Comparing Family History Software

Alan E. Mann, A.G.

alan.familyhistory@gmail.com Accredited Genealogist

ICAPGEN Conference 3 November 2006

Writing & Publishing: the Power of the Word www.alanmann.com/articles

Comparison of Family History Software

for Genealogists

This presentation is on comparing family history or genealogy software. I assume most take time for this presentation are looking at database manager programs, not utilities or add-ons. I also assume being placed in the track Writing & Publishing: the Power of the Word means I should spend time talking about publishing options of genealogy software. This directs me to at least mention some database managers have add-ons or utilities available to meet your publishing needs. Also, many tools that publish directly from GEDCOM are available.

This presentation will first address the issue of selecting a database manager program, then focus on selecting a publishing software. We don’t have time to talk about copyright, privacy, and pre-publication issues, so let me refer you to two articles (written for non-professionals, but useful):

· Preparing to publish a genealogy- www.geocities.com/UGAslig/PreparetoPublish.htm

· How to publish on the Internet - www.geocities.com/UGAslig/HowtoPublish.htm

Choosing the right genealogy database software

With over a hundred different genealogy software programs to pick from, selecting the right one can be a formidable task. There are a lot of things genealogy programs can do, and many things you might want your program to do. Often, selecting a genealogy program for you is the task of matching your needs and desires to a program’s capabilities with personal likes and dislikes being the final decider. Whole books have been written about how to select the right software. Note that options are limited for MAC users unless they want to run Windows emulation software.

To choose the right genealogy software, one should make a list of things you want, look at the capabilities of the various programs, look at screenshots, and then make a guess at perhaps two or three that look promising. Take them for a test drive (if possible), and that process will help you see other features which appeal to you. The frustration of working with a particular program will help you realize what it is you really want.

Being a professional adds complexities.

You probably already have made the choice of a favorite program or two, but you want to know what you might be missing. You may also trying to decide if you want to have more than one program – one for data entry, one for report or chart generation, one for web publishing, another for print publishing, etc.
Clients often have their own software and want you to send their data to them in their database. Do you need to have each software package? (see Beware of GEDCOM, below)
When publishing, the client may want to do some of the work. Does this require you to use the same software the client has or to convert the client to your software?
One issue I find important is complexity, particularly if I have others working in my company. How much time am I willing to spend teaching others to use a particular software? It’s hard enough to find the right people to hire, so only hiring people who already know the software of my choice would be too limiting. If it takes six weeks to learn a complex software package, am I willing to pay the new hire to learn it? Will I have more questions & support time if we pick a more complex software? Generally, more flexible also means more complex. Where is the right balance between the two for you?

In general, make a list of things you need from your software, then look for one which most meets your needs. Here’s some issues to consider whether they are important to you:

What’s our policy on sharing findings? Do we encourage or discourage clients to upload/publish?
Is a printed book or web page a service we offer?
Are you a keystroker or a mouser (do you prefer copy and paste or data entry? Do you use icons and pull down menus or Alt + and Ctrl + keystrokes?)
Do you want to use guided research options available in some programs?
What do you want your source citations to look like and does one of the source templates in a program like Legacy meet your sourcing needs?
Do you or your clients want to keep track of temple ordinance data?
Is your approach to family history and to your client reporting lineage-based or event-based (TMG is event based)?
Do you read help files or manuals?
What are your computers specifications? For requirements of various genealogy programs, see www.consumersearch.com/www/software/genealogy-software/comparisonchart.html.

In addition, consider if any of the following features or concepts might be important in your selection of a software tool:

· Searches web sites or databases automatically

· Collaboration possible (either native or via web site?)

· Automatic publishing/updating

· Can it importing data from the web? More importantly, can it do it accurately?

· Availability of tools and utilities

· Open APIs? (web mashup, google map builder – Family Atlas)

o See www.mapbuilder.net

o See www.googlemapbuilder.com

o If interested, read www.webteacher.com/mapbuilder/

· Cut and paste between files, or “auto-import” or computer comparison?

· TIMELINES, TIMELINES, TIMELINES! (are historical datasets available?)

· Auto-backup or easy backup (backup reminder?)

Let me make a few general statements about particular software packages. The most sold program is FamilyTreeMaker. Despite recent advances, I still would caution users of FTM. Most reviewers express the same concerns. Namely, FTM’s GEDCOM import may drop or misidentify data from unrecognized tags, doesn't output to HTML (can only publish pages on FTM's Web site and you can’t edit them), doesn’t allow christening to substitute for birth nor burial for death, and web page format needs improvement. The Master Genealogist would be the program for all professionals to use except for its’ steep learning curve, high performance load, and inadequate handling of temple ordinance data (it might be the one for you, anyway).

Don’t forget FamilyTreeLegends, which publishes automagically to gencircles.com. PHP offers some great possibilities for keeping a database online which disparate users can access without any software requirements (other than a web browser). For example, see PHPGedView at www.hardistyfamilytree.com/phpgedview/ or full list at http://phpgedview.sourceforge.net/registry.php.

Beware of GEDCOM

I wouldn’t buy a database management program which didn’t have GEDCOM support. Having said that, let me add some caution. GEDCOM is a translator. It translates your program’s data structure into GEDCOM, then translates GEDCOM into the desired destination program (e.g., PAF to GEDCOM to Roots Magic). Translation is imperfect. If you think all translation should happen without error, I suggest you talk to a Biblical scholar… If words, phrases, and sentence structures always communicated the same thing to all people, genealogy conferences would be unnecessary—we could do it all by just sharing written articles.

