Comments on: Is There Good Free Software For Organizing Genealogy?

By: * Xanthippe

* Xanthippe — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:20:36 +0000

My Heritage Family Tree Builder. It’s free, but you must register. That’s: http://www.myheritagefamilytreebuilder.c…

By: Ted Pack

Ted Pack — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:27:52 +0000

I’m not quite sure what you mean by “organise onto a flash drive”. You organize your data in a family history program on your hard drive, and then use a flash drive to back up your data, or store it as a gedcom. You can also create your family tree online, though I personally prefer to have my data under my control on my computer. How is the data currently stored, digitally or on paper?
Anyhow, if you want a family history program, you can download Personal Ancestral File (PAF) from the LDS site for free:-http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.…

By: KYN

KYN — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:15:34 +0000

PAF is free.
If you can afford $29, you can buy Roots Magic. It has more features than PAF. One of them which it seems like you could use is the ability to burn a data base and a read-only version of the program onto a CD.
The relatives you give the CD to won’t be able to update your data, but they can view it in three different formats – Family, Pedigree and Descendancy. They can read the notes and look at the pictures. They can run a limited number of reports. Assuming you used a consistent pattern for the “Military” event, they can use “Find” to see everyone who served on the Confederate side in the Civil War. (“Find” asks for fields and values; you can also use it to find everyone born in Pennsylvania before 1866, if you want to.)
Any genealogy program worthy of the name will let you make a backup of your data base(s) and copy it to a flash drive, CD, diskette, . . .
If, however,you give the backup to someone who doesn’t have the same program on his/her machine, they won’t be able to read it.

By: Lex

Lex — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:59:15 +0000

There are several good free programs, any of which could be installed on a flashdrive, assuming your drive is large enough: PAF, Legacy, Family Tree Builder, Family Tree Legends, GRAMPS (for Linux/Unix), and others. These are all reputable programs without spyware, viruses, etc. Be sure to download from the maker or a reputable source to avoid malware added later (not part of the original program). To find more, google “free genealogy software”. You will want a program that does not need a lot of space to leave more room for data, notes, and other files.