So what's the scoop on genealogy software?

Question:A friend recently got me interested in genealogy so I've been gathering ancestors in my spare time.

I the software Family Tree for Dummies at Pic N Save. It was cheap and I figured all I needed was a program to help me keep track of everyone.

Well, after I've gotten into it some, I'm wondering if it would be wise to get better software.

Any recommendations on software from genealogy gurus?

Here are some of my thoughts:
I want the usage of this tree to be flexible. I want to be able to share it with people (who may not have or want to buy junk software) and I want to be able to put it online. I'm not planning either of these, but I'd hate to go to all the work and then find out the work I did was useless.

The software I'm using is pretty junkie. It gets confused about dates and its difficult to input approximate dates. Not a huge deal... but I'm just wondering about different things, before I put any more work into it.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: A friend recently got me interested in genealogy so I've been gathering ancestors in my spare time.

I the software Family Tree for Dummies at Pic N Save. It was cheap and I figured all I needed was a program to help me keep track of everyone.

Well, after I've gotten into it some, I'm wondering if it would be wise to get better software.

Any recommendations on software from genealogy gurus?

Here are some of my thoughts:
I want the usage of this tree to be flexible. I want to be able to share it with people (who may not have or want to buy junk software) and I want to be able to put it online. I'm not planning either of these, but I'd hate to go to all the work and then find out the work I did was useless.

The software I'm using is pretty junkie. It gets confused about dates and its difficult to input approximate dates. Not a huge deal... but I'm just wondering about different things, before I put any more work into it.

> I needed [...] a program to help me keep track of everyone.

Yup. Trying to do it with pencil and paper is like trying to write a novel with clay tablets and a stylus.

Links first, if you are impatient:

http://www.rootsmagic.com/
http://www.familytreemaker.com/

PAF:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/default....
(Click on Order/Download Products and follow the trail; the link itself is 400 characters long.)

I like Roots Magic. It is $29 US. I'm a computer programmer by trade; RM is well-crafted. It is also user-friendly. My son picked up the basics in 20 minutes, with minimal instruction from me. You don't have to be a programmer to use it.

It's a little like typefaces. If you notice the font a book is printed in, they picked the wrong one; you should just read the book, and the font should be transparent. If you were a typesetter or font designer, you'd notice the fonts books and newspapers used. RM is like that; usually I just use it, without noticing how well it is made. It is transparent and intuitive, which lets me concentrate on research, not figuring out how to use the tools.

Sometimes, like when I import a GEDCOM someone who uses FTM sent me, and find 12 different ways to spell the same place, I notice how good RM really is.

RM lets you input dates as varied as

04 Jul 1776
Jul 1820
1945
1820 - 1825
Bef 1955
Aft 1703
3 gen bef 1820
(That last is "three generations before 1820")

4004 BC
(If you are a Bible literalist and trace back to Adam)
(Some people are and do. Others of us chuckle into our beer.)

Family Tree Maker is the market leader. They have different packages; some come with a year's subscription to Ancestry.com. It was $39 for the bare bones the last time I looked. I had FTM 5.0 and FOW 6.0, RM's precoursor, at the same time 8 or 10 years ago. Liked FOW better, never looked back.

You might be able to find previous versions of either in the discount bin somewhere.

PAF, from the Mormons, is free.

All have their fans. You can Google:

Genealogy software comparison

and find 100,000+ hits.

All three are flexible. All three have thousands of users. None of them get dates confused. Not all programs will accept BC or "x gen bef y" dates.

Any genealogy program worthy of the name will let you export a GEDCOM, which is a text file with key words.
http://www.tedpack.org/gedcom/html
has more than I want to paste here. You normally send GEDCOM files to your relatives.

All of the big sites - Roots Web, GenCircles, Genes Reunited, Kindred Konnecions - let you upload GEDCOM files.

FTM and RM let you create a web site based on your data, which you then upload to your personal site, if you want. You get MUCH more visibility via a large public site, as listed above. That i turn means your long lost 4th cousin, the one who inherited GGG grandpa's Civil War sword and the letters he wrote home from Gettysburg, has a better chance of finding you.

RM lets you burn your data and a read-only version of itself onto CDs. Your friends and relatives can then view your data any way they want, with portraits, if you have any. They can't add to it or correct it, but they can print off reports and change from pedigree view to family group sheets and so on.

RM lets you download a trial version for free. Their page doesn't say how long it lasts; 14 days or 30.

I hope this helps. Write if you have questions.

===================================

Edit:

Wendy brings up a good point. Whatever program you pick, back up your data religiously; once a month or every time you do a lot of research. The ideal would be to back it to thumb drive or a CD, twice, then put the second copy somewhere that it would be safe if your computer was stolen or your house burned down. Take it to work, if you work outside of the home. Leave it with a neighbor. Send it to those relatives.

Some people have lost 5 - 10 years worth of work when their hard drives died.

I use Breedmate.. It's a great program.. Sounds like it will do what you want..

I use Family Tree . It works well with ancestry.com.

I have used Personal Ancestral File almost as long as I have been researching (over 20 yrs), and that includes different upgrades. The 'standard' programs will (or should) all have capacity for gedcom files, which is the 'bridge' file type that is read between different commercial programs.
PAF is free. Just a personal observation of what I've heard over the years... there seem to be more problems with the programs that people buy. Software vendors seem to have more interest in keeping their files "proprietary", in order to nudge persons to stay with that program.
You can download PAF and test drive it. If you want to share, you can include the program itself, and the LDS church tends to remain up to date since they are not marketing the program. Just my personal view.. I have never uploaded my files online, for concerns of misuse, and it doesn't keep me from sharing my research. As I often freely admit here, I am far from 'politically correct' on that topic.
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/softwa...
here's a review... and PAF is among the top 4 in this review.
When it is free, you can use it, and if you still are not happy, you can upgrade.
edit-
browsing around, I see this commentary, which relates to what you are asking (about uploaded files). If your files are 'offline', you maintain the standards. Once you rely on online files (if you do), this becomes possible.
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/12/ances...

I've used PAF since it came out. I do it for one simple reason. Every other software program is built to be compatible with it. I don't care about the bells and whistles, I want information that I can open on any computer, share with anyone in the world, and that doesn't have any "bugs" in it. That, simply put, is PAF. The fact that it's free is only a wonderful bonus.

As both Wendy and Ted said, there's a reason why people stick with it. The other programs are finnicky, don't work on every operating system, and they have bugs. It's not worth the risk of losing all my data because of some fluke.