Visual Family Tree Maker is a no-cost tool for mapping, exploring and showcasing your ancestry.
What sets it apart is that the download contains both a native Windows .exe and a cross-platform .jar—no setup wizard, no registry keys. Extract the archive and double-click VisFamTree.exe (or VisFamTree.jar) and you’re in.
Load the bundled RoyalPets.ged sample and the interface opens in a burst of buttons and panels. Once the shock wears off, navigation is intuitive: swap between pedigree, ancestor, descendant and hourglass charts; click any box to inspect that person; add, edit or delete facts on the fly.
A built-in verifier patrols your data for slip-ups—death dates that precede birth, marriages after burial, surnames mistakenly swapped at birth. You keep the rules you care about and silence the rest.
The Organizer module lets you merge duplicates, re-order siblings, or re-parent a branch without retyping a single letter.
When you’re ready to share, one click spawns a set of HTML pages—complete with indexes, charts and source citations—ready to burn to disc or upload to any web host.