What's the best genealogy/Family Tree tool?

You never use online 'tree builders' as once you type in the information it no longer belongs to you, but the website which collects the data and uses it/sells it and then adds it to the horredously large amount of spurious information that people are now using thinking they are 'researching'

Lots of free FH software http://familytimeline.webs.com/apps/links/ under 'General Family History Resources' that way your information remains YOURS so you can get to it regardless of website closures taking your tree down, buy outs from the bigger ancestry websites which will/can then charge you subscriptions before you can continue to add to, remove/change anything on it..........

There is no one best software - the best is the one with the features you want and the interface you are comfortable using. I tried FamilyTreeMaker but didn't like the interface or the forced update policy.

Two very popular and powerful genealogy database programs have free basic components so you can try them out and update to the full version if you like them and need the additional features: Legacy Family Tree and RootsMagic. The full versions only cost $29.99. I have used both and like them for different reasons.

Heredis is a European software that I find intriguing. It has some wonderful visualization features but a bit of a learning curve.

Here is a good comparison of features chart:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_genealo...

The BEST program is a matter of opinion. First MAXIE is correct. Early in my using computers for Genealogical (over 10 years ago( I used Ancestry not realizing that I would have no control over what I put on the site. Today I can tell who is copying what in my family by the errors that are in the trees on Ancestry.

PERSONALLY I use legacy and do back up on drop box. Roots Web is also a good program. You can upload from either program, but you do not put your work directly onto the internet.

My personal opinion is that Ancestry and its fellow program Family Tree are what people who are not serious researchers use. In my family I have been able to eliminated several hundred entries that are on Ancestry but providing the sources of information.

I use Roots Magic, which costs $29 ($US). It records data. To get the data, I bonce between my Ancestry.com subscription, familysearch.org. findagrave.com, the US Gen Web sites, and Google, which often leads me to small, specialized sites. There are over 400,000 free sites devoted to Genealogy.

"Best" is subjective. You can Google "Genealogy software reviews" and get some professional opinions. The good ones have a stable history and a large user base.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of freeware programs out there. The last thing you want is to invest 3 years of work, then have your program die and there be no one who can read your backups.

Roots Magic, Legacy and Family Tree Maker are the three most popular among the regulars here on the category. We all agree that it is better to have a program on your PC than to keep your data on the web. We all also agree that believing family trees you find on the web is asking for trouble. Treat them as clues and verify, verify, verify.

The single best tool is research. How you go about it is up to you, whether in person, by mail or e-mail, or contacting sources (libraries, historical/genealogical societies, newspaper archives, historical records: sources, not copiers.

I personally use Ancestris 0.7 ( nothing to do with Ancestry ). It's free, offline and you don't have to register or subscribe to anything.

It's not as pretty as some other software but it's quite powerful, and free. http://en.ancestris.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

There is a community but it's optional and it's more to talk about the software in itself, optional as I said.

I've used "Brothers Keeper" for years and so have many people I've been in contact with.

http://www.bkwin.org/