Best family tree software?

[Grothenwell]

Legacy 5.0 is a free download from the legacy website. Although it is American, it seems to do much of what is required. You can always upgrade to the later version if you like that one.

Grothenwell

[newbie]

Try a free download of Family Historian only a demo programme, I currently use Rootsmagic, and it is very easy to use, I like the style of entry and search, but It's not so hot on producing the "tree" print out.
I'm thinking of the FH that seems to have an excellent tree output.....
Newbie

[newbie]

oops forgot the link to Family Historian
http://www.family-historian.co.uk/downloads/index.htm
sorry
Newbie

[Arranroots]

A note of caution!

I bought the original version of Family Tree Maker when Broderbund made it.

I obtained a free upgrade disk from a family tree magazine, but after a trial period it expired.

So far, so predictable.

The disk offered a bargain upgrade from Ancestry who now own the thing.  I decided that I liked most of the Features and agreed to pay $29 to upgrade.

No sooner had I paid with my flexible friend, than the site directed me to their "shop" where the same product was offered - for $19!!!!!!!

I complained to Ancestry but did not recieve the courtesy of a reply.

BE VERY CAREFUL - I am sure they are not the only ones, so check prices before parting with cash.

kind regards, Arranroots 

p.s. I am quite happy with the product, just would have preferred to pay less!

[newbie]

wise man say check everything first..
oh how frustrating Arranroots.
I noticed in the FRC shop on Saturday that FH is £49.95, and I found it just now for £39.95 I think   on one site, and £42 on another.....
Newbie

[andrewalston]

I've just changed over the The Master Genealogist and like it.

The standard layout seems logical. You can see virtually everything about a person on screen at once. Events in their life, parents, children, and siblings are all to hand. Double-clicking on a name in any window changes to the same view centred on that person.

It has forced me to put some structure into my record keeping. There was a fair bit of editing after my conversion from a very cheap and cheerful product (Family Tree Creator), but I'm now happy with things. Shows how bad I'd got!

It seems to make loads of tasks easier - the old product forced you to enter both parents longhand, TMG suggests the other parent for you.

They do a 30-day trial, which is actually the full version. You can unlock if you decide to buy, you don't need to download again.

Do look out though - the "Silver edition" doesn't do some things that ought to be standard. For example, you can't print a chart of ancestors - the traditional "family tree".

For those interested, it's written in Microsoft Visual Foxpro, which uses a well-tested database engine.

[JAP]

Hi Andrew,

I am a TMG aficionado - probably no-one on RC more so.

But it would be less than honest not to admit that occasionally one runs into problems with MS FoxPro (hmm - MS ...).  But, even if FoxPro very occasionally crashes, TMG is so robust that data is not lost - TMG is great.

Incidentally, I understand that with TMG one can - if one wishes or if it means anything to one (doesn't to me) - look behind the scenes at the actual programming and do with it what one will   Endless flexibility - though this does add a degree of complexity

TMG is (properly) recognised as the most powerful genealogical program there is - it is certainly the tops for me though not everyone wants to drive the top of the range car (sorry that should be program ).

JAP

[casliber]

Way back in 1998 I got Family Tree Maker 3 which I still use and am very happy with, though I now have 1600 names on it and it crashes if I cut and paste text into it 

I liked all the charts (ancestor, descendant tree), but this old version wouldn't allow me to do much with the trees.

Time to upgrade............

[JAP]

casliber,

Your choice!

I have about 12,000 names in my program (TMG) - I'm sure many RootsChatters have much larger numbers.

Can only repeat - it's not a matter of what is best (how long is a piece of string) but of what is best for YOU!

Cheers,

JAP