Even when GEDCOMMING from one database to another in the same program, errors happen. When I tried to add my daughter’s marriage to my database, I found her notes said the source of information about her was a book on the Metcalf family of Virginia published in 1913. When you GEDCOM, bad things may happen. If you have a large database, you may never know what went wrong because it isn’t practical to check every name, date, and source citation to make sure they came through correctly.

One attempt to resolve this potential problem is a program called GenBridge. A similar concept is various software developers creating an import for their program which reads their competitors database and transforms it into their format. Be cautious when using these products. In effect, you should check every piece of data and source for every person transferred from one program to another. And KEEP THE OLD DATABASE!

Recommendation regarding GEDCOM – always import GEDCOM information into an empty database first (never directly to your master database). Verify that information transferred correctly for each person, date, place, and source. Make sure the data is correct, valid, and sourced. When all is perfect, look at transferring that data into your main database cautiously, one family at a time. GEDCOM should never be used to add thousands of names to your database. Do it one family group at a time.

Reading what other’s have to say (reviews)

Before getting in to reviews, I want to caution you. I spent a lot of time trying to be a genealogy software reviewer. I thought it would be so useful to create a comparison chart showing the capabilities of various software packages and doing screen captures or sample pages to demonstrate how they do things. I spent years working on this, and discovered several things. Comparisons are highly opinionated, slanted to the writer’s perspective, and are often misleading. checkmark columnar comparisons The problem with this type of chart is a checkmark is inadequate. For example, many early comparison charts listed numerous programs and had a feature listed creates index for web page. A checkmark saying the program had that feature is not helpful. At the time of that review chart,

FamilyTreeMaker created an index to the whole web page, but each entry in the index gave only the person’s name and birthdate. The index gave neither a page number nor a link to the person in the web page. You only knew the person was in there somewhere, but had no way to find it!
PAF created an index to the whole web page, with links to the spot in the web page. However, the index gave only the name and the birth & death year (e.g., John Smith, 1812-1891).
Legacy gave you the option to create a name index with or without place information (e.g., John Smith, b. 12 Nov 1812, Wheeler, Steuben, New York, d. 21 Feb 1891, Logan, Cache, Utah) and a separate place index.

In the chart, all three had a checkmark for the feature creates index for web page, but that checkmark completely failed at showing a major difference between the three programs.

A possible solution would be to have a numerical rating for each program feature. In the above example, I might have given a 0 to a program with no index creation, a 1 to FRM, a 5 to PAF, and a 10 to Legacy. But if someone wanted an index like PAF creates, the difference 5 vs. 10 would be totally inappropriate for them. The rating is just too subjective. Another feature is attractiveness of books generated, but isn’t attractiveness totally subjective?

My conclusion was the best thing to do is talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the various programs, and give people references to the various reviewers’ comments. Thus, reviews are listed in the following paragraphs.

About.com has a lot of good material about family history. Kimberley Powell has written some guides to genealogy software, how to choose genealogy software, and reviews. See http://genealogy.about.com/cs/genealogysoftware/a/software.htm

TopTen Reviews. Nice side by side comparison chart with features at http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/. This review was done this year. It ranks the major software packages as

1. Legacy

2. FamilyTreeMaker

3. Ancestral Quest

4. Personal Ancestral File

5. Roots Magic (then 5 others, with TMG coming in 8^th)

Consumer Search. www.consumersearch.com/www/software/genealogy-software/index.html, which tells a little about each program’s strengths and weaknesses as perceived by a non-genealogist consumer panel. This review rates them in this order:

1. Roots Magic

2. Legacy

3. FamilyTreeMaker 2006

4. Personal Ancestral File

5. Reunion

6. The Master Genealogist

Kessler’s List. An extensive list of programs, with reviews and commentary. Kept current at www.lkessler.com/gplinks.shtml. I have noticed some bias in these pages, mostly because I disagree with him on several points (bias is most noticeable when it conflicts with your opinion). He is also the author of a new genealogy software called Behold.

Genealogy Software Report Card. Bob Mumford’s report is twenty months old, and links to reviews published in NGS News Magazine between 1998 and 2004. While extensive, cautions include lack of timeliness and subjective analysis (Each feature gets a numeric rating, which is some cases is given exactly opposite of how I would rate the feature between two programs). Nonetheless, it is extensive and can help you see some weaknesses or strengths of individual programs. Take a look at www.mumford.ca/reportcard/ and www.mumford.ca/reportcard/review.htm.

Richard Wilson’s software comparison chart. Richard also wrote about genealogy software with a handy check chart. It is also over a year and half out of date, but contains information which may lead to your asking the right questions in choosing a software. It is located at http://rwilson.us/comparison.htm.

Publishing a Family History

Again, you need to ask yourself a series of questions before choosing a program to publish. When helping a client publish their family history, you should have a detailed planning session with the client to address all of the issues.

* What do I want to publish (genealogical data only, detailed family history with background and historical flavor, or…)?

* Who do I want to include in my publication (one ancestral line, one family group, the descendants of one couple, all of one surname, the inhabitants of a village, or …)?

* Who do I want to see my publication (close family only, family organization members, any relative, anyone interested, everyone)?

* What exposure do I want my genealogy to get (local, state-, nation-, or worldwide)?

* Do I include notes and sources (verbatim as in my software, portion of either or both, linked or embedded, include reasoning, levels of confidence)?

* What forms of information do I want to include (photographs, pedigree charts, group records, descendant charts, dropline charts, source documents, )?

* What format do I want to use (modified register, text narrative, charts only, …)?

* Which medium should I use (paper, CD-ROM, downloadable, or viewable)?