Geneology software packages, take II

[Jimmy of Perth]

18 months ago there was this thread:http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...47/index2.html

Before I dive further into the varied suggestions made in that thread, I am wondering if you, the great rabble, have any updates on preferred packages and any other advice (with rationales) you might like to share.

What I first aim to do is transfer my patralineal tree into an electronic format. It is already quite comprehensivly documented on paper thanks to my fathers good efforts many years ago. I am hoping that will get me into the swing of the exercise. Following that I would like to assist my mother map her side before its too late.

What I glean from the last thread is:

Backing up regularly is critical. It seems this is best done by selecting a second online service. (Do I have that right or is it more about downloading one program and backing up to an on-line service?)
Having a program which can save & read GEDCOM files is critical for cross platform transferabilty.

Programs differ in ease of use and features. Some programs are free but offer additional features (such as adding images and reference material) for a fee which is an ongoing cost.

It seems some programs will store ones information on-line while others offer a package for down load and storing only on ones own computer. (am I right on this?)

http://www.Rootsweb.com may be a good choice to use as a backup site.

http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/ This is another site some use as a back up. "Legacy isn't perfect, but I've tried several others and I like it the best of those I've tried"

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/paf/ Paf is free, easy to use and it gets the job done but not as pretty as other sites (also works on Macs). An inexpensive report creator called Companion can be added. This gives it even more flexibility. The site is provided by the mormon church via www.familysearch.org/

http://www.geni.com has a very nice graphical interface and easy to navigate. To use the advance search features one needs to pay a monthly fee.

http://www.leisterpro.com has Reunion and this may be a good package for Mac users (not me)

http://www.familytreemaker.com/ Family Tree Maker is from ancestry.com and is good for initial data entry, especially when just starting to research a family line The flexibility of this prgramm makes it easy to amend mistakes such as attributing the wrong person to the wrong generation.

http://www.whollygenes.com/ The Master Genealogist from here is more of a learning curve but has "professional grade" features and is much more customizable than Family Tree Maker or many of the others.

http://gramps-project.org/ Mentioned but not tested was GRAMPS from this site. It is "a cross platform genealogy program" and presume this means it is saved as a GEDCOM file. It is open source therefore free.

A clever tip was to check out the local library which may have paid up subscriptions giving one potentially "free" access to sites like http://www.ancestry.com (I suspect this might be best used for general research rather than actually recording the tree)

In addtition, I would like to know:
If a subscription is not maintained can the information be recovered from those sites at a latter date?
Can others (eg family elsewhere in the world) 1) view and 2) edit the information on line? Would they need their own subscription or can mine be shared?

Thanks in advance
JoP

[California Highlander]

I have Family Tree Maker on my old laptop, but the new laptop is Win7 and I haven't upgraded the genealogy software based on some poor reviews of the current FTM release. So for now I'm using My Heritage Family Tree Builder (http://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder). It's not bad, totally free. I imported my GEDCOM file and I've been using that as I continue adding information about my family history. (Caithness: Cormack, McIntosh, Swanson, Waters, Ross, Oag)

It's been pretty easy to use, free with an option for a paid version (but the free version seems pretty fully featured). It does nag you about uploading your info, but I just click through that since I am not sure about committing yet.

For the online part, I have had subscriptions in the past, but I am currently preferring to keep the tree and all photos, PDFs, etc. on a removable drive backup.

[cessna152towser]

I have all my information on Ancestry.co.uk .
Membership works out at a little under half of the cost of Ancestry.com but it will not allow you access to most of the North American records.
Asssuming you have all your research completed Roots Magic is also useful and there is no annual subscription to pay. I have copied some of my information from Ancestry to Roots Magic as a back up.