Anyone know a good free family tree building software?

Question

Hello, I was woundering if anyone knows a good free family tree builder. I'm currently using a dutch program (Aldfaer), which i like a lot, but it doesn't help much for an English family tree.

[edit]-Thank you everyone, all of these replies are worth a best answer!

Thank you,

Sytze

Comments

Ah you said free: mine wasn't sorry!

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No problem, I think we've all made that mistake.

Answer 1

There are several free tree makers available for download. I did a Google Search and several are listed. A couple appear similar to what you are using now.

Answer 2

I would suggest WikiTree. :)

Comments

Roland, The question was asked by a wikiTree user but they are obviously asking about offline tree software. Some of us cannot afford the cost of multiple data plans, in fact I know of some who have very limited internet available but would be able to do research in places that the rest of us would have a problem researching so having the software available on their device would be very useful to themselves as well as others. For that reason until WikiTree adds an off line version I would never recommend it alone.

Answer 3

I've used the MyHeritage software, family tree builder which is very nice; this is what I used to build my main tree and it worked well for my needs.

Recently I've been working with the free version of RootsMagic, I enjoy it a lot too - I'm thinking of buying the full version because it has a lot of additional features that I would like to have.

Good luck on your search!

Answer 4

I use Legacy 9.0 , which I like.

Comments

Legacy is the best. I have been using that for more than 15 years. There is a standard free version and then you can purchase the deluxe version when you are ready to upgrade. The current version is Legacy 9 which came out earlier this year I think.

Legacy have also gone into partnership with MyHeritage so you also get cheaper access to My Heritage if you want it.

http://legacyfamilytree.com/

Answer 5

I like to keep mine online, rather than local...that way its accessible from whichever device I'm using at the time.

For online programs (and probably US specific, since that's where I am)...

Ancestry is actually free, and they provide access to limited records databases. For a subscription fee, you can access even more records data as well as other people's trees. Its very easy to use, and you can control the privacy levels of your tree. I leave mine public, but use it mostly for my playground and research tree, so I may have mistakes and errors in my tree.

FamilySearch is also free, and has free access to most of the same records that Ancestry has. But its a "one world tree", rather than your own individual tree. So its more difficult to use it as a research playground, and difficult to control the accuracy of what others introduce.

WikiTree is also free, and is a lot like FamilySearch, in that it too is a "one world tree", but without the records databases. Its easier here to collaborate with others and manage the accuracy, but perhaps more difficult to use as a research playground, since profiles can't really be deleted. One of the best things about WikiTree is the wiki-style biographies, because stories and history about our ancestors are so much more interesting than just plain facts and data.

I tried MyHeritage once, but didn't need yet another tree. Didn't really care for it.

I'm sure there are others, but I think these are the big ones.

Locally, there are also a number of Open Source programs available. I've had a couple recommended to me in the past, but I've forgotten them now -- since I tend to prefer keeping my trees online anyway.

Answer 6

I absolutely LOVE RootsMagic! You'll have some stuff locked on it but most is free. Eventually you'll end up wanting to upgrade. :) It truly is a great program. My favorite things about it is being able to color my descendant lines and drag and drop parts of one tree into another with a snap.

Comments

Agree! RootsMagic is excellent. The free version does a lot, and the full version is not expensive. Some of the most entertaining $30 I've spent.

I really liked how RootsMagic helped me really understand sources and citations. I've been able to create reports for relatives who aren't interested in all the details but are curious about our ancestors. I use the Problem List a lot.

As a (retired) software engineer, I first looked at freeware. From what I saw, gramps is probably the best, but I never mastered it

Answer 7

Before I started using WikiTree I built my family tree using Gramps, which is open source and totally free. You can find it at

https://gramps-project.org/introduction-WP/

Now I do everything online.

Answer 8

I use Family Tree Maker. This software has recently had a significant rewrite after being taken over by Mackiev over a year ago. If you use Ancestry then you can synchronise your FTM tree and your online tree.

Comments

I have also have FTM and paid for the upgrade to the new version. Its very useful for synchronizing your Ancestry tree and then exporting subtrees for importing into wikitree.

However I don't how you can say it is a significant rewrite, to me it looks  almost exactly the same I think they just say its a significant rewrite to try and justify the upgrade cost

Answer 9

Geneanet. The reports and charts are quite good. There are multiple language versions.

Answer 10

You might want to weigh up the cost of a non free solution with the cost of the additional time you will spend trying to do it using totally free solutions. The hard truth is that tools such as Ancestry have better access to the original records than free applications.

Perhaps you could just sign up for a couple of months, blitz it to research your tree then stop subscription. I originally paid monthly for six months, then stopped my subscription for a year before returning to it. When you drop to the free version your account and tree(s) still remain you just dont have (full) access to finding new records

I also find that for Uk records FindMyPast is useful as it has records that Ancestry does not. For example it has the original docs from Devon church records and also offers the 1939 register which is very useful for tracking people after the 1911 census

Answer 11

I have tried most of the software available and I've tried all of those recently. I did that because I thought RootsMagic was antiquated and required SO MANY MOUSE CLICKS. After reviewing several of the software packages, this is my advice:

FTK2017 - Looks great and easy to use, but can be buggy. Also the integration with Ancestry is like a shotgun approach. It's very easy, but it will give you headaches later on considering the reliability of some of the Ancestry.com data.

RootsMagic 7.5.7.0 (latest) is far and away the best I have found. It's only $30 and if you purchase version 7 now then you will get a free upgrade to version 8 when it is released in February.

It took me a lot of searching and testing before I realized why RootsMagic is the best package out there. There is no shotgun approach, but it "syncs" well with Ancestry that will NOT give you the same headache later. It works extremely well and once you spend some time using it, the process begins to make more sense.

If you are positive you want to go the free route, try Gramps. It's not terrible and has promise and is open source, but it is not very refined nor is it very easy to use.

My highest recommendation is to spend the $30 on RootsMagic. That's all you really need. And when version 8 is released around February 2019 (let's hope), you get a free update.

Comments

Figuring all of this out cost me a few hundred dollars, but I wanted to be sure I was using whichever tool was truly the best available today. I did that because I intend to do this for many years if not the rest of my life. It's somehow almost... addictive.

However, my answer to you IS FREE. So I hope that counts for something being free. :-)

RootsMagic is definiately the way to go. I think the download option is $30 and until you are very comfortable with it and think you need more, ignore the other software on their site. It's nice but certainly not essential.

Good luck!

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Thank you so much for this breakdown!  anything you would change on here now 2 years later?