Family trees are the most popular ways of organizing the data you'll be collecting on your ancestors over time.
Although it is possible to carry out this investigation without using any computer tool, digital support is recommended as information tends to pile up and the need of keeping track of the names, dates, and places increases. This task is simplified with specialized tools - called genealogical software - which can show you intuitively the gaps in your research and point you where to go next, and easily found on the worldwide web.
Several programs available can store and manipulate your genealogical data. They all share some common standard features. For example, most serve as repositories for family facts and stories, have reporting functions to produce charts and forms, or an export functionality to share the data with others. Some basic features to look for when evaluating software include a compatible computer system requirements, GEDCOM file import and export, being intuitive from a graphical perpective, number of ancestors that can hold, checking for incorrect or incomplete data, option for notes and citing sources, generating the reports you need, or genealogical websites integration.
The software which may be used without payment is designated by "Freeware" and, in this post we present a list of general information about those that are fully functional for an unlimited time, owned by single or a group of developers.
Click on each image to check for more details on their websites!
Name: Ancestor Tree Manager
Last version/update: version 3.6 (14 June 2020)
Devices/Operating System: PC/Windows, Linux and MacOs
License: Freeware; Iris Voswinkel
Min. Requirements:
Java Runtime Environment
installation: at least 15 Mb of available disk space
Limitations: None
Languages: English, Dutch and German
Country of development: Netherlands
Name: Ancestris
Last version/update: stable version 10 (8 February 2020); version 11 (daily updates) Devices/Operating System: PC/Windows, Linux and MacOs License: Freeware; Association Ancestris (GNU General Public License V3) Min. Requirements:
Java version 8 (1.8) or version 11
for MS-Windows: XP or later
2 GB RAM
installation: at least 200 MB hard disk space
A big enough screen, 1920 x 1080 minimum recommended
Limitations: None Languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
Country of development: France
Name: Cumberland Family Tree Software
Last version/update: version 4.10 (21 March 2020)
Devices/Operating System: PC/Windows
License: Freeware; Ira Lund
Min. Requirements:
IBM compatible computer; 32-bit version of MS-Windows (Windows 95 or later)
minimal RAM
installation: at least 5 MB hard disk space
Limitations: None
Languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Chinese-RC&HK, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English-US/ZA, Finnish, French, German-DE/AT, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese-PT/BR, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukraninan
Country of development: Unites States of America
Name: ELIE Genealogical Software/Logiciel de Généalogie
Last version/update: version 6.2.a2 (26 May 2020)
Devices/Operating System: PC/Windows
License: Freeware; association MCS-Logiciels
Min. Requirements:
32/64-bit version of MS-Windows (Windows XP or later)
installation: at least 125 MB hard disk space
Limitations: None
Languages: English, French
Country of development: France
Name: Familienbande (Family Ties)
Last version/update: version 01.05.2020 (1 May 2020 - new update coming soon)
Devices/Operating System: PC/Windows, Linux, and MacOS
License: Freeware; Stefan Mettenbrink
Min. Requirements:
for MS-Windows: Windows NT, 2000, XP or later
installation: at least 300 MB hard disk space
Limitations: None
Languages: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese-PT, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
Additional tools: GenLex, ShowMeGedcom (GEDCOM validator and viewer)
Country of development: Germany
Name: Fzip Family Tree
Last version/update: version 2.1.12 (21 June 2020)
Devices/Operating System: PC/Windows
License: Freeware; Andrew Croft
Min. Requirements:
MS-Windows XP or later
installation: at least 2 MB hard disk space
Limitations: None
Languages: Afrikaans, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Polish, Portuguese-BR, Slovak, Spanish
Country of development: Australia
Name: Gramps Genealogical Research Software
Last version/update: version 5.1.2-1 (10 January 2020)
Devices/Operating System: PC/Windows, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD and MacOS
License: Freeware; Open-source (GNU Free Documentation License 1.2)
Min. Requirements:
for MS-Windows: 32/64-bit version of Vista/7 or later; Python-3.5 and Gtk-3.18 libraries
Apple macOS/Mac OS X: all versions 10.5 (Leopard) and later
for Linux, Solaris or FreeBSD: PyGObject
256-512 MB RAM
installation: at least 132 MB hard disk space
recommended at least a 1920x1080 video display
Limitations: None
Languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese-CN/HK/TW, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English-UK, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Norwegian-Bokmal/Nynorsk, Polish, Portuguese-PT/BR, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukranian, Vietnamese
Country of development: United States of America
Name: My Family Tree
Last version/update: version 10.2.1.0 (14 June 2020)
Devices/Operating System: PC/Windows
License: Freeware; Chronoplex Software/Andrew Hoyle
Min. Requirements:
Windows 7 (SP1 only), 8.1 and 10 (1607 and later)
Microsoft® .NET Framework 4.8 or later
1 GB RAM
at least 20 MB hard disk space
1024×768 display resolution
Limitations: None
Languages: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Norwegian-Bokmal, Polish, Portuguese-PT/BR, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese (available with the language pack)
Additional tools: GEDCOM Validator
Country of development: United Kingdom
Name: PC-AHNEN
Last version/update: version 2020 (11 May 2020)
Devices/Operating System: PC/Windows
License: Freeware; Günther Schwärzer
Min. Requirements:
MS-Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
32-bit version of Windows Vista or later (for 64-bit, only with an emulator)
installation: at least 5 MB hard disk space
Limitations: None
Languages: German
Country of development: Germany
Name: XY Family Tree
Last version/update: version 10.3.1 (December 2019)
Devices/Operating System: PC/Windows
License: Freeware; Brian Jones
Min. Requirements:
32/64-bit version of MS-Windows (Windows 7 or later)
installation: 5 MB hard disk space
recommended a 1366x768 video display
Limitations: None
Languages: English
Country of development: United Kingdom
NOTE: All product names, logos, trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. This post was not endorsed by any of the referred entities.
TIP: If you have any trouble reading non-English websites, you can copy their URL into Google Translator here.
In short, when it comes to grow your family tree for free, there are plenty of options to choose from. Each program can have certain specific characteristics that make it stand out from the others.
Do you have any favorite freeware? What is the reason?
Share your thoughts in the comment section below!
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