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Genealogy software

Grrr....software applications for genealogy are such a nightmare right now. There aren't really great solutions. Here's some of the Pros and Cons of what's on the market.

Ancestry.com
Pros
  • Excellent for finding source documentation and ancestry records
  • Great matching of records so that you actually find your "John Doe" and not an unrelated "John Doe".
  • Intuitive and easy to get started.
  • Media is stored on their site, not locally on your PC. Easy to share records and media with others.
  • Has DNA matches.
  • Syncs with Ancesty and Family Search.
Cons
  • Isn't really a good Family Tree application: inadequate reporting; inconsistent data management (same city can be listed multiple ways); lack of searching within your tree; hard to identify errors and manage database integrity.
  • DNA Matches relate to living people, but living people are hidden in other person's trees. These privacy restrictions make true collaboration very difficult. Does not encourage registration using legal name; therefore, hard to map living persons to their correct tree. Lots of people also have Unlinked or 1-3 persons tree that provide zero value; requires weeding through a lot of duds before getting to the meat. Unable to extract a list of DNA matches.
  • Media and records are subject to Ancestry.com's access restrictions. A great record attached only in Ancestry may no longer be available next year or 10 years from now. Losing source documentation isn't great and can require future rework to revalidate a previously proven fact.

RootsMagic
Pros
  • The best of the worst! Is what I consider a "true" family tree application focused on building out relationships between family members, storing facts and pictures, and having good source & citation detail capture.
  • Software installed on your PC and all data is held privately and can't be altered by others.
  • Decent reporting and data extraction capabilities.
Cons
  • Lost lots of data in 2024. Spent about 6 months going back and forth with their technical support about data that was getting lost. Insane amount of time trying to help them understand a problem they didn't believe existed. Finally acknoweldged the issue in December 2024 and they are pushing a code change, but I'm very hestitant gonig back to them after the prior headache.
  • Media and records attached to the application can not be stored on the cloud. I'm paying for a backup of my hard drive and extra storage space on my laptop solely for my 5,000 records and media that are attached to my tree. Annoying because everything else I own digitally is stored on the cloud.

MyHeritage

Pros
  • Has DNA matches that aren't on the other sites. Can upload Ancestry DNA to MyHeritage to not duplicate testing.
  • Seems to have a broader international reach. For myself, most relatives on the site live outside the United States.
Cons
  • Similar cons as Ancestry.com.

23 & Me

Pros
  • Has DNA matches that aren't on the other sites.
  • Has health data reporting. I've just submitted my sample, so I'll let update this post if I discover anything really exciting after my results come back.
Cons
  • Not a family tree application. Focus is on DNA data collection.
  • Can't update raw DNA from other sites; testing has to be redone and repaid for.

Legacy Family Tree

Pros
  • Has really great search capabilities, decent reporting, and more general functionality than other applications
  • Software installed on your PC and all data is held privately and can't be altered by others.
Cons
  • Rough learning curve moving from RootsMagic to this application. 
  • DNA matching reporting seems to be missing, but maybe I just haven't figured it out.
  • Mapping of source details from GEDCOM files seems choppy. I had a very clean set of Sources & Citations in RootsMagic and have found capturing and reporting on that same data in Legacy as not possible, or not intuitive. 
  • Reports frequently crash. I think my tree may be too large, and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to splice the data to make it more stable for extraction.
  • Can't determine an easy way to sync udpates to Ancestry. 

Family Tree Maker
Pros
  • It's the basic family tree application.
Cons
  • Looks and feels like the exact same program that I used in 1987.

Location: Keller, TX, USA

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