free genealogy programs what's good, what's not
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Free Genealogy Programs:What’s Good & What’s NotFree Genealogy Programs:What’s Good & What’s Not
Dick Eastman
Jan. 14, 2013
Dick Eastman
Jan. 14, 2013
Today’s Discussions
• Today’s slides are available at:
• http://www.eogn.com/handouts/free
Today’s Discussions
• Products for Discussion Today:
– PAWriter for Macintosh– GRAMPS for Macintosh
– Windows:• AncestralQuest
• Legacy Family Tree
• RootsMagic
• GRAMPS
• Personal Ancestral File
• These are believed to be the most popular free genealogy products today.
Today’s Discussions
• First, a discussion of GEDCOM
• GEnealogy Data COMmunications
Macintosh
A discussion of free genealogy programs for the Mac should be very brief: only two are available.
PAWriterfor Macintosh
A very simple genealogy program that performs the basics
No multimedia scrapbook
Does not build web pages
Few “bells and whistles”
Easy to install
PAWriterfor Macintosh
GRAMPSfor Macintosh (and Windows)
•Open Source Software•Moderately sophisticated application•A summary of the active person’s parents, siblings, spouses and children.•An interactive map view highlighting places associated with one person, a group of people or all people in your records.•Good recording of source citations
GRAMPSfor Macintosh (and Windows)
•Downside: a bit complex to install
GRAMPSfor Macintosh (and Windows)
GRAMPSfor Macintosh (and Windows)
GRAMPSfor Macintosh (and Windows)
GRAMPSfor Macintosh (and Windows)
Windows
More programs to choose from
Ancestral Quest
AncestralQuest
• Free trial version that stores a limited number of records
• Full version costs $29.95
• Written by Incline Software (Gaylon Findlay, the developer of Personal Ancestral File (PAF) for Windows)
• This is an excellent replacement for the aging Personal Ancestral File
• Like Personal Ancestral File except that it has added a better database, multimedia scrapbooks, genealogy books, fan charts, and much more.
AncestralQuest
AncestralQuest
• Super easy to use!
• Excellent use of LDS-specific fields
• Works with new.familysearch.org
Legacy Family Tree
Legacy Family Tree
• Two versions:– FREE (that is very powerful)– Full version for $29.95– Several “bundles” are also available
• Easy to use
• Excellent support!
• Excellent source citations, modeled on Elizabeth Shown Mills’ citation styles
• Works with new.familysearch.org
• Excellent maps
• Excellent wall charts
Legacy Family Tree
Legacy Family Tree
Legacy Family Tree
Legacy Family Tree
Legacy Family Tree
RootsMagic
RootsMagic
• Two versions:– FREE RootsMagic Essentials– $29.95 for RootsMagic
• by RootsMagic, Inc. (Bruce Buzbee), former developer of Family Origins
• Excellent support!
• RootsMagic To-Go lets you run RootsMagic (program AND data) directly off your flash drive
• Works with new.familysearch.org
• Very easy to use
RootsMagic
RootsMagic
RootsMagic
RootsMagic
RootsMagic
GRAMPSfor Windows
Personal Ancestral File
An old program that has not been updated in years. Very old-fashioned. However, it remains popular with thousands of users.
Summation
High-quality genealogy software is available for both Windows and Macintosh at no cost.
You can go home and download any of these programs this evening and start using them immediately!
Today’s Discussions
• Products Discussed Today:
– PAWriter for Macintosh– GRAMPS for Macintosh
– Windows:• AncestralQuest
• Legacy Family Tree
• RootsMagic
• GRAMPS
• Personal Ancestral File
• These are believed to be the most popular free genealogy products today.
Where to obtain these programs?
All of these may be downloaded online:
• AncestralQuest – www.AncQuest.com
• Legacy Family Tree – www.LegacyFamilyTree.com
• RootsMagic –www.RootsMagic.com
• GRAMPS – www.gramps-project.org/
• Personal Ancestral File – www.FamilySearch.org
• PAWriter for Macintosh – www.lanopalera.net/
To learn more about new products or updated versions of existing products, go to:
www.eogn.com
Today’s Discussions
• Today’s slides are available at:
• http://www.eogn.com/handouts/free