Using the software here locally is a very good start. Wouldn’t it be nice to connect and compare the information? And if it was the same person, hey, you found a relative of yours that you didn’t know about yet.

Other family members are usually interested to view that information, And secondly, there are other researchers out there and they might run into a person way back in the past that also plays a role in your family tree. I went through some of the local tools listed here but ultimately learned that sharing information is very important. A genealogy software should provide these features and make it easy to browse and search for everything. Of course, images, documents, stories about ancestors and such is something that goes beyond GEDCOM. Software using that format or that at least allows to import and export it was one of my criteria. What I quickly learned was that there is a basic text format for saving family relation information called “ GEDCOM“.

I took the paper work of my father and started testing software that allowed me to put it all into a database of some kind and to print our family trees. He managed to trace back into the 1700s that way. I was taking over that task from my father who had done quite some research the traditional way by visiting churches and town halls and actually going through historic documents. I myself have spent quite some time with my family tree and putting it into a digital format. Looking at the respective websites of many products that were reviewed made me think I had traveled back 20 years or so. When I picked up our article about genealogy and family tree software from the old site for an overhaul, I didn’t expect that it would be a journey into the past indeed. Have a look at this list of the best free genealogy and family tree software.

10 best free family tree software