GEDCOM, complete name FamilySearch GEDCOM, is a de facto open file format specification to store genealogical data, and import or export it between compatible genealogy software. GEDCOM is an acronym standing for Genealogical Data Communication. GEDCOM was developed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an aid to genealogical research. Most genealogy software supports importing from and exporting to GEDCOM format.
PhpGedView is a free PHP-based web application for working with genealogy data on the Internet. The project was founded and is headed by John Finlay. It is licensed under the GPL-2.0-or-later license.
Genealogy software is computer software used to record, organize, and publish genealogical data.
Family Tree Maker is genealogy software for Windows and Mac that allows the researcher to keep track of information collected during research and to create reports, charts, and books containing that information. The software was originally developed by Kenneth Hess of Banner Blue Software, which was purchased by Broderbund in 1995. It passed through the hands of The Learning Company, Mattel, and others before coming under its current ownership. A redesigned Family Tree Maker 2008 was released on August 14, 2007. The 2009 version of the program corrected some of the errors and omissions of its predecessor, and introduced a few new features. Family Tree Maker 2010 claimed to further enhance the radical redesign and be more powerful and feature-packed with faster navigation and quicker load times.
Gramps is a free and open source genealogy software. Gramps is programmed in Python using PyGObject. It uses Graphviz to create relationship graphs.
GenealogyJ is a viewer and editor for genealogic data, suitable for hobbyists, family historians and genealogy researchers. GenealogyJ is written in Java and so is available on most platforms and supports the GEDCOM standard. Many reports like family tree, table, timeline and geography are available.
Personal Ancestral File (PAF), as of 2013, is a discontinued free genealogy software provided by FamilySearch, a website operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It allowed users to enter names, dates, citations and source information into a database, and sort and search the genealogical data, print forms and charts, and share files with others in GEDCOM format. PAF also linked images and other media files to individual records.
Legacy Family Tree is genealogy software for Windows that assists family historians in tracking, organizing, printing, and sharing family history. The standard edition is distributed as freeware, with no restrictions, only requiring registration on the company's web site to download the software. Users may pay a fee in order to conduct Product activation to "unlock" the additional features in the deluxe edition.
This article compares several selected client-based genealogy programs. Web-based genealogy software is not included.
Family Historian is a genealogy software program designed and written by Calico Pie Limited, a UK software company founded by Simon Orde in 1995. Family Historian has won numerous awards, including coming top in the two most recent group comparisons of top genealogy programs, by Which? Computing - one of the Which? stable of consumer magazines. In 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 it received the highest overall score from TopTenReviews, in a group comparison with other leading genealogy software worldwide.
LifeLines is a free open-source genealogy software tool to assist family history research. LifeLines primary strengths are its powerful scripting language and the ability to easily import and export information in the GEDCOM format. It was the first open-source genealogy program for Unix. The Lifelines scripting language is now supported by several other open-source programs.
The Master Genealogist (TMG) is genealogy software originally created by Bob Velke for Microsoft DOS in 1993, with a version for Microsoft Windows released in 1996. Data entry was customized through the use of user-defined events, names, and relationship types. Official support for TMG ceased at the end of 2014. Informal support continues through a number of online user groups.
GenoPro is a software application for drawing family trees and genograms. GenoPro can store additional information such as pictures, contacts, places, sources, occupation and education history for each individual, as well as document the relationships among individuals.
Family.Show is a free and open-source genealogy program written in C# and running on the .NET Framework. Microsoft partnered with and commissioned Vertigo Software in 2006 to create it as a reference application for Microsoft's latest UI technology and software deployment mechanism at the time, Windows Presentation Foundation and ClickOnce. The source code has originally been published on Microsoft's CodePlex website. It has since been forked and development continues independent of Microsoft on GitHub.
Ancestral Quest (AQ) is a genealogy software application for Microsoft Windows developed by Incline Software, LC. It features data entry with sourcing capabilities and scrapbook extensions; a print engine for standard or custom charts and reports; a web page creator; a collaboration engine; and an extension tool for other genealogy databases.
GEDitCOM is genealogy software for the Mac OS X that provides methods to input, manipulate, and view information about a family history. It includes options to produce charts depicting family relationships and web pages for publishing family history online.
Kith and Kin Pro is genealogy software for computers running Microsoft Windows. The program aids family historians by storing, querying and documenting family history. Developed by SpanSoft, Scotland, the software is distributed as shareware with a free trial period of 30 days.
TreeDraw is a genealogy program for computers running Microsoft Windows. The program is a chart editor which aids family historians in creating and printing family trees. Developed by SpanSoft, Scotland, the software is distributed as shareware with a free trial period.
Genealone was web-based genealogy software. It was developed in the PHP scripting language and it saves data in a MySQL database. It is no longer supported.
WikiTree is a free, shared social-networking genealogy website that allows users individually to research and to contribute to their own personal family trees while building and collaborating on a singular worldwide family tree within the same system. Chris Whitten, developer of the WikiAnswers website, set up WikiTree in 2008; the site is owned and hosted by Interesting.com, Inc.
