Genealogy Chat

A number of commercial programs have offered free taster versions from time to time, but from what I have read, all come with limited facilities. These can usually be unlocked if you later decide to buy the full version.

Hi ,reading all the info on FTM. has helped me to understand.more about them,i didn't realise that there was a limit to how many people that you could have ,on the free versions.

Thank you all

Gordon

Hi Kim,

I have used RootMagic for over 18 months and love it. it is very easy to use and the most recent version enables you to copy your tree and the software to a USB stick so you can take your tree with you which I find very useful. I also use the software to upload my Tree to Genes Reunited as a GENCOM file and that works really well.

It is also very cheap at £22 for the basic version. The software is the same in all versions you just get other things bundled. I have also received a number of free upgraded so very good value for money.

You can also download a free trial which is the complete software the only limitation is a maximum of 50 people in the database and this database will work with the full version if you choose to purchase the product.

Details of RootMagic can be found at: http://www.rootsmagic.co.uk/

Hope this information is useful,

Andy

Just to clarify how MyHeritage works.

You can use their online system for free up to 250 (or something) persons in your tree. Above that and you have to pay yearly for a premium account.

You can also download their free MyHeritage Windows software. This has no limit on the number of persons in your tree.

You can run this software stand alone. Or the software can synchronise itself with your web tree on MyHeritage if you want it to (requiring a premium account if more then 250 people). You can tell it not to do this and not to publish anything to their website in the program options. Although it does remind you occasionally that you haven't published (i.e. synchronised) your tree to their website.

It will still flag up 'smart-matches' against other user's published trees but doesn't bug you about them - it just puts a little flag on the person to say it has found something. And the auto 'smart-match' system itself can be turned off in the options too.

Hope that helps,
Mark.

Thank you IGP that is the sort of thing I have been trying to find out and I have made notes on other useful bits of information from the thers on this thread as well.
Thank you to all of you.

Margery,

I think you might be confusing PC based software packages with web based programs. They are not the same thing at all.

PC packages such as FTM, Family Historian, Rootsmagic, and so on, are effectively stand alone databases maintained on your PC and completely private to the rest of the world . Yes, some may have links to websites - as I said I use FTM an very occasionally use the links to Ancestry to do my searching, but this is uni-directional.Hence, looking from the other side, my FTM tree is not visible to anyone on Ancestry or indeed anyone else on the internet, and so there is no possibility at all of getting match suggestions of any sort.

On the other hand, web based programs - GR, My Heritage, Ancestry, Tribal etc are a different proposition altogether as one of the main reasons for them being there IS to allow you to match with others. Neither are they completely private, despite controls that may be provided by the website, so if you don't want you info aired to the rest of the world then steer well clear.

Thank you Detective and also to Frank for his explanation.
I have been thinking of trying My Historian as a very distant Rellie supplied a lot of interesting information about his branch of our family on Family Historian. I have been wanting to find out if it is completely private before I acquired it as I couldn't stand any more Hot Matches I didn't need.
I will probably go for it now as I liked the way they set out families in vertical columns.
Years ago before computers a distant Relation of my grandfather's family gave me a copy of the Reseach she had done dating back to 1665 and each family was laid out like that although she had typed all of hers herself.
I am grateful to you for your advice.
Re the weather.
I am in West Aust. and while all eyes were focussed on Tropical cyclone
Brenda or Bronwyn coming down the West coast and expecting to cross the coast about 100kms south of Perth. Something that wasn't a cyclone but acted like one came down the interior and hit several inland towns one of which was ours and demolished houses and unroofed many others. Sixty power poles and a sub station were damaged in our area so no power. We are on a farm so only had trees twisted off their trunks, branches everywhere and general garden mess. The town was restored to full power everywhere this afternoon although all this happened on Saturday. As for the Eastern states. Queensland took a pounding. That cyclone was five hundred kms across and the eye was 70kms wide. It will reach the Northern Territory border but only cause flooding. there.
Everywhere in the world seems to be having some sort of weather disaster and you have just had yours with all that snow last winter.

Marjery - It is often good to see another point of view, although IGP (edit should say Frank06) has explained how to disconnect FTM from the internet.

My FamilyHistorian is totally stand alone - it has no connection to any geneological site. It can be used in a basic manner to record names, events, census details etc as well as linking to pre-scanned photos that are already saved on your computer. There is also the feature to enable you to record written stories in the 'notes' section.

