I myself, have been researching my ancestors since I was 16 - so I have 26 years experience as well researching. I have at the present time 21 programs that I have tried at one time or another. And each time, I RETURN to FTM for many reasons. It is a much easier program to use - more user friendly than most of them out there, especially TMG which to me, was the most difficult and un-user friendly program I have ever seen. Another good thing about FTM is the book capabilities are far better than any of the other programs I have tried. And the technical support is great whenever you need their help. As to the World Family Tree Volumes put out by FTM - they have been immensely helpful with many researchers. I have found ancestors and their descendants on numerous volumes and have been able to contact the submitter for more information and have been able to increase my family tree far beyond what I ever expected to. And these volumes are offered at a DISCOUNT to people who use FTM. Case in point, recently, a friend of mine gave me his mother's and father's names and asked to see what kind of information I was able to find. His parents are both deceased and he never knew his grandparents. I was able to locate a tree on the WFT which contained information about a couple of the cousins he remembered. We were able to contact this cousin whom he has not seen in 30 years and obtain information relating to his family all because I was able to locate his parents on one of the WFT volumes. I personally verify all information that I add to my family trees or make sure that the person who has given the information to me is a reliable source for the information. Yes, I am sure that there are many of these trees on the WFT that are not accurate and it would be wise to verify facts on these trees before adding them to you files. But without these WFT, I would not have increased my family tree from a little over 1000 names to over 29,000 and it is still growing. I have met new cousins through this and have obtained written, published works on several branches of my family and am now back to the early 1600's on several branches. I found chinks in the brick wall, so to speak, that would break lose and open a whole new direction of research that would not have been possible without these WFT volumes. Just my thoughts and opinions, Laura RNGADE57@midwest.net ICQ# 13006842 Home of the Sicilian Ancestry Web Ring http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/1535