Record your family history

Discover how to build and maintain your family tree for free

LOOKING FOR AN easy way to record your family history without paying up–front? Roots Magic Essentials is the free cut–down version of the powerful Roots Magic 9 and contains all the core features you need to build your tree and record a rich array of information about you and your ancestors. You can then upgrade to the full version for $39.95 should you want to unlock its advanced features.

Browse to www.rootsmagic.com, select Roots Magic > Try It Free, fill in your details (this part is optional), and click Download to access a link to the DMG file. Once installed, open Roots Magic 9 from the Applications folder and click “Roots Magic Essentials — Free Version”.

At the time of writing, Roots Magic 9 doesn’t work properly with 4K displays in macOS 14 (HD displays are okay) — if a patch hasn’t been issued by the time you read this, go to Settings > Displays, click Advanced, select “Show resolutions as a list” and then switch to max (3,840 x 2,160) resolution as a workaround.