I have been nominated to collect info and draw up a family tree. Recommendations of software to organize the data (and maybe print it out)?
I got started with the free version of Ancestry.com, but haven’t really learned how to use it.
It depends on how elaborate you want to get. Family Tree Maker is software you can buy and install that works with Ancestry.com to give it much better publishing capabilities. However, that won’t do you much good if you don’t know at least the basics of how Ancestry.com works and have a sound place to start. It isn’t difficult if you have a few key people that you have firm data (birthdate, place of birth etc.) but you have to be responsible about the hints you accept from it because there are a lot of false or bad leads out there.
You can also be overwhelmed with information very quickly even using reliable information. There is a wealth of it out that and it is growing all the time. How many generations do you want to go back and do you want customized, printed versions for different branches of your family?
I have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours on my family tree so far and the problem that I have is that it is all but unprintable except in very select form. The summary version alone was up to 2,000 pages the last time I checked using publsihing features and nobody wants to see that much information especially since it is always a work in progress and I am still confirming some parts of it. It has to stay electronic unless someone wants a printed version of a very select part of it.
It isn’t that hard of a task if you just want to publish a chart going back to your great or even great-great grandparents for example as long as you don’t try to sidestep off to too many cousins. You will need a wall sized print for that once you go back more than a few generations.
Ancestry.com is the best commercial source IMHO and you can start and stop the subscription for only the times when you are using it actively and they will still hang onto your family tree file if you ever want to sign up again. You can always export the your family tree file to a common genealogy format (GEDCOM) to use in any way you see fit. There are lots of programs that can import those and term them into published books or charts but Family Tree Maker is the only one I have experience with and it is among the best. The only downside is that it costs money and it usually gets updated once a year. It usually includes a trial subscription to Ancestry.com however so the total software cost would be about $40 - $80 depending on the version you need.
If you don’t want to shell out for Ancestry.com, try FamilySearch.org, which is free and maintained by the Mormon Church, but is open to anyone to use. The have genealogy records second to none, plus links to documents like birth certificates, marriage licenses and death records, all for free. I found my grandfather’s draft card
Not at all. I think the idea is just to get the living plus a generation or two earlier, which I already have the information for. It’s hard for us middle-aged geezers to keep up with the following generations!
I got a deal for Ancestry.com last January. Something like $100 for a 6-month subscription.
I didn’t use it for 6 months, but I did use it for about a month, and it was absolutely fascinating. I traced my ancestors back to Norway and Sweden with what seemed like no work at all. I think maybe I spend 10 hours in all, and went back to the 1700s. I found the village where my Norwegian ancestors live, and also were able to trace them forward to about a gazillion current-day cousins. I have a lot of relatives!
Considering it ran me less than $10/hour, it was well worth it. I don’t think I’d pay the $20-$30 (or more!) a month or whatever it costs, but as a Christmas present to myself it was really fun.
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Since this is mostly asking about opinions of genealogy software, I’ve moved the thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
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I like ancestry.com as a research tool but I find it very cumbersome as anything else. Click … wait … click … wait. It seems to take forever and doesn’t have many options for attractive printouts.
I used Family Tree Maker for years and was relatively pleased with it for display and print, and for getting work done quickly on a family tree with hundreds of individuals.
The FamilySearch site also has a very usable and free PC package called PAF - “Personal Ancestral File”. The site is also has a good selection of historical records, including some that are missing or harder to find on Ancestry.com.
It can generate GEDCOM files and simple web pages of your tree (a better way to share than printing - upload it to a private site or copy to a CD and share with family). Another way to share (and do some research) is WorldConnect. Try a search for someone like Daniel Boone to see what his descendants have researched and shared as a GEDCOM.
Ancestry will want to get you to subscribe and upload your tree - getting you locked into their formats and software. I am not sure I want to store my research there, so I have kept it in PAF and share via GEDCOMs. No problems or data loss crashes but I only have a few thousand records.
