stay up-to-date with the latest contributions.
- Customizable Permissions: You can set different levels of access for collaborators, such as view-only access or full editing rights, depending on their role in the project.
6. Improved Media Management
Family Tree Maker 2025 makes it even easier to add, organize, and share media files related to your family history. Whether it’s photos, documents, or audio recordings, the software has new tools to manage these files with better categorization and tagging.
Key media management features include:
- Enhanced Media Folders: Organize your photos, documents, and other media by category, ensuring you can find what you’re looking for quickly.
- Automatic Media Matching: When you sync your tree with Ancestry.com, the software can automatically match photos and documents to individuals in your tree.
- Drag-and-Drop Functionality: Easily upload and arrange media files with drag-and-drop tools, making the process of adding photos, certificates, and other historical records much simpler.
7. Advanced Source Citation Tools
Citing sources is an essential part of genealogy research, and Family Tree Maker 2025 includes more powerful source citation tools than ever before. The software automatically generates citations for most records that you import, making it easier to maintain proper documentation.
New features for source citation in 2025 include:
- Auto-Citation of Online Records: When you link records from Ancestry.com or other online databases, Family Tree Maker automatically creates proper source citations, ensuring you stay compliant with genealogy best practices.
- Source Organization: With new features for sorting and grouping sources, users can organize their citations by record type, such as census, marriage records, or newspapers.
- Source Reports: Generate detailed reports that show where all of your information came from, helping to keep your tree accurate and verifiable.
8. Enhanced User Interface and Experience
Family Tree Maker 2025 introduces a more polished, streamlined user interface designed to make genealogy research more accessible and enjoyable. The new version features improved navigation, faster load times, and more intuitive workflows.
Notable interface updates include:
- Simplified Navigation: The layout has been adjusted for easier access to important tools like search, charts, and family profiles.
- Faster Performance: The software runs more efficiently, with quicker load times and enhanced responsiveness, ensuring a smooth experience even with large family trees.
- Dark Mode: A popular feature requested by users, Family Tree Maker 2025 now offers a dark mode, which is easier on the eyes during long research sessions.
9. Security and Privacy Enhancements
Family Tree Maker 2025 places a high priority on the security and privacy of your data. Whether you’re storing personal family history or collaborating with others, you can feel confident that your information is protected with the latest security protocols.
Some of the key security features in 2025 include:
- Two-Factor Authentication: For added security, Family Tree Maker now supports two-factor authentication when accessing cloud data or syncing with Ancestry.com.
- Data Encryption: All personal and research data are encrypted both in transit and at rest, ensuring your information is protected from unauthorized access.
- Privacy Controls: If you choose to share your family tree with others, you have full control over who can see what data and how much access they have.