Best free Family tree software ?

[john_harvey]

Hi, As per subject header really.
What do we consider to be the best free software out there ?
Kind regards......John

[PhotoFamily]

PAF is free, reliable. It comes with some good, basic reports, including some reports to identify problems with data (e.g., unlinked individuals). Has good merge feature.

I am in the process of switching to family historian, however. Why? (yes, I am asking myself that right now!) Screens/data presentation for one - you can't see as much data on the screen at once with PAF. I wanted a more consistent way of tying soures to a data point (PAF just enters sources for the individual, not the data point).

PAF also has a fancier report package that has a small fee (US$7 when I paid for it, I think). Very nice report writer. I plan to keep it around until I find out if FH has anything as good!

[john_harvey]

Thanks....

[Rusty]

You could also look at Legacy and RootsMagic Essentials, the basic programme is free but you can pay for an upgrade if you find that you need to. I can't comment on whether they are good or not, they are just free programmes.

Margaret.

[john_harvey]

Thanks Margaret, I have FTM here somewhere but do you think I can find the disc
Also wanted to try a different program...........

[PhotoFamily]

Hmmm, if you've been using commercial software, I don't know if you'll be satisfied with PAF!

Also, there's always the option to use free online - including Ancestry. You wouldn't be able to connect to the data records, but you can keep a tree there (and I'm sure there are others online). Ancestry doesn't give you a report capability, but you could download a GEDCOM and use PAF to report from.

[Ann from Sussex]

You could also look at Legacy and RootsMagic Essentials, the basic programme is free but you can pay for an upgrade if you find that you need to. I can't comment on whether they are good or not, they are just free programmes.

Margaret.

Since getting a new computer three weeks ago and being told that my FTM 2006 won't work on my 64 bit Windows 7, I have downloaded and installed the free Rootsmagic Essentials. At first I thought it was good, although I don't find it as easy to navigate around as FTM. It properly installed my saved Gedcom from FTM 2006 with nearly 3000 names and lots of notes. As time has gone on though, I am finding out its limitations. So many functions won't work unless I buy the full version. Some of them didn't bother me too much....but I have now discovered I can't add a new source type to the free version which is no good at all. Consequently, I am thinking of having a go at installing my old FTM2006 to see if it will work. Apparently, sometimes you can be lucky and it will.