Genealogy Chat

I have been debating buying some family tree software so I can design and build my own trees and send them on to family. I have looked at the main two but am curious as to the worth in purchasing. I already have a full subscription to ancestry and have pretty much found all my ancestors that can be found in the census records. Can the software help me any further or is it a worthwhile purchase just for the tree making? Does anyone know of a free trial for any software? Thanks, in advance, for any advice. :)

You can download Personal Ancestral File from the LDS site for free, and it has a fairly full range of features. I have been using it for a year, in conjunction with the PAF Companion (better charts for a few $), and I think it is great. I can't help but observe that if you can find all your relatives in census material it's time you took the plunge. There is family history before 1841!

I use Family Tree Maker and I find it really useful for calculating how different people on the tree are related to each other. I keep my entire tree on FTM and every 6 months or so I export it to GR to update my tree. Best wishes June

I bought 'Who do you think you are' Family Tree Maker and gives me 90 days free trial for Ancestry*.co*.uk which is 3 months to give me time to do some researching. It does everything as above as i bought it from Amazon.

I've been using Paf 5 for many years,it's free and it does everything I want.I agree with the other person who replied and tell you that you have many thousands of ancestors out there waiting to be found.Just get delving,visit record offices and send away for certificates,look at wills,newspapers etc and you'll find many more names.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm going to look into PAF. FR is great but the family tree viewers are limited. As for further back than 1841, I'm getting there. Planning a trip to Winchester records office. Once you get engrossed in your ancestry there's no going back :) Money is my big issue, certificates are mounting up. :(

Don't rule out FTM on cost grounds. Rumours abound of copies to be had for tiddly sums in Morrisons, ASDA and other well-known genealogy stores. The one to go for is the Who do you think you are version, which is FTM 2005 with a few extras. I've been using FTM for years and am very satisfied. J

I downloaded PAF but I must say I am a little put off by the LDS angle :). The options seem just about enough though, apart from the fact that I can only connect partners by marriage, or seem to be able to. Might just splash out on WDYTYA as I didn't realise it was basically FTM witha different name. Again, thanks for the advice.

It isn't necessary for couples with children to be married in PAF. The GEDCOM specification supports the use of 'Not Married' instead of a marriage date, a term that I have had to use in my own tree several times, where a girl's enthusiasm for life outweighed her discretion.

I've used Legacy Family Tree from Millenium Software for several years and have been extremely happy with it. The Standard Edition is free to download and does 95% of everything I want. If you decide you want the extras, you can always upgrade to the Deluxe Edition for about US$30. Tim