Genealogy & Family Tree Software

Genalogy software programs provide a fast, accurate, and scalable means to store, view, and save your genealogy work! While the features vary from program to program, most of the largest software packages aim to provide similair services. However, the leading software program comes from a name you all know... Ancestry.com.

Ancestry's Family Tree Builder 2009 allows you to import, change, search, and view you family's history in ways that have never before been possible. These advanced features include:

To get your version of Family Tree Builder 2009 with a special 25% discount, click here.

Genealogy Software Reviews And Comparisons

With so many different genealogy software programs on the net, it can be tough to know who to trust. Fortunatly, several groups have diligently reviewed the top programs and you can see their rankings here:

- TopTenReviews.com
- About.com
- ConsumerSearch.com

Free Genealogy Software

Free software packages (aka "freeware") may SOUND like the best way to go, but that's not always the case. Becasue free software doesn't generally have a full company to support it, updates are rare and help is very hard to find. Also, the software generally isn't as dependable as more professional products, which means that you're generally less-likly to have major issues.

Programs For A Mac (Macintosh)

Many companies that sell genealogy software have web sites.

A lot of Free, Shareware, or Demo Genealogy software is available on the internet.

• The PSU Genealogy ftp site, ftp.cac.psu.edu.
• Lifelines is a free genealogy program for Linux, Unix and DOS.
• Familia converts Family Tree Maker Descendant Trees to web pages

GENTECH is a non-profit organization to educate genealogists in the use of technology for gathering, storing, sharing and evaluating their research.

The Macintosh Genealogy Software FAQ gives descriptions of most Macintosh Genealogy programs.

PAF

Personal Ancestral File 4.0 is available for free download from the LDS Family Search site.

• Most PAF utilities are available at the PSU genealogy FTP site.
• There are many PAF user groups around the U.S. and the world. Some of these groups with useful hints and information about PAF are the Silicon Valley PAF Users Group, the Southern Oregon PAF Users Group and PAF-Ways, a Genealogy/Computer Interest Group in North Central Iowa.

GEDCOMS

GEDCOM is a file format that is primarily used for exchanging data between different genealogy databases and programs. There are many utilities which can create or operate on GEDCOM files.

Some genealogy programs even use the GEDCOM format as their internal database format. Lifelines is a good example of such software.

Res Privata is program that will filter private details out of GEDCOM files so they can be shared or published.

Programmers and GEDCOM users can download the "GEDCOM Standard release 5.5" in various formats or read an unofficial HTML version. The Family History Research project at Brigham Young University has some information on various GEDCOM related projects.

uFTi is a Windows GEDCOM to HTML converter

Other software

• Web Family Tree (v1.1) is free software to dynamically generate web pages of ancestors and descendants with pictures.
• Calendar Conversions is an on-line program to convert dates between the Gregorian, Julian, French republican and Jewish calendars.
• WWW genealogy databases lists a few examples of genealogy research presented on the web using various software packages.
• Bygones is a genealogical notekeeping system for laptops
• "Hypertext Indented Narrative" pedigree format