Genealogy Software

Okay, so I must admit that I do not use any genealogy software right now. I once had Family Tree Maker around 2004 but when my computer crashed and I lost all of the data (thankfully I had backed up everything with paper due to me being very paranoid) I just couldn't find the time to retype everything. It just sounded like such a pain in the butt. So, because of this, genealogy software is one of those areas of genealogy I am quite uninformed about. Many of you are experts and some are novices or somewhere in between. If you have used genealogy software I want to hear from you. What are your experiences? What is the best software to use for genealogy and why? What is the easiest software to use? Prices compared to quality? Etc. I am thinking about purchasing some genealogy software to be able to print out reports again, etc., but want to be a well informed consumer before doing so. I have posted this same description in the forum section. Please go to: http://www.genealogywise.com/forum/topics/genealogy-software or you can reply to this blog to post your answers. Thank you all in advance. I look forward to reading your responses.
  • tami osmer glatz

    Oh my gosh - a real paper and pencil genealogist?! Wow. Computer crashes tend to reinforce the importance of backups, don't they? I keep my genealogy file backed up on a flash drive, and use Mozy.com for my entire hard drive as well, so I can sleep soundly at night! But in regards to your original question - I definitely recommend Legacy 7. Its simple to use, and has a million fantastic features (you can read about some of them in the GW group for Legacy 7) but one of the most unique is that you can enter your source citations using the professionally accepted standards of Evidence Explained! by Elizabeth Shown Mills. You can try out the basic version for free, but I would definitely pay for the upgrade to the Deluxe version. Another of my favorite things is that you can customize your index views and have women listed alphabetically by both their maiden AND married names. Anyway, thats my 2cents!