Family tree prog

[JimmieSParticipant @jimmies]

Anyone give guidance on an easy to use family tree prog? I am not very PC literate but realise that, as my scribbles, charts etc will be dumped when I am not around to protect them, something needs to be done.

Jim

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

It might be an idea to look for a local family history society to start with.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Try Gramps it’s free and will run on Windows, Mac or Linux. Produces graphs and charts and stores and links all the photos and certificates you may have. Stores data in a standard GEDCOM file format so things can be transferred to other family history programs. The link is to the download page.

John

[websnailParticipant @websnail]

I have used Family Historian for years and it works great. As you buy the program, with free updates, you are not the product and no adverts.

https://www.family-historian.co.uk/

 

Regards

David

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Another vote for gramps.  It’s a local application, not cloud, and free.  Coped with hundreds of my extended family, and produced a tree so big I had to send to a print service   Needed A0 on a roll!

 

[modeng2000Participant @modeng2000]

Thanks for suggesting Gramps.

John

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, the first tree I did, I used a 1997 programme called Key Cad Complete from Softkey. it was compatible with Windows 3.1/95/98, but it worked OK on XP and Vista. It enabled me to make traditional style Family Trees, and mine was big enough for A0, to be easily readable. After a while I found a Family Tree Maker programme for half price, which has been updated a few times over the years, and has a connection with the online company Ancestry. I have a tree on Ancestry, but I’ve limited it only to those who have passed away, and it can be expanded to as much research and information that you can find. One thing I have found out, is that there were marriages between fist cousins on both my mother and fathers sides of the family. It’s all very interesting stuff, if you have an interest in your past relatives, but you do have to decide where you want to stop, going sideways, so to speak.

Regards Nick.

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

I also use Ancestry and family tree maker program. If you have DNA testing all sorts of conections to other people and families turn up but you have to beware of other members not doing proper checking ie similar names or family members calling there children after same mother or father in the same family. It takes up quite a lot of time and my wife has found in her family the last person to be hung, drawn and quqrtered ( Pentrich revolution) and involvment in gun powder plot.  She has her family back to 1350’s

David

[Maurice Clarke 1Participant @mauriceclarke1]

I would suggest Kith & Kin Pro 3, for Windows, free trial shareware.
https://kithkinpro.spansoft.org/
As well as all of the usual family details recording facilities, it is the only programme that I have found that can display a complete zoomable graphical family tree, including sibling connections.

[JimmieSParticipant @jimmies]

Many thanks to the kind folk who have given suggestions. David, I have also come across ‘trees’ that had been fabricated – some deliberately, others perhaps not. Here in Ireland family history research can be difficult as the original census returns for 1861 and 1871 were destroyed shortly after the censuses were taken. Those for 1881 and 1891 were pulped during the First World War and, in June 1922 at the start of the Civil War, the Four Court building in Dublin was burnt out which reduced seven centuries of official documents and manuscripts to dust.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi David George 1, your wife is lucky to get back so far, myself and my family have only got back to around 1779 on my fathers side, and that was by means of the only son we know of, from his marriage certificate, which also states that he was a Blacksmith, nothing else seem to be found even by a few other trees of branch lines, but our grandmother on our fathers side, was born and lived in the immediate area and maybe in the very building where Octavia Hill started her housing reforming, in Marylebone.

My mothers fathers side, goes back to 1733 with a possibility of 1600, whereas her mothers side goes back to 1645 on the male side, who was a French protestant, who was born in about the 1670s in France, but got married in Canterbury, Kent, and his youngest son, also married a women in Canterbury, Kent, who has been tagged as “A women of Huguenot (& Walloon) Stock”.

Regards Nick.

[Bob WildParticipant @bobwild67557]

Ancestry.com for me. Found out all sorts of unknowns facts. Some not very pleasant – a lot of poverty in my family and even the fact that my great uncle was shot in the First World War, before PTSD was diagnosed!

[JimmieSParticipant @jimmies]

Discussion on DNA tests at

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0020xzb

with summery starting app 21 minutes in should you not wish to listen to the whole.

[Bob Wild]

On Bob Wild Said:

… and even the fact that my great uncle was shot in the First World War, before PTSD was diagnosed!

Horrible!

One of the few things my grandfather said about 4 years on the Western Front was that being in the firing party at an execution had upset him more than anything else.

The records show he was in an Ambulance Unit, a field hospital dealing with front-line casualties like MASH but far more dangerous.  Pretty sure he didn’t shoot the man, he was in the medical team ordered in to clean up the mess.   Worse for grandad than being buried alive in a shelter for 3 days during WW2.

Dave

 

[Graham StoppaniParticipant @grahamstoppani46499]

Just to chip in on this subject, I’ve done a lot of work on my family history (its a little more complicated than some, as it includes Italian and German heritage as well as English, Irish and Scots). I would recommend Ancestry.com as others have. Its not cheap with a monthly subscription, but as well as giving you a repository for your existing records it gives you access to a vast amount of data. A word of warning however, as others have pointed out, don’t believe what you see in other people’s family trees without seeing documentary evidence. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t take care to check their facts.

On the plus side by using Ancestry.com I was able to locate a cousin of mine in Canada who had been lost to the family since the early 1960’s and reunite him with his half-sister in Norway as well as taking him to Dublin to meet many of his Irish cousins that he didn’t know he had. Another plus for me was to find that my family in Leipzig attended their local church where a young lad was making a name for himself tickling the ivories – by the name of J.S.Bach!

