Email address: caroline@thegoodwebguide.com

Website: www.thegoodwebguide.co.uk/genealogy/

Any errors are the responsibility of SHS website only.

Suppliers of a range of genealogy software have been listed elsewhere (see pp.148-51 and 155). The sites listed here are those provided by the software developers themselves, and are worth consulting for detailed information on demos, latest versions and upgrades. Some also supply online support, FAQs and even dedicated areas for uploading your family trees to the web. Worth perusing then to get a sense of the benefits of a program before you buy, though you may get better deals and more UK specific extras by buying from UK genealogy specialists such as S&N, TWR and the SoG.

The selection here is based on an evaluation of the supporting website and does not necessarily imply that these are the best programs for you to buy. For further help on choosing a genealogy program, see the article on

http://thegoodwebguide.co.uk/chan_gene

or Bill Mumford's comparative guide at

www.mumford.ab.ca/reportcard

You should also check the Genealogy Shoppers Guide on

www.genealogyforum.rootsweb.com/store/softwarest.htm

Family Tree Maker www.familytreemaker.com

As the introduction says, this is America's number one selling family tree program. You can buy various packages of the same basic program, some of which include data CDs, subscriptions to Genealogy.com and other online data sources. The program entitles you to upload your data to the Family Tree Maker site, which is integrated Genealogy.com, though it is not possible to upload them onto your website, which many other programs do allow you to do. However, it is incredibly sophisticated, yet by all accounts exceptionally easy to use, and Family Tree Maker is state-of-the-art when it comes to organising your own family history records.

Legacy Family Tree Genealogy Software www.legacyfamHytree.com

At the time of writing you can download the Legacy 3.0 version of this well-respected program for free (apart from the telephone costs for the time it takes to download, which can be considerable). Alternatively you can pay for the Deluxe edition, which comes with extra features such as the ability to compare two files for duplicates before you merge them, a relationship calculator, and the ability to produce reports as PDF files, so they can be easily emailed and viewed by anyone who doesn't have a genealogy program.

Reunion www.leisterpro.com

Apple Mac users will search in vain for bargain-price genealogy programmes. For fully-featured family history software, Reunion, which retails at around £80, is the only choice. The consolation is that it is an excellent and easy-to-use programme. From the site you can download a demo, sign up for a free daily email digest, link to the pages of other Reunion users, contact their technical support, and find out where you can buy it.

Brother's Keeper Homepage www.bkwin.com

Widely respected as one of the best software applications for storing your family history data, Brother's Keeper can be accessed and viewed here online. You can't download the entire program without paying but the chance to have a good look at its capabilities before committing yourself is useful, as is the ability to get going right away, without needing to go to the shops or wait for a delivery.

Personal Ancestral File at Family Search www.familysearch.com

From the homepage, click on Order/Download Products, then hit Software Downloads - Free. As the heading suggests, you can download various editions of the Personal Ancestral File (PAF) without payment. If you are still using an MS Dos or Windows 3.1 on an older computer, the older verions of PAF2 will be a very welcome option. There is also a Mac version available. If you decide to use this program, you might also want to go to www.saintclair.org/paf/

where there is plenty of information for PAF users and links to other sites that provide help. If you don't want to spend the time downloading the program from the web, which can be time-consuming and cause problems if your ISP logs you out after a fixed amount of time, you can purchase the PAF very cheaply, along with other IDS products such as the 1881 census and the BVRI, and PAF Companion, which allows you to you to print more complex charts and reports, from

www.lds.org.uk