Finding The Best Software For You

Personal Ancestral File? The Master Genealogist? Roots IV? Family Tree Maker? My Family Record? Visual Roots? Reunion? Family Roots? Everyone’s Family Tree?

Which genealogy computer program is right for you?

At most genealogy gatherings, folks ask which genealogy computer software program is best, which is easiest, which should they get - and which is compatible with other databases?

In my opinion, all genealogy computer programs are 80 percent alike. It’s the other 20 percent, the whistles and bells, that make them different. All record family data and print it out in a variety of ways.

But how to choose the one you’ll like best? That’s a better question. Ask what you want a genealogical software program to do:

Record family names, dates and places?

Produce group sheets and charts?

Track the sources you have searched and what you found in that process?

Lay out your data in book format?

Keep track of thousands of references for a onename study?

These questions will force you to look at how you now organize your information. Determine what you like and dislike about how it appears on paper and what you want to do with the information you’ve gathered.

Several books explain the various genealogy software programs, but it’s hard for a book to be right up-to-date. And no book can answer your every question.

Talk to your friends about which program they use and what features they like best and least. Attend Eastern Washington Genealogical Society’s Computer Club, led by Russ Grant, which meets monthly in the auditorium of the downtown Spokane Public Library. For more information, contact Mary Jean Freese, group coordinator, at 327-7447, or Grant, 327-4014.

Make sure your program has flexibility to add data, so you can enter information (like cause of death) at a later date. Another good feature is easy access to the documentation area. I’ve found if the “Want to Enter Notes?” message pops up after I’ve entered a date and place, that I’m more apt to do it right then.

Next, do you like the way the program prints out information? Do you like the looks of the pedigree and group charts? Does your name and address automatically appear on every printed chart?

Try samples of output options and make sure they will all be usable.

Lastly, a program must have GEDCOM capabilities, which allows you to transfer your information from one database into another - from your Program X into your aunt’s Program Y, for instance. GEDCOM also allows you to quickly enter Cousin Jim’s batch of new information.

And it allows you to share information with the Family History Library’s Ancestral File program, which is a dandy thing to do.

When all is said and done, you can gather the data, ask the questions - but somewhere along the line you’ll need to decide what genealogy computer software seems best for your needs.

It is far better to go ahead with most any program and get your family data organized than to leave the myriad charts and pieces of paper in boxes and drawers for your descendants to work with.

If it turns out you don’t like the program you pick, give it to Cousin Jim for Christmas, data and all.

, DataTimes MEMO: Donna Potter Phillips welcomes letters from readers. Write to her at The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. For a response, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Donna Potter Phillips The Spokesman-Review