Free Genealogy Software for creating Family Trees

 

There are excellent free genealogy programs that will record your family history. These programs are full featured with excellent recording, sourcing and chart printing capabilities. Some of them are very expensive, but it IS possible to find good genealogy and family tree software for FREE!

Before you spend too much time entering your genealogy research findings make sure that the free software isn't time limited. If it is consider whether you will want to spend money upgrading to the full product. As the products are free, perhaps try a few. You are going to spend a lot of time using the program that you finally select (genealogy is very addictive!) make sure that the software that you choose is the best for your needs and one that you find easy to use.

Also check whether the software contains spyware, a program that runs in the background recording all activities on your computer.

Where to find FREE Genealogy Software

Magazine Covers: Software manufacturers will often distribute old or limited feature versions of their family tree programs on the cover discs of popular famiy history and genealogy magazines. They do this in the hope that you enjoy using the program so much that you will pay to upgrade to the latest version. This is an excellent way to get started and should you decide to buy the full/latest product you will easily be able to transfer you information.

Do watch out for products which are time limited demos - its very frustrating to spend a month or so entering all you research,then suddenly not be able to access it!

Shareware: This is a marketing method for computer software. Products can be obtained free of charge by downloading from the Internet or from magazine covers. The hope is that users will find the program useful and will pay to register to be able to access all the features. Sometimes there is just a voluntary fee to "thank you", or a fee to register to access more features.

A popular free genealogy shareware program is Brother's Keeper.

Once again try to avoid time limited demos.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) : The LDS, who have a huge free genealogy database, offer a free copy of their Personal Ancestral File software. The new software program is available free of charge if downloaded via the Internet at www.familysearch.org

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