You've probably been looking at purchasing some sort of software program to help you on you family history project. You may have discovered that there is a pretty decent supply of software programs that could meet your needs, but you don't know which ones to buy. To add to the confusion, there seems to be new software appearing every few weeks or months! How in the world do you sort through the choices and determine which one is the right choice for you?
Instead of looking at the choices available and making a decision from there, you should determine what you need from a software program and find the one that meets those needs. You may not find one that meets all of your needs, and in that case you must pick the one that comes closest to meeting your needs.
So how do you know what you need? If you're a beginner you may not even know what is available and what you should expect the software to do for you. Here are a few tips to help you get starting making a selection.
All genealogy software programs will help you to tackle the documentation issue. You've been gathering a lot of information (or you will be), so your software needs to help you make sense of that information, as well as track your sources of information, and allow you to make notes about your information. Any genealogy software you find should deal with documentation - if it doesn't, you should drop it from your consideration.
Another consideration to keep in mind is the ability to deal with multimedia. A good genealogical application should be able to handle cataloging and incorporating not only your paper documents (and word-processor files), but also any digital images, audio and video you may have accumulated.
Another piece of advice to help you select the right software for you: before you plunk down your hard earned cash make sure you have gone online and read reviews of the software. Keep in mind that some "review sites" are paid to write reviews which may be very biased. You may even wish to join some genealogy forums online to find out what the people in that community think about certain software applications. Again keep in mind that some people in the forums may actually get paid to promote certain software programs.
Some of the "big names" in genealogy software are:
- RootsMagic: demo version available
- Legacy Family Tree: free basic version
- Personal Ancestral File: free basic version
- Reunion: runs on a Mac; very costly
Prices for these programs can range from free, to very lost cost, all the way up to very expensive ($99). You don't always get what you pay for, but usually the higher quality programs are also higher in cost. You must learn to look at your software purchase as an investment in your family history project. Best wishes to you on your family history project journey!
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