Addendum to "Software Reviews": The Master Genealogist

On May 25, I posted an entry about my search for a new genealogy program. A few people have since asked me why I didn't look at The Master Genealogist, considered by many to be the best in the field. There are really two main reasons for this. First, TMG Gold is $59 if you download it (which would be my preferred method), twice the cost of RootsMagic 4 ($29.95), my eventual choice (which I also downloaded). Second, every review and every person I spoke to said that TMG is a powerful program, but that it has a pretty steep learning curve. At this point, I don't want to spend a lot of time learning a new program. I have very little free time to work on the family history anyway, and I'd rather spend that actually doing family history and not trying to figure out the software. All of TMG's power would be wasted on me, since I wouldn't be able to commit the time necessary to learn how to effectively use it.

TMG has a 30-day trial package, and it's entirely possible that at some point I might give it a try. Right now, though, it just doesn't seem like a good fit for me.