You are starting to collect a lot of information. What is the best way to keep track of all of this information? The best way to keep track of all of this information is with a genealogy program. There are many to choose from, but the key thing is to choose the one that fits your needs. The first thing you should decide is how much you want to spend. You can get really good basic genealogy programs for free or you can pay upwards of $100.00 or more. It all depends on what features you need and want and how much flexibility you require with reporting and source citations. There are also many add-on programs to help you with reporting and sharing your information. Just keep in mind that you probably do not need everything below are the most common and also the best programs around.

PAF is a good place to start. This software was developed by the LDS to help patrons keep their genealogy information together. It has expanded greatly since its inception. It is available in many languages other than English. The program will allow you to produce reports and family trees, save photos and assign them to a specific person. You can create slide shows with your photos as well. You have the option of producing blank family group sheets and blank family tree forms. This is a great way to get information from others about your family. There are books and family reports you can produce with this software as well. Using some of the sorting options available you can customize how you want the reports to look. A really neat feature is that there is a companion to this product available for Palm OS PDAs. This add-on is also free. You can export your files to your PDA and take them with you when you go to the library or archives. Many archives have restrictions on what you can bring into the facility. Some will not allow laptops at all. Every facility allows you to bring in your PDA. This gives you the ability to quickly look up individual's information without having the hassle of lugging around large notebooks full of data. You can also change the information and upload it back to PAF. This is a great feature to have. Overall this a great set of software to start with. The price is right and you can add it to your PDA. All of this is available from the LDS online at http://www.familysearch.org

Another free program worth mentioning is Legacy. Legacy has a few more bells and whistles than PAF does. The reporting options are better and so are the help files. The import features are better than PAF as well. Legacy has many reporting options. You can produce family group sheets and family trees. There are many options that allow you to print charts and timelines. The sorting options are superior to PAF and you can mark groups for even more detailed reports. Another neat feature is the ability to mark people as research complete. Legacy will let you know of potential problems (like people getting married at age 12). The basic Legacy is free. If you are just starting out it is another great way to see what kind of reporting and sorting you can do with a genealogy program. Legacy does allow you to add photos and documents. You can assign these to an individual or a couple. You will be able to create slide shows for sharing your photos. Another great feature with Legacy is the support that you have. There is a set of tutorial CDs available and there is even a Legacy cruise every year. This is a great way to get to know other people with common interests, while having a lot of fun! You can go out to http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/ for more information.

As the amount of data you have increases, you may want other features. Legacy can be upgraded to a deluxe edition for a small fee. For about $30.00 you can download the upgrade from their website. The upgrade has some really nice features. For example, you can download the latest updates right from the program. (With the free version, you have to go to the Legacy website) One of the best features of Legacy Deluxe is the research assistant. You can use this feature to find out where you need to research further. You choose the ancestor you want to research and click on the research option. Then the program starts to compile where you need to look for more information and how to find that information. Links to online sites are created and you can search these links on the internet right from the software. Another great feature of Legacy and Legacy Deluxe is the number of add-on programs you can get. All of these cost a little but it really lets you develop a reporting and sharing system that works for you. The first companion is the CD set and book that really helps you get to know how to work Legacy. For under $20.00, these training CDs give you all the ins and outs of the software. It is well worth the small investment. Legacy has so many features and options that to learn how to use it to its fullest can take quite a while. This is a great how to series for just a few dollars.
 

The next companion to Legacy is Passage Express. Passage Express is a software program that allows you to share documents and photos easily. You can create CDs that auto run on any windows based computer running Windows 95 or higher. Create slide shows, complete with musical background and other documentation. It really lets you share your information in a CD or DVD format. This makes sharing large amounts of information easy.

Another great program from the Legacy family is the Personal Historian. This software allows you to easily create your own person history or a history about another individual. The Personal Historian takes the large amount of data and information you have and breaks it down into manageable pieces. If you have a difficult time managing information or if you are researching a very large family, finding the information you need can be difficult at times. Another good add-on to Legacy is GenViewer for Legacy. This software is a power search engine that allows you many search parameters. This can help you locate the information you need quickly and accurately. There is also an internet search feature that will help you locate family information in the internet. Other add-ons and companion products for Legacy include 2 for PDAs, The Pocket Genealogist and Gedstar for Legacy. The Pocket Genealogist is probably the best genealogy software for the Pocket PC type PDA (those that run on Windows based platforms). Gedstar also offers 2 great programs for those with PALM OS based PDAs. Gedstar is for smaller or older PDAs with less memory. Gedstar Pro has many more features and colors. Any of these programs is a great way to bring you family files along with you for easy research. Finally, be sure to check out the rest of what Legacy has to offer. They have charting software and programs to track medical histories of your family as well.

Legacy and PAF are the best of the free or almost free programs. Family Tree Maker, owned by the My Family Inc., would be worth mentioning next. Family Tree Maker is not expensive. It is one of the most widely used genealogy software programs. A neat feature of Family Tree Maker is its ability to allow you to create custom web pages about your family. The reporting options are comparable to Legacy and PAF. You can get Family Tree Maker almost anywhere including http://www.genealogy.com . They include this free with some of their pricier membership packages.