Ancestral Quest

Doesn't every family have at least one family historian, someone who is dead set on finding the documents that prove the lineage, the exact name of every ancestor, the missing dates from tombstones? For family history buffs, Ancestral Quest ($29.95) is one of the most precise tools on the market for mapping a family tree. No-nonsense and cost-effective, Ancestral Quest is solutions-oriented, designed for those who want to accurately record what they know and how they know it about their family. Exacting genealogy hobbyists won't find a better application. But it's not a great tool if your idea of a genealogy project is to investigate family lore that suggests you're related to some forgotten line of royalty. Ancestral Quest is much more serious than that.

Ancestral Quest does provide a lot of links to additional information, should you choose to use them, with partners such as Roots Web Project and FamilySearch.org. If you have an account with Ancestry.com, you can leverage that information as well. In fact, part of what makes Ancestral Quest such an appealing tool is that it lets you import a variety of files and information. Most important of all, Ancestral Quest is thorough, deep, and fitting for all kinds of people. There are even special tools for dealing with different surname patterns (when the father's surname isn't what carries through lineage), sections devoted to Jewish history, and a lot of synchronicity with genealogy maintained by the Latter Day Saints.

Ancestral Quest Package
The latest release of Ancestral Quest, version 12.1, is available for Windows OS only. $29.95 is the price if you download it electronically, or you can buy a disc-based copy for $34.95 (direct) plus shipping and handling. A free version, called Ancestral Quest Basic, is also available. Although the software installs in English by default, you can add translation packs for other languages: Chinese, French, German ($7.95 extra), Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish.

In addition to the software, Ancestral Quest gives you access to incredibly rich online video tutorials. Like the software itself, the videos are straight and to the point. The production value won't blow you away, but the content is what counts, and Ancestral Quest'sexcellent. Not only do the videos teach basic how-tos about using the software, they also explain some best practices in genealogy, like the correct way to write names or use commas when reporting locations.

Creating a Family Tree
I tested Ancestral Quest by trying to input my actual family history into the software. The basic buttons for adding new people and recording their basic statistics, like date and place of birth and death, were simple to find. It took a little time to create the first few entries while I was getting used to the layout and functionality of the software, but by the time I reached my first grandparent, I was moving at a good clip.

While the interface is not visually appealing, it is very well structured. Old-school gray backgrounds hark back to the early 1990s. Icons in the menu bar reminded me (eerily) of early business-grade email clients. You can change the two-tone color scheme slightly, but not much, and few other options exist for personalizing the look and feel.

But look and feel is not what Ancestral Quest is about. It's about accurate record-keeping, and in that sense, the pared down look keeps style out of the way. You'll never feel distracted Ancestral Quest, although it won't fill you with inspiration either.

The dashboard comprises four tabs: Pedigree, Family, Name List, and Individual. Pedigree is the tree, with you at the start, and your parents on branches above and below. Double-click a name, and you can fill in basic details.

From the tree view in the Pedigree tab, you can highlight any person and then click on the Family tab to add more information, such as other children. The next tab, Name List, is a spreadsheet of all the people whom you've entered onto your tree so far. You can sort by different fields, which is a nice way to check if all the Duffys are accounted for, or if you forgot Uncle Bill (sorry Uncle Bill). The last tab, Individual, shows a fact sheet of the person you highlighted back on the Pedigree page.

Features
Within a few minutes of using the software, I felt comfortable exploring some of the features beyond the basics. Notes fields let you add a lot of additional information, like a physical description of a person and notes about their marriage. Nearly every field in Ancestral Quest has a supporting field for sources. I love the ability to add supporting information and documents in Ancestral Quest at every turn. The program always seems to ask you, "How do you know this?" Supporting documents can come from a variety of sources, including other online family history sites. If you want?and Ancestral Quest will always check that this is what you want?you can find supporting evidence through the Roots Web Project, FamilySearch.org, and Ancestry.com.

The app also has options for collaborating (simply called Collaboration) with other users to find shared family histories. The idea is that two people who know one another?say you and your cousin?can create a family history collaboratively using one file in a cloud-based system. Unfortunately, almost no one uses it. I learned from speaking to the developer who created Ancestral Quest that serious genealogists typically don't want to use unsubstantiated information provided by other users. Nor, it turns out, do they want to share their work with others, for fear of someone else mucking it up. The power and beauty of the ever-connected Internet has its limits, I suppose. Still, the option to collaborate exists. Whether you'll find any information of value by collaborating is another story.

If you do want to use the Collaboration tool, however, it keeps everything private, a smart way to go indeed. You can only collaborate with approved people.

Another nice feature for advanced users is the ability to import files from other programs. You don't have to start fresh with Ancestral Quest if you began your family tree in another application.

Book export functions in Ancestral Quest are pretty bare bones. This is not an application for designing gifts and keepsakes about your family history. You can export the charts you create to "book" format, but it's nothing more than black and white diagrams and text. Similar to the application, the structure holds up and the information is accurate, it's just not something you'd want to wrap up and lay under the Christmas tree.

Ancestral Quest for Serious Enthusiasts
Family history enthusiasts can do some serious work with Ancestral Quest, a straightforward and no-nonsense program sold at a very reasonable price. Casual family historians, or those just looking to make a nice genealogy gift, may find it too serious because it lacks some of the color and exploratory nature of some other sites and services. The straightforward app has rich features that support real genealogy projects. Additional materials, such as newsletters, online tutorial videos, and links to other ancestry services, provide a lot of added value, too.

Don't use Ancestral Quest if all you want is a pretty book to give Grandpa on his next birthday. Use Ancestry.com Family Tree Maker for that. But if you (or Grandpa) appreciate spreadsheets and well substantiated information, then Ancestral Quest is spot on the best tool for the job.

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