Genealogy's Star

RootsMagic.com notified me of an upgrade to the Beta version of the program they promoted at RootsTech.com. Quoting from their blog:

We are pleased to announce that an update to RootsMagic 6 is now available which has been “Share Certified” by FamilySearch for use with their new “Family Tree” system. This means that RootsMagic is the only software certified to share data with FamilySearch Family Tree!

As far as I know, none of the other software vendors are yet certified with the FamilySearch.org Family Tree system directly. The trick here is that there were several programs certified to work with New.FamilySearch.org and that indirectly, by reason of the synchronization between Family Tree and New.FamilySearch.org, they appeared to be adding data to Family Tree. RootsMagic has a direct connection to the Family Tree program thereby bypassing the New.FamilySearch.org connection.

So how is this different than what was and is already available? Here is the explanation from RootsMagic:

RootsMagic, the genealogy software named “Easiest to Sync” with new.FamilySearch.org, now brings the same power and features that you love to FamilySearch Family Tree- with more to come! 

Family Tree has most of the features that are available on new.FamilySearch.org. It has some new features including the ability to edit and delete most any information about a person, a detailed history of changes made to people, and the ability to add sources to back up your conclusions. While new.FamilySearch.org has primarily been available to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Family Tree is available to everyone.

Some of the features mentioned by RootsMagic are yet to be implemented by FamilySearch in Family Tree. I will have to try to do some of features in the next weeks and see what they are able to do and not do.