Genealogy Software - Freeware/Shareware

Review of genealogy programs for DOS and Windows 3.1. This is a list of genealogy programs which are freeware or have shareware versions. Limitations of the shareware versions are listed when known. If you notice, I haven't found too many programs for Win 95 specifically, however, Win 3.1 programs will run fine under Win 95, you will just lose some features that Win 95 programs have, like uninstalling the programs.

Jump to: DOS software | Win 3.1 software | Mac software | Misc software | Other software sources

DOS

• Accept 5.0 (1991)
  ftp.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/genealgy/
• Brother's Keeper 5.2 by John Steed
  A very good program. Lots of report formats, including tree formats and register formats, but menus are clumsy and are not very intuitive. For example, before running some of the register reports, you have to choose another menu option to sort the data. Imports and exports GEDCOM data. From ftp.coast.net /SimTel/win3/genealgy also www.bkwin.com.
• Cumberland Tree 3.2
  
• EZ Tree (1995)
  
• Family Edge Plus
  
• Family History System (1992)
  
• Family Ties 1.19 (1991)
  
• GIM 3.14 (1996)
  Full featured genealogy information manager. .
• The Master Genealogist
  The demo has reports and graphs disabled. http://www.doit.com/tdoyle/tmg/home.html
• RF Gene 3.0 (1991)
  
• Roots IV by Commsoft
  http://www.sonic.net/~commsoft/. No shareware version available. Only slide shows.

Win 3.1

• Brother's Keeper 5.2g
  BKWIN02.ZIP. Windows version of one of the best programs around. From Brother's Keeper another homepage, www.bkwin.com
• Family Explorer
  Win 95/Nt.
• Family Gathering by Palladium $49.95
  No demo avail. Palladium site.
• Family Tree in a Window
  . Supports linking pictures to each person.
• Family Tree Maker 3.02
  http://www.familytreemaker.com. The demo version is called Family Archive Viewer. Shareware version limited to 20 person tree. All reports and other things work. From their website, you can search for names that exist on their CDROM.
• Gedail Gedail : Web publishing from a gedcom file, output customisable by templates, program in PERL working under DOS, Windows, Linux (and maybe MacPerl). Multi language practicability including French and English. http://jfbaquet.free.fr/outils/tools.html
• Genius by Family Tree Software
  http://www.gensol.com.au/default.htm. Looks to be fully functional.
• Kindrid Konnections
  This windows program is FREE and supports Gedcom import/export, 8 mil names, printing birthday calendar, hyperlinked notes, multimedia support for historical documents, longer fields for surnames, names, place names. Get it at http://www.kindredkonnections.com/download.html. Also has a 2.5 million name database which is FREE to search.
• Kith and Kin 3.03 by Spansoft
  http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SpanSoft/. UK's number 1 genealogy software. Compatible with PAF, GEDCOM files. Fields for all the standard dates (birth, death, marriage, divorce, etc), notes field for each person, two user-defined fields for each person, print preview function, print text reports to files, Win95 ready.
• Pantheon 1.04
  .
• Parents 4.6 by Nickleware
  http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/NickleWare/. The last shareware version is 4.04, but it is fully functional. The commercial version (4.6) requires the Win32s 32-bit drivers if you have Win 3.1. Here's an excerpt from the author:

  Thank you for your interest in PARENTS and NickleWare. The shareware version of PARENTS is fully functional and will allow you to store virtually an unlimited number of individuals. Our latest release is PARENTS 4.6. It contains many new features and enhancements over the shareware version. Some of the latest features include:

  • Compatible with Windows 95, Windows NT and Windows 3.1.
  • Ability to store military history, medical history and special relationships like adoption and foster parents.
  • Create and maintain multiple databases and switch between them quickly and easily.
  • Search for and display the complete lineage from two individuals to a common ancestor.
  • Create a custom listing of all the ancestral records.
  • Export pre-formatted genealogy data to a word processor.
  • View, customize and print a descendants chart.
  • Preview the reports and charts before printing them, with the Print Preview window.
  • Search and sort similar sounding names using the built in soundex encoding.
  • Easily export your information into other Windows programs such as MS Word or WordPerfect with a single click and drag.
  • Store pictures and other graphic artifacts along with your data.
  • Use the Quick Name Search indexer to easily locate names in the individual list.
  • And more...

