Mapping software - any suggestions?

[Gadget]

Many years ago I used the free one that came with Family Search. I then moved to Family Historian in about 2006 and have kept it up to date. I find it much better than any other package. It is only for Windows though.

Add - review from WDYTYR mag ( )

Pros

• Packed with features and can be customised

• User interface is well laid out and logical

• Tools for managing sources are best in class

• Web Clipper makes it possible to import

facts from most websites

Cons

• Significant initial learning curve

• Mapping tools are a little disjointed, and not as friendly to use as other packages

• No means of syncing your family tree online, or accessing it via a mobile app

Verdict: This powerful package will appeal to experienced family historians with an eye for recording lots of detail. There are more user-friendly family history software programs out there, but if you persevere, you’ll be richly rewarded.

ToptenReviews rates FH7 'Best family tree maker overall'

[Norfolk Nan]

I'd certainly agree with the 'verdict' - it felt a step up from Family Tree Maker back in 2020 but I've not really embraced all its functions which is my loss.  I've no patience with manuals unfortunately so I chip away trying to make things work/better.  But I'm a happy bunny

[Biggles50]

Wow, Biggles50!  That is 'involved' but everyone to their own!   

Out of (more) curiosity why didn't you like Family Historian?  I was tempted over from Family Tree Maker during covid with the promise of better maps but I'd get far more out of it if I had programming skills.  I never did sort out the maps hence this post

I bought it because of the reviews.

It does not work for me:-
1 I need software that sync’s with Ancestry.
2 I need software that works on both my Windows PC and on our Mac’s
3 The FH learning curve is way steeper than other Apps
4 I have zero programming skills, nor do I want to learn them
5 It does not have the feature that Roots Magic has of creating a fully working version of the App with all media etc on a USB memory stick.

The last one is a deal breaker on any App that does not have this feature, with the ability to put all my digital records of my Genealogy research onto a Memory Device together with a fully working version of an App based Family Tree means my Cousins can all have the family research to pass on as they see fit.

I simply do not trust that a Genealogy Family Tree App will be maintained compatible long term and by long term I mean 40+ years.  Companies can fold and software then becomes unsupported and in a very short space of time an update to Windows or a Mac can cause said software to cease functioning.  I have a fifteen year old laptop that has software on it where the company no longer exists and as the software was a download I am stuck, even if I had the software on a CD new Computers do not have optical drives and even it they did the software serial number verification server no longer exists so I could not load the software on my new PC.

This is why I am OCD about how and where my research is stored, I did see on Facebook a member of a Genealogy Group had been researching their family history for 30 years and their Grandson wiped their Laptop and reinstalled everything, they had no backup so everything is gone.

[Gadget]

Of course this is just our personal views of the software 

[Norfolk Nan]

And mine, of course 

[Biggles50]

Totally agree.

It is the systems and processes that work for each of us that matters.

That said I will always continue to suggest that any Genealogist who has their tree online or in software that they have a robust Backup system.

[Erato]

The main problem I have had with mapping urban locations is that, in many cases, the streets have been renumbered.  It isn't always possible to confidently translate an old street address into a current one.  Trying to map my ancestors' frequent moves from house to house in Brooklyn, NY from 1840-1900 drove me bonkers.  In many cases I just had to accept an approximate location.

In rural areas, the problem is the lack of a specific address.  Without a plat map or land purchase records, it's very difficult to precisely locate farms.  Furthermore, the farms were not static; often they grew by the purchase of additional parcels, and these were not necessarily adjacent to each other.  For example, my gg-grandfather started with 40 acres in 1850.  When he died in 1903, he had three non-contiguous parcels which totaled 280 acres.  Exactly what tracts he owned in any given intermediate year, I don't know.

[Gadget]

I was lucky with some of mine and  made extensive use of the Welsh Tithe maps. It was not so good with the coal miners though

We're also  very lucky having the NLS maps.

[Norfolk Nan]

Actually, what I’d like is a room with paper maps, pins and bits of string on the walls like you see in crime dramas   Call me a dinosaur…