Family History software

I agree with Cathy that the reporting, source management and mapping are really useful. It's not so hot on producing nicely laid out charts (though as soft copies they are brilliant to navigate through) but for recording data in a user friendly way I think it's excellent. But, as proven from so many comments in this thread, it's really what suits you.

 

I would love some help please. I have tried reading some of the comments on family tree software, but I don't seem to have found the answer I am looking for. My guiding principle in life is KISS, and although I am not into four letter words, or the 'f' word, I make the word FREE an exception.

I started working on my familytrees in the 1990's, and I used BrothersKeeper Version 5. Unfortunately, my computer no longer likes it very much. I can still use it, but inputting data often makes my computer beep at me which suggests I should update it. The following is a bit of my tree (partly fictional), and that is what I want to duplicate, i.e. all the information seems, to me, to flow. I do not want a tree that tells me under 'Notes' or similar where the individual was baptised, or buried. I do not want something connected to the internet (I do not want the responsibility of putting other people's information out there, although I am more than happy to share with 'family'). I don't often send out my notes to others, they are mainly for my own research. I don't mind if it doesn't allow pics (I have done them as a separate exercise). BrothersKeeper is much the same as what you see on Rootsweb. I tend to use the register format most, then indented format, and generally don't worry about charts unless I can fit them onto one page (anything too big seems to become too difficult fot non-genealogists to understand).

Second Generation​

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3. Abel WAIT (1.William1) b 1 Aug 1746, bap 17 Aug 1746, Inkpen, Berks, occ maltster, m. 26 Oct 1774, in Wickham, Berks, Ann (Anne) ALLIN, bap 5 Feb 1749, Wickham, Berks, (daughter of Thomas ALLIN and Mary GIBBS) d. 1832, Wickham, Berks. Abel died Oct 1817, Welford cum Wickham, Berks, bur 21 Oct 1817 St Mary’s Ch.
Children:
+ 9. i William WAIT.
10. ii James WAIT b 1 Oct 1777, bap 12 Oct 1777, Kintbury, Berks.
+ 11. iii Jesse WAIT.
+ 12. iv Hannah WAIT.
13. v John WAIT b 1 Aug 1786, bap 13 Aug 1786, Kintbury, Berks.
+ 14. vi Eli WAIT.
+ 15. vii Abel (WAITE) WAIT.

Any comments would be appreciated.

 

The image in Tim's post is taken from ancestry.co.uk This is an on-line system that enables you to create and update a family tree on-line. You can share this with friends and family but they, too, must be on-line to view it. Ancestry requires a subscription and there are three levels of access. A basic level, a "premium" level that allows you to access all the databases for your country, and a "world wide" membership that gives you access to all the world wide databases that Ancestry have.

If you decide on this then they also publish a PC/MAC program called "Family Tree Maker" which keeps it's data on your PC/MAC and allows you to work off-line. It also has the ability to keep your on-line and off-line trees synchronised.

If you don't want to consider on-line trees then RootsMagic has the ability to send your friends and family CDs containing a basic version of the program together with all your data. It also gives you some free web space in which to publish your tree for friends and family to view on-line.

 

Although this advice runs contrary to Alexander's excellent advice, I wonder if perhaps a piece of software that conforms to both KISS & FREE may be what you need. I refer to Family Tree Legends (FTL) which is of the same sort of vintage as Brothers Keeper, but still available: (I will provide a link later). It is from the Gen Circles stable and was originally owned by Pearl Street Software. I have used it for over 10 years and it still acts as my main FH Data base and produces all the reports I ever need. It also exports and imports Gedcom. True I use Ancestry & Family Tree Maker for internet related purposes- and have my own Tribal Pages for the family to browse - but my primary stand-alone FH database is and always has been FTL.

Yes it was written originally for (now) vintage Windows 98 and graduated to XP without a murmur. I now run it in Compatibility Mode on both Vista & Windows 7 platforms where it performs perfectly well. Just install and right click on the FTL icon and select Troubleshoot Compatibility. When the options appear choose XP and thereafter it will run in Compatibility Mode without a problem. {Incidentally that might be the solution to your Brothers Keeper, try running in Compatability mode}

I must mention -as others may well do - that Pearl Street sold out to My Heritage (likely for the reasons expounded by Alexander) who no longer support FTL. In fact if you try to upload FTL from some 'Googled Upload Sites' it will take you direct to My Heritage. You can avoid this by going to the original Pearl Street Site which you will find here: Family Tree Legends . You can take time out and read about FTL then if you decide to download Version 5 it is totally FREE. (It will give you a Registration Code for you to copy and paste into the opening FTL Screen, you need to do this just once)

After uploading you will be asked if you want to enact 'Real Time' saving (or words to that effect) just say NO and thereafter it will be entirely stand-alone on your PC. If you do elect to have 'Real Time' be warned the data will graduate to a My Heritage 'Cloud' which is best avoided.

