Family Tree Pilot is a genealogy program by Two Pilots, a small company based in Moscow. It has been available since late 2005. There have not been major upgrades since then. The program has been a free download since version 1.04 introduced on 2007 Apr 4, and that version is still the current one.
Two Pilots offers many different programs. The link below is for Family Tree Pilots’s own page, but the download link on that page takes you to Two Pilot’s download page for all their program. The Family Tree Pilot program is listed under "Useful utilities". The download is less than 7 MB.
Installation was simple. The setup program picks a reasonable installation directory and allows you to change it. It creates a desktop icon unless you uncheck that box, and will start the program unless you uncheck that box.
Family Tree Pilot does not support GEDCOM. In fact, it does not support import or export of data in any format. If you want to give Family Tree Pilot a try, you will have to enter all data manually.
Family Tree Pilot is barely a family tree application. You cannot enter someone’s parent or child, you must first enter the persons you want and then manually link them to each other to create families. That awkward input method makes Family Tree Pilot unsuitable for anything but toy-sized trees.
Fortunately, the program is only meant for toy-sized trees. It is not serious genealogy application, but a specialised drawing application. All it does is place boxes representing individuals over a stylised tree background. That’s the extent of its capabilities. Once you have connected people into a family, it draws lines between them, but it not support an auto-arrange command. There is an arrange button, but it does not seem to do anything but move the focus to the dialog box along the side tree. Family Tree Pilot’s best feature is that it support photographs.
Family Tree Pilot is not a real charting program. It does not import existing data, does not support anything but an ancestral overview, and provides no customisation options whatsoever. You cannot even replace or remove the stylised tree they use for a background.
The user interface is awkward. There is a minimal menu, which does not contain much more than File | Exit and Help | About. Everything that should be on the menu is in a TreeView in a "Action" tab instead. Yes, that is as weird, awkward and user-unfriendly as it sounds.
Even the drawing commands are awkward. You cannot simply lasso a few boxes, but must use a dialog box position next to main window with buttons for selecting individuals and groups. That’s ridiculous.
One quick look at the five tabs should convince you that the authors did not put much thought into it. There is a tab for persons which shows a list of persons, but there is a separate one for children... anyone who does not understand what’s wrong with that deserves to use this program.
You cannot import or save the data you’ve entered. Family Tree Pilot is hardcoded to use just one database. You can save the drawing you make as an image, but in bitmap format only. It does not support any metafile format. Supported bitmaps formats are PNG, BMP and JPG.
The program does not even redraw its own user interface correctly. After saving an image, most buttons appear to be gone. They are still there, but the program fails to paint to them.
Family Tree Pilot appears to have been written in Python using the wxPython user interface library.
With neither import nor export abilities, the program is unrecommendable unready. Serious genealogists will want to use a true charting program, one that imports their existing data, and provides a variety of charts and styles. The limited capabilities and cutesy graphics could have made it a funny kids program, but the interface is so awkward that even adults will have trouble using it.
I do not agree with Two Pilots’ categorisation of this product as a useful utility. I recommend Windows Paint instead.
| property | value |
|---|---|
| product | Family Tree Pilot |
| version | 1.04 |
| organisation | Two Pilots |
| website | Family Tree Pilot |
| price | free |
| requirement | Windows 98 or better |
| note | no data import or export |
| Verdict | awkward drawing program |
| Rating | useless |
Copyright © Tamura Jones. All Rights reserved.