Good software for beginner please

[meeganf]

Hi
I have a friend who is beginning her research now she's retired and I wonder if people could suggest the best software please? I use FTM 19 and find it is very useful for my needs but there may be new or easier ones around.
Requirements
- easy to navigate
- possible free subscription to a FH website?
- photos, trees etc
- ability to interface with other members of her family ie ability for family members to add in their research to the same tree
- she is only interested in the UK

Many thanks
Meegan

[KGarrad]

RootsMagic offers a free cut-down version, RootsMagic Essentials.
This allows you to try the software.

[Biggles50]

Roots Magic, Reunion, Mactree, Family Historian and Family Tree Maker, we have them all.

There are Pros and Cons of each hence why we seem to have ended up with so much.

As already stated Roots Magic Essentials is free, simply import a Gedcom file and try it.

The full paid for version is not expensive and it sync’s to a Family Tree on Ancestry.

Family Tree Maker also sync’s with an Ancestry Family Tree.

It really depends upon what features you want and the type of charting and reports.

I’d put ease of use in this order:-
Roots Magic
Family Tree Maker
Reunion
MacTree
Family Historian

One final plus point for Roots Magic, there is a great online Forum specifically for the software users.  Questions are answered and help given quickly

[meeganf]

Thans for the feedback you two. Didn't know about Rootsmagic. will have a look

Cheers
Meegan

[Biggles50]

Multi users on the same Family Tree is IMO not a good idea.

That said they do not specifically need software, they could start and use a Family Tree for free on Family Search.

My aim in buying Roots Magic is to use a feature that is has of being able to have a working version of it and the Family Tree on a USB drive.  I can then share our Family Tree with my Cousins and the USB memory device will also have the Family Images, Documents, Stories, Video on the device in a separate folder system as well as being linked to within the software.

A good Backup system needs to be used not just for software trees but for online trees.

[F1fan]

Unfortuantely none of the software provides a subscription to a FH website. The only options for this are any of those that interact closely with Familysearch as that is a free site, but then you have to have a subscription to other sites to view some documents that it links to.

Apart from Rootsmagic having a good free version to try and some good videos on Youtube that show you how to use the program, another not mentioned is Legacy Family Tree https://legacyfamilytree.com/ which also has a good free version and lots of tutorials on their site as well as online.

Another program not mentioned so far is Heredis https://www.heredis.com/en/ that has a free version and allows you to search several sites, but again you will need a seperate subscription for Ancestry or FindMyPast etc but I find quite nice to use and they do have a link to their own users trees put online, but this is mainly europe - I have found some for the UK - but as with all of this info online use as hints and not 100% accurate because the info has been put out there by someone else. The only negative is that they ' update every year at cost ' so this maynot be for you, but you do not have to do the update each year to keep using it.

We all have our own preferences on which one to use and just ' playing ' with any of the free versions yourself will give you the best feeling for each and which you prefer over the others.

[Biggles50]

Honestly I believe that your friend would be better subscribing to Ancestry, as a beginner getting a tree created and built with all the required access to documents and records in one place is by far the easiest way to start researching.

Once the basics are learned then they can think about transferring the Family Tree to software, a subscription for a year should enable quite a sizeable Family Tree to be created.

Six months down the line a DNA test will help, for without DNA Cousins in each branch of the tree NO branch can be taken as anywhere near proven.

Documentation cannot be taken on face value think of the guy who spent 30 years researching his family only to find via DNA that he had been adopted and the secret kept from him.

[meeganf]

Thanks Biggles50. I think my friend is apprehensive about privacy/cloud based information but can certainly see your point about having it all in the one place

Meegan

[Biggles50]

Thanks Biggles50. I think my friend is apprehensive about privacy/cloud based information but can certainly see your point about having it all in the one place

Meegan

Ancestry users can set their tree to Private, even check that it is not found in searches.

Once the year is nearly up, they could always download the full tree to suitable software then delete the Ancestry tree.