Family tree software search

[Charlotte26]

I'm looking to buy some software for my tree but do not want one with an online equivalent or with silly "matches" that get to be annoying. I have had a look at Genopro but don't think I am going to get on with it. Is there anything else out there?

 

[Tim]

Hi Charlotte,

Have you seen this discussion?

Ultimately it will depend on how you want to use it, what data/records you want to store, and what reports you'd like to view or print.

Its a personal choice.

 

[emjay]

I'm looking to buy some software for my tree but do not want one with an online equivalent or with silly "matches" that get to be annoying. I have had a look at Genopro but don't think I am going to get on with it. Is there anything else out there?

Hi Charlotte,

there are some tree progs. that are free e.g. "Roots Magic 6" has a basic free programme which you could try and see how it suits you. Then maybe purchase the version with all the 'extra bits' at a later date.

 

[Charlotte26]

I will look at Roots Magic & Legacy but perhaps I should have said that I already have FTM 2012. Its just that I use FMP and only use Ancestry for specific records not available elswhere. It is just that I want to use FTM to record information about unknown but possibly still living relatives or those where their offspring are still living. Although my tree is "private" I don't want to risk names leaking to the internet which I think they might do when the tree is "synced". I am probably being overly anxious about this but hence my question about tree software with no online link. I suspect they all offer this unwanted feature?
Thanks

 

[emjay]

Charlotte,

You could work on your tree 'off-line' and only search Ancestry directly via their site. But yes, those trembling leafs are a convenient link! I too use mostly FMP, I do prefer their search format, because you can search generally or specifically just as easily. This week however, I could not find a family via the FMP Census search, so thought I would have a look on Ancestry...and found the family When I looked at the original image I could see how the transcriber had got it wrong at FMP, so just
goes to show a lot depends on the ability the individual transcriber (as well as the original enumerator).

 

[Alexander Bisset]

A "synced" or synchronised tree with FTM 2012 can be public or private, see other discussions on the forum re: public vs private trees. You are in full control of this. Having an internet link means you can have the program auto search for you this makes finding new sources of information dramatically easier although of course you need to check the sources and not just rely on other information but the fact that you can get automatic searches of military, parish, overseas, transportation, medical, school etc records many of which you'd probably not think to search should surely make your research easier?

There are of course plenty of out of date programs out there many of which are so old they pre-date the popular use of the internet and will last a short while with no support and no clear upgrade path. So you can easily go for an older option if you don't mind your research taking a lot longer and risk having the tree stranded in an old unsupported version of a program.

Almost all programs these days will use the internet to assist speeding your research. Using an ancient version of a program might seem like a good idea to avoid the internet but comes with the potential of a whole lot of incompatibility problems for the future.

 

[haitchdt]

I found all this most interesting as I have had to upgrade my computer to Windows 8 and have 'lost' my old FT program due to incompatibility, though I have still got all the info saved elsewhere. Is it possible on any of the current programs to enter unrelated families? sometimes I do them for friends. Can anyone help with this please?

 

[AnneC]

I found all this most interesting as I have had to upgrade my computer to Windows 8 and have 'lost' my old FT program due to incompatibility, though I have still got all the info saved elsewhere. Is it possible on any of the current programs to enter unrelated families? sometimes I do them for friends. Can anyone help with this please?

I use Legacy, and you can enter unrelated families on your tree, or have multiple trees ( a new one for each friend).

 

[Tim]

Regardless of which FHS you use, it makes good sense to keep them in a different file.

 

[emjay]

I found all this most interesting as I have had to upgrade my computer to Windows 8 and have 'lost' my old FT program due to incompatibility, though I have still got all the info saved elsewhere. Is it possible on any of the current programs to enter unrelated families? sometimes I do them for friends. Can anyone help with this please?

As far as I am aware most FHS progs allow multiple trees. With Roots Magic 6 it is possible to have 2 trees on screen side by side.

This allows the user to compare and even drop and drag, add or delete as required
.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Regardless of which FHS you use, it makes good sense to keep them in a different file.

It depends Tim for the purpose stated, ie: to assist friends yes keeping them in a second tree is probably good idea. However if you suspect a connection at all eg: they come from the same area or you are doing a one name study or one place study then having separate files isn't a good idea. I'm doing a one name study and I've lost count of the number of times small snippets of unrelated people will join up.

I have about 8000 people in my tree and around half are for the one name study yet very recently I was able to add a twig of about 15 people to my own tree when I finally discovered the father of a Bisset was actually a husband of someone of my line. Since they were in the same tree I spotted this straight away if it had been in a different file I'd not have spotted the link.

 

[Tim]

You're not wrong in what you say Alexander, but I was commenting wrt the statement about trees for friends. Obviously if you are doing a ONS then it makes sense to be in one tree. Has FTA helped you to identify some possible duplicates?

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Has FTA helped you to identify some possible duplicates?

You may recall during beta I mentioned that I was adding in negative scores and the ability to filter out inaccurate duplicates as otherwise it wouldn't be that useful to someone with an ONS. Now that I can flag duplicates that I know aren't duplicates it keeps the report clean. I've not been able to find any genuine duplicates yet though.