Photos of people can be selected to appear on the Tree diagram (or not if you prefer them 'plain')

You can take a 'tour' to see if the latest version suits at this site. Just ignore anything which may seem complicated. I just use the features of use to me!

www.family-historian.co.uk


PS - hope you and your neighbours haven't had too much damage due to the weather.

I have had no power for a few days due to unusual weather occurences so have had no internet .

When I down loaded free versions of P.A.F. I had to delete it as I couldn't make head nor tail of it, I wanted a program where I could put my tree and then add interesting (only to me) details of their lives.
The next thing I knew I had ancestry suggesting hot matches.

I don't need them, I have had all my facts for years with proof,
BDM certificates, title deeds for land, newspaper notices ,Passenger lists etc even a copy of a Boat ticket and as they are all mostly in N.Z. originating from Scotland and England and I know all about them as well I was very annoyed at the intrusion..

I have a subscription to Ancestry , have my tree on it , and have read the rules about any information that is put on there is theirs to pass on freely.
I don't feel that the family foibles and weaknesses should be aired to the world and neither should my private photos. All the family members that I knew would be twirling in their graves if they thought everyone knew about them.
If anyone can prove to me that they are rellies after finding my tree on Ancestry I will tell them anything they want to know but I want to choose who looks in on my private version.
It was the same with Legacy and My Heritage. I still get hot matches from them and I only put an outline tree on there to try it. Some of the Hot Matches are in America which is ludicrous.
I will buy a family history program if necessary but I want it to be purely private where I can lay out my tree and add family stories that have nothing to do with the rest of the world..
I was advised years ago by an elderly cousin of my father's. that Relatively Yours was a very good programme designed for N.Z. and Aust.

I am not knocking PAF,Legacy and MY Heritage. They are not what I had in mind that is all. I hope my remarks are not going to offend anyone.

nudge for Gordon

I find the new MyHeritage tree is really good for a freebie.
One has to be careful when dowloading it not to download yet another toolbar and the MyHeritage homepage as well though, so be sure to unchck the boxes.

I use FTM and whilst it links to ancestry when it loads up, I hardly ever use the links, preferring to access Ancestry separately. In fact most of the time I am unaware that it is even linked. No problem at all.

Margery,

You mention three well know and well regarded programs. Why have you deleted them all? It might help others if you could describe any difficulties you found.

Family Tree Maker is a stand alone data base. You can if YOU wish, link to search to the Ancestry site.

Woodie

Is there a Family History program independant of Ancestry where you don't get Ancestry suggesting useless Hot Matches and generally looking in on as I find that really annoying.?
Have tried PAF, My Heritage and Legacy and deleted them all.

I love Roots Magic!!!

I use the free MyHeritage Windows software myself.
http://www.myheritage.com/

You can also get Rootsmagic 4 Essentials for free too.
http://www.rootsmagic.com/

If you have Tesco's clubcard vouchers you can pick up a copy of FTM 11 for £19 of vouchers.
http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=1656

Mark.

I use the free download of myheritage - works fine - nice output to different reports which are editable so you can amend the report (change format etc) as you wish.

The most popular purchased FH prog seems to be Family Tree Maker which includes a sub to Ancestry.

Mine is Family Historian, apparently designed for Geeks by Geeks (not that I am, but it was a present lol) That one has a dedicated users help web site called FHUG
www.fhug.org.uk

If you want a free version of a FT programme, you could try out FamilySearch.org PAF.
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp

There is a paragraph on the right of the page headed
Free PAF Family History Software

There is also a free FH download of Legacy found here.
http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/

I'm sure other people have their own favourites!

edit - that took me 10 mins to compose, by which time both Kathryn and InspectorGreenpen have said much the same thing :0

By far the most popular program, at least in terms of sales, is Family Tree Maker (FTM) I have used this personally for several years and have upgraded several times as newer versions are introduced, so for me, this is the one.

There are several other programs available and you might want to look at this site which specialises in the sale of genealogical software and compare facilities and prices.

http://www.twrcomputing.co.uk/index.html

If you wish to try a free program then look as Personal Ancestral File (PAF) which is available to download from the Family Search site.

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp

Well I like Family Tree Maker, though I haven't used anything else really. I find it quite intuitive and of course its links to Ancestry make it a very attractive package. There's currently an extremely good deal on Amazon where you can get FTM 2011 for £29.99 which includes a six month Ancestry Premium subscription.

Alternatively Tribal Pages offers excellent online tree hosting free of charge, and for a very small price (@£20 ish depending on the exchange rate) you can upgrade to get some of the fancier facilities, but I used the free account for years and was very happy. I love Tribal Pages very much.

Kate