It is easy to go crazy copying other’s, often poorly researched, family trees… I learned the hard way and suggest you come up with a plan and work slowly. I did my parents, their siblings and cousins - then the same for grandparents and so on. It was a lot of fun.
Not any more it doesn’t. PAF was retired in July. They no longer offer it for download nor updates. Which to me is a loss, I found it to be the easiest software to use over all. True it didn’t have all the bells and whistles, but it had more then enough.
Personally I’d stay away from the newer versions of Family Tree maker, I’ve used versions from 2005 up through 2012. From 2008 on up I found the program much harder to use, a lot less intuitive, generating reports either became cumbersome or took forever. I’ve known people who have stuck with 2005, including professional genealogists, because of the changes.
I’ve been using Roots Magic for the past few years, there are a few things I don’t like about it, but over all I find it much easier to use then many of the others. My biggest complaint is that one really needs to edit any reports because there are some strange spacing problems. The big plus though is that you can get a version to put on a flash drive and take it anywhere, very convenient to take your work with you without the computer.
I’d suggest trying to find a copy of PAF and using that.
One of the best sites to get started on is Cyndi’s List, there are a ton of pages to view there with tons of help too.
Another vote for RootsMagic. I’ve been using genealogy software for about 25 years, and went through a variety of them (Roots, Visual Roots, Ultimate Family Tree, etc). My next-to-last one was The Master Genealogist, which is geared towards professionals and serious amateurs, and I’ve used it for several years, but I wouldn’t recommend it to a new user. Its UI is also getting dated.
I’ve been using RootsMagic for the past couple of months. They have a free version (same engine, just disabled some of the features), and I was hooked within minutes: it has a very snappy interface, and well-thought-out UI. It can, optionally, interface directly with FamilySearch and download data; I don’t think this is the most accurate way to do research, but it certainly helps in giving ideas or leads for further research.
I used to be a big fan of Geni until they started charging for me to add new family members. I exported everything over to Wikitree and have been happy since!
Crap.
OP asks for software to organize and print genealogies, and many of the responses point to websites focused on finding new connections. I would recommend to OP that he makes sure that whatever he does that essentially all of his data reside in a Gedcom file under his control.
I am not knowledgeable about these questions. I do use Ancestry.com occasionally for research, but organize data off-line on my own laptop. You want to use Gedcom file format. I think there’s freeware or cheapware to process Gedcoms off-line, but I have no details. (I got locked into a hideous format with even hideouser tools. :smack: )
Ancestry.com is a great website for researching for new information, but will it give you maximize flexibility over your Gedcom? For example, you might want to download it to a different system, modify it, upload the new version back up to Ancestry.com replacing the old one. I’m not sure if Ancestry.com fully supports that. I’m pretty sure some of the alternatives (Geni?) make it difficult or impossible. Remember: it is their business goal to “lock in” customers; giving you any flexibility over your own data would be counterproductive for them.
So best may be to distinguish three separate tasks: Researching, Organizing, Display/Printing. Ancestry is great for Research and you may like the look of their tree displays. (Worst-comes-to-worst you could share password or screenshots with family members so they could also see the displays.) Ancestry.com may give you full power (including download-modify-upload) over the data you create – I’m not sure – but I doubt Geni et al do. I personally would be more comfortable with the data on my laptop (rather than in “the cloud”) and processed with purchased tools (not pay-per-month websites). YMMV.
You can find it, and when I heard I ended up going out and finding a copy so I knew I had it. Yes it looks dated, but so what, none of the other programs make it as easy to enter data as PAF does. I helped someone enter around 20,000 names and dates, took a couple of years, and I can not imagine doing it any other way, I did 90% of it by the keyboard, I don’t think the other programs allow one to do that as easily any more.
septimusI agree, I keep all of my work on my computer, along with it being on Dropbox, and backed up onto a DVD and a flash drive. I also convert mine to a GEDCOM. I wouldn’t want my information only in the ‘cloud’ as I wouldn’t want to lose it or be forced to pay for it.