Geneology: Family Tree software recommendation?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m looking for a recommendation for software that will track/chart a family tree.
This Thanksgiving my mother gave me a pretty comprehensive list of my relatives, but it’s typewritten and poorly formatted. My wife says she can get her hands on a similar list for her relatives.

I’d like to document all this for my children.

All my grandparent’s have passed away, my wife’s parents are gone, and mine are in their 80s. Clearly I’ve waited too long to start, but better late than never.

I need to get all the information I have into some intelligible format so I can more easily see what I’m missing. Then I can contact other relatives to fill in the blanks.

Anyone have any recommendations?

2

From what I hear, Family Tree Maker is the best out there.

3

If you use a Macintosh computer, Leister Production’s Reunion is widely considered the best genealogy software available. I’ve used it for years and can vouch for its quality and ease of use. But there is no Windows version.

One major brand of genealogy software is free: the LDS Church’s Personal Ancestral File (PAF). You can download it from their website.

4

From an amateur geneologist:

(I happen to be related to him. ;))

5

dantheman, I’d love to hear your relative’s thoughts about the various software packages.

I’ve been taking a quick look at both the Family Tree Maker and the Mormon’s Personal Ancestral File software.

I’m using Windows Walloon, so I can’t consider your recommendation for Reunion.

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions.

6

Sure. If I get more info, I’ll let you know.

7

If this is your first venture into the addicitive hobby of family history, may I recommend a few things besides genealogy software:

  1. A good beginner’s manual. The best I’ve seen is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Genealogy by Christine Rose et al. For intermediate or advanced genealogists: The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra H. Luebking.

  2. Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet

  3. And finally, Algernon, you in Milwaukee live only 90 minutes from one of the largest genealogy libraries in the U.S.A., The Wisconsin Historical Society.

8

Well, I wish I had thought to ask this question before I ordered my father’s Christmas present. I ordered Master Genealogist Silver Edition off of Amazon. It had good reviews and sounded like it was fairly easy to use.

9

Another vote for Family Tree Maker.

However, in the interest of fairness, I should point out that I haven’t upgraded in quite a while, and so the version I am using is quite old.

Zev Steinhardt