  PARENTS 4.6 is the first 32-bit Windows Genealogy software on the market. Being 32-bit, PARENTS is able to take advantage of the speed, performance and latest features provided by Windows 95. If you don't have Windows 95, that's OK. PARENTS 4.6 will also run with Windows 3.1

  Since PARENTS 4.6 is a commercial release rather than a shareware release, it is not available for download from CompuServe or the Internet. The cost for PARENTS 4.6 is $44.95 plus $5.00 shipping and handling inside the U.S. or $7.00 S&H outside the U.S. You can order PARENTS by calling 1-800-250-3988 (inside the U.S. only) or sending a check to:
  NickleWare
  P.O. box 393
  Orem, UT. 84059

  Thank you, Bradley Nicholes, NickleWare

• Reunion
  http://www.leisterpro.com.
• Roots IV by Commsoft $129.95
  Slide show avail. Commsoft site.
• WinFamily 3.0
  Fully functional version, imports/exports GEDCOM files, saves data, except shareware version doesn't print to printer. It does print to the screen so you can see the report layout. http://www.jamodat.dk
• WinGen .60
  .

Mac software

• Gene 4.1.1
  Can be found at http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/gene/.
• Reunion
  http://www.leisterpro.com.

Misc software

• Census20
  EZCensus: This is a program to allow easy entry of census data.
  
• DDJGrep
  Several people have asked about searching for text in files. DDJGrep is a variation of the unix Grep, for DOS. Grep will search for text in ascii files. Get it at .
• Deedmapper
  At http://www.ultranet.com/~deeds/. This excellent piece of software for DOS allows you to map deeds. It also runs under Win 3.1 and Win 95. It has free datafiles of mapped deeds donated from other people for several other counties including KY, VA, NY. Cost is $99. Prices of maps are $15 each and go down from there when you order more. There is no shareware version.
• Epi Map
  Not that good a package. This was intended for use by the CDC to map epidemics.
• fgrep 1.83
  Another version of the grep text search utility for DOS.
• Ged2html
  Converts GEDCOM files to linked and indexed HTML files for use on the web.
  http://bsd7.cs.sunysb.edu/%7Estark/genealogy.html
• GEDBrowse
  Win 95 program to create HTML files from GEDCOM files.
• GEDView Ver 1.02, file name GEDVW102.ZIP
  For DOS, mouse support, shareware. Contact Michael Cooley, email nqf@netcom.com or michael@emcee.com or mikecooley@aol.com.

  Ability to browse record(s) directly from GEDCOM file and to extract individual records to create a new GEDCOM file. Pretty neat.

• GED-Treasure Ver 2.1, file name GEDT21.ZIP
  For DOS, mouse support, shareware, Larry Murdock, Knowledge Software Systems, 935 So. Best Ave., Salt Lake City, UT 84104, voice (801)484-6958, BBS (801)466-5374.

  Ability to identify and split out multiple trees contained within a single GEDCOM file and create corresponding individual tree GEDCOM files, plus browse directly from GEDCOM files. Also pretty neat. NOTE: this program is for DOS so it creates HTM files. Your host must support HTM files (they must be set up as MIME files on the host side) and you must have a shell account so you can zip up these files and the subdir they are stored in, and unzip them on your host, creating the subdirectories. Otherwise, you will have to upload each file manually (this could create 20-50 files or more) and possibly rename them from HTM to HTML files.

• Great American Census 2.1
  Allows entry of census data from 1790 to 1920, except 1890.
  http://www.chrysalis.org/stevem/
• Grepfv 1.0
  Another version of the grep text searching utility for DOS. http://www.coast.net/cgi-bin/coast/dwn?msdos/textutil/grepfv10.zip
• Mapit 1.4
  This is a good shareware package. It has maps of the world and supports a VGA screen and a mouse. You can add points to it, zoom, or pan by clicking with your mouse. You can have several pieces of info per city like country capital, state capital, population, and more. You can insert the county lines yourself. It can also export to PCX files. See the files MAPIT14A.ZIP, B and C.
  
• Net Attache Lite (FREE)
  This is a data miner/web spider to help you search web pages for strings. http://www.tympani.com/store.html.
• SSDI Print
  Read/print/convert Soc Sec Death Index GED files.
  
• Text Utilities at Coast.net
  More text searching, text indexing, and other software.
  

Other and lists of software

• Cyndi's list of software
  http://www.CyndisList.com/howto.htm#Pubs
• DOS genealogy software
  
  • Oregon State - LOTS of programs here
• Genealogical Businesses and Consulting software list
  http://www.nslsilus.org/~cookweb/genbus.html#comp.
• Genealogy Software Springboard
  Good,with software reviews. Mostly reviews of commercial software.
• S & N Genealogy software reviews (DOS and windows)
  http://ourworld.compuserve.com/ homepages/Genealogy_Supplies/whatsonm.htm
• Win 3.1 genealogy software
  • Oregon State Win 3.1
  • http://www.winsite.com/rec/genealogy/index.html

• Freewarehome.com (my favorite)

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