On a more serious note, my grandfather, while serving in the RAMC during WW1, was hit in the face by shrapnel while working as a stretcher bearer in no-man’s land resulting in an horrific injury. As a result, he became a patient of Sir Harold Gillies, a pioneer of plastic surgery. https://allthatsinteresting.com/harold-gillies#20

I mention this to follow on from the PTSD already mentioned. Again through Ancestry.com, I was contacted by a PHd student doing her doctorate on the psychological impact of the injuries these men suffered. I learned so much about my grandfather’s reclusive behaviour from her interviews with other families.

Graham

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I agree with Graham about not believing every thing in other peoples trees, as many don’t seem to checkout the facts correctly, or just don’t bother. I found one tree where the person had got my great, great grandfather, and all his children in their tree, both the Christian and surname were the same, but my great, great grandfather had a middle name, which was his mothers surname, and his birth was in a totally different place and date. I have messaged this person, but they seem to ignore the fact. which is a shame, as their relations and or dependents will have false information about their ancestry.

Regards Nick.

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

After seeing this topic, it sparked my interest back to extensive FH work I did several years ago. Since then, one unexpected consequence has been that I recently located a cousin that I was aware existed, but had completely lost touch over 40-odd years ago & apparently only lives about 10 miles away! Hoping to meet up when the weather cheers up a bit.

Isn’t life funny how it works out sometimes?

Regards Mike

[JimmieSParticipant @jimmies]

Many thanks again to everyone who kindly posted their suggestion, esp David G and Bob W as I have joined Ancestry.

As already mentioned the amount of garbage being promoted as fact beggars belief. Allegedly my g/granny remarried in 1881 to a man who was not born for another 10 years. Despite having a most uncommon surname, my brother’s date and place of birth, marriage and death details – he is still alive 40+ years later – are wrong yet both ‘facts’ have appeared on several trees, a typical case of copying without validation.

When I started my research over a quarter of a century ago I was advised that ‘family history without documentation is mythology’. |Am I being too cynical in wondering how much of this misrepresentation has been generated by a few ‘professional genealogists’?

Jim

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

In my wifes family is a gentalman called Marmaduke Matchell He had land in Howden S. Yorkshire and was a lawyer in Lincoln’s inn Fields and was maried to sister of Lord Percy. As recorded in the rolls in the national archieves Lord percy was on his way down to London with two servants they had some money and spare horses and as it was November the 4th he went on ahead telling the servants to meet him the next day. When they arrived in London the plot had been found out and they went to Mr Matchell as they knew he was maried to Lord Pery’s sister and what to do with horses and mony etc. He told them to take it to his wife in Howden which they did.  A couple of years later the Matchell family moved into Thoresby hall Nottinghamshire which was rented. They Left Thoresby  when Mr Matchell died and Son also Marmaduke Matchell bought an estate nr Alfreton Derbyshire which was kept in the family for a few generations from which my wife decended by marriage. One of the descendents ( femail ) married a Lawyer where the money disapeared especialy as coal was found on the estate and he was one of the founders of Bosover Mining Company.

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

I suspect that in many cases it might be better to let sleeping dogs lie ! You might find out more that you would like.

I do believe that a lot of this stuff is made up to suit , con men will tell you whatever you want to hear. Old records being what they are, I would take most of this stuff with a large pinch of salt.

Some of the people going around these days dont even know who their Father was, and neither do their Mothers !

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

If you want a really simple family tree program look for Simple Family Tree 1.32 from JDMCOX Software.  I started using it many years ago before all these online services like Ancestry.com came into being.  It makes a good starting point and all its data is stored in the GEDCOM format which most other software and on line services can read.

I have however since migrated to Ancestry which is very good at finding links to other members trees.  It is however a subscription service and can get quite expensive.

Russell

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi. Ancestry will allow you to download a GEDCOM format onto your computer, but you will need a suitable programme to to view and use it. I have Family Tree Maker on my laptop, which will open the one from Ancestry. I think I had a Tree on ancestry, before taking up a subscription with them, but of course you don’t get access to a lot of information that is available, but I started with a lot of info that I already had via family records, which only went back about 100 years or so, but there were a few gaps that I found on Ancestry, when I took out a subscription, and I now have a big index of people with much official info, to trace it all back, but it does take a fair amount of time and double checking, to be certain that it’s all correct.

Regards Nick.

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

Just out of interest, when folks say ‘ can get quite expensive ‘ about Ancestry.com what sort of real cost are we talking about. ?

Unfortunately with these sort of things you can see the ‘base’ subscription price up front on their website but then when you get hooked in it’s often “access to such & such” is only available via the deluxe service at ££ etc ad infinitum.

I don’t expect anything for free, and am ok paying a fair price for a product, but get a bit fed up being hustled some times.

Regards Mike

[David SeniorParticipant @davidsenior29320]

I pay about £120 per year for my Ancestry subscription (UK only) and consider it good value for money considering the amount of time I spend on it.

Dave

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Mike, same as David has said, but if you want world wide it will cost you a lot more, but if you don’t need world wide, don’t go for it. they do offer add ons like DNA testing, but I’ve not bothered with that, so just ignore what you don’t want. When you have a subscription, you can download just about everything that’s available in the UK, without paying anything else, but there are things that are not part of Ancestry, that you may have to pay a fee for, if you wish to view it. I had to pay a small one off fee for a copy of great aunt’s birth certificate, who was born in Ireland, which was downloadable, but apart from that, I haven’t had to pay for anything else. If you really want to do an extensive tree, the subscription is most likely to be much cheaper than trotting all around the place and searching and paying for info you are looking for, and you can spend as little or a lot of time as you like, from your own home. you can of course have a monthly subscription, but that will cost more in the long run, if you wish to stick with it long term. You can also add your own material to your tree without any further payments, and see other members public trees, some of which may have a common ancestor to your own families.

Regards Nick.

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