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The Kitchen Table

Best genealogy software

13 years ago

In the 1990's I bought a cheap cheap genealogy program to mainly keep track of my large extended family. I "kind of" became the family record keeper and historian. I need a new program that will do more. Can any of you recomment a good software program for me.

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Comments (6)

monica_pa Grieves
13 years ago
"Family Tree Maker" from Ancestry.com.

When you open a tree on-line, it looks for new information on family members, and marks with a green leaf that is a link to the info.
You can also use it off-line.

I've had it for years. Opened my tree a few months ago, because I hadn't used the program for a while, and there was a link to my grandfather, and where he was buried.
I've been looking for him for years, my father never knew what happened to him.

It's a very good, easy to use program for the average person.
Lindsey_CA
13 years ago
I, too, highly recommend Family Tree Maker. Let's face it -- if you're serious about doing genealogy research, you're going to be searching on Ancestry.com; and the latest version of Family Tree Maker actively synchronizes with Ancestry.com so that both your software and online tree are the same.

Yes, in order to really get the benefit of Ancestry.com you'll need a paid membership; but, again, if you're serious about your research, it's worth it. I have access to everything that Ancestry has, worldwide, and it costs around $0.80 per day over the course of the year. More than worth it. Yes, the LDS web site, FamilySearch.org, is free, but if you want to see the actual documents (Census pages, etc.), you'll need the Ancestry membership because FamilySearch.org will simply link you to it.

Family Tree Maker also will create all sorts of wonderful charts, etc.
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Casi, I used Family Tree Maker from Broderbund. It suited my purpose at the time. Not sure that you can simply copy over all your data with a few mouse clicks sadly. However the upside of using the Familysearch program is that they are not going to disappear any time soon so there is little fear of becoming outdated. I never used it but did download a few times - in case I plucked up the courage to start the transfer of all the data. Moving the names and stuff did not seem daunting but adding all the notes as well made it a serious proposition. Much of my data was stored on XL where I could add any variables I needed. My family is from the UK so I sorted the names as I found them in the 1850,1860,1870, 1880 and 1890 census. Plus there were columns for church records and birth, marriage and death columns. I enjoyed it for over 3 years but got side tracked easily trying to understand the way of life back then, plus through family contacts my photo album of the departed grew steadily and I spent a lot of time repairing damaged photos.
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tami_ohio
13 years ago
Make me #3 for Family Tree Maker. I don't do much genealogy anymore, but that's my favorite.
marie_ndcal
13 years ago
I agree with previous posters. Also with Ancestory.com sign up for the free newsletters and there is a new ond called Fold 3 that is good.
jkayd_il5
Original Author
13 years ago
Wow, Family Tree Maker it will be, I hope. Actually I will tell my son that is what I want for Christmas. I already told him I wanted a new genealogy program so better call him before he goes Christmas shopping. Thank you all.
MiMi
13 years ago
FYI.. If you have a Mac computer they have a special version for it, the regular Family Tree Maker program will not work on a Mac....

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