Once downloaded you can enter data from scratch or if - as likely too daunting-then import a Gedcom (say from Brothers Keeper)and take it from there. Just remember to backup 'Save to Disc' (which can be hard drive, thumb drive or CD) once a month and you should have no problems.

 

Thank you very much for all of that. The piece of my tree I showed was a part of a Descendants Report (not Ahnentafel - sorry, I didn't do it from the beginning to try and show what I was talking about). I have got Family Tree Maker, and recently downloaded a copy of Legacy to look at, but don't like either because of their reliance on 'Notes' in their reports, from what I can see. Apart from my own preferences, I tend to find that although a lot of 'family' are interested in the tree, and will happily provide me with their information, their requirements are generally for very simple reports, or charts, and a few like to get gedcom files. The first thing I tend to do when somebody sends me a report, is take out the excess information, and try to condense it!! OK, so I'm weird, but I can cope with that.

I did once shout myself a one month subscription to Ancestry, but generally rely on their free searches. I will certainly look at Rootsmagic and Family Tree Legends, thank you. I am currently using an old laptop PC, running Vista, and back up to a memory stick (? thumb drive). I will investigate the Compatibility Mode. I know I did something originally to allow the computer to run 'old software', which did provide some improvement, but was not perfect. I will keep looking at options, but there is still a little bit of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Thanks again - your time is greatly appreciated - especially as I was sleeping through it all.

 

Just to let you know I was serious. I downloaded both Roots Magic and Family Tree Legends. I liked both programmes which are very easy to use, I imported a gedcom of a relatively small tree I have been working on recently for my godmother. I had sent her a descendant report the other day, which using Brothers Keeper, came out at 24 A4 pages. The same report in Family Tree Legends was 44 pages (though there was a wee glitch in it I haven't worked out yet), and I didn't like the headings 'other events in the life of....'. Using Roots Magic the report was 57 pages, although this report was closer in format to BK5 than FTL. A small chart I tried which I could get on one page in BK5 covered 4 pages!!

I will keep looking.

 

Whoops, I am reading a Tom Clancy novel where the characters are forever stealing data from computers using thumb drives. The word just popped into my head. We of course used the term Memory Stick and I think USB Flash Drive is also another acceptable term.

Glad you tried FTL. There are adjustments you can make when producing charts, reports etc to truncate, modify or even omit information.

 

Hi Cathy
Thanks for that. My problem is that I like the way BK5 reports are formatted. I want the information in the report which in some other programmes is in the 'notes', but BK5 does it in a much more concise, and clearer way (as I have now found, using a lot less paper, and ink). Obviously, a lot of this is me wanting 'what I am used to'. It may be that I will be able to discover what rootsweb uses.
Thanks again.

 

Brother's Keeper is still going - see link. You could try the latest version. It claims to run on Windows8.

I have just installed FTM2011 on Win8 and it seems as slow as it was on my old (7 years old) laptop to load. I've also put VirtualBox on Win8 so I can keep running my XP programmes. I've yet to see which category my Generations8 falls into although a post I read elsewhere this morning suggested it would run on Win8.

Sorry I've been quiet of late - severe case of computer-itis, which I should probably not discuss on this thread!

 

I have use The Master Genealogist since it was a DOS program (but then again I am old), It can find anything and you can search for anything. You can adapt to suit any country, with my One Name Study I have added place setups to cover England, Ireland, Australia, Canada as well as the standard USA, I even have one set up just for the GRO indexes. You make your own sources, but you can use the ones built into the program. It lets you start as a beginner and change up as you get more practiced. Customer support is wonderful if you hit trouble. What I like about it is the way it lays events out in date sequence so you can see straight away if you have something wrong. I could go on and on, but you may get jealous. It's sister web tool Second Site creates web sites using the programs database. It is probably the most expensive program but worth every penny.

 

Hi

Apologies - not sure what happened (I obviously didn't press the right button), but I did thank you yesterday for your help!! I did have a look at BK!!

 

Am I the only Mac user on the forum??? I've got MacFamilyTree on my laptop to which I downloaded my original trees from Ancestry several years ago. Would love to hear from anyone else who uses this software.