FREEWARE AND SHAREWARE

FOR FAMILY HISTORY

Copyright 2010 by Donald R. Snow
Sections of the Notes This page was last updated 2010-07-07.
Return to the Utah Valley PAF Users Group Home Page , or Don's Class Listings Page .

          WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION TO CLASS
          GENEALOGY DATABASE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS
  1. PAF 5.2 -- http://www.familysearch.org/ -- Genealogy program from LDS Church; can get help from any Family History Center for it
  2. PAF Companion 5.2 -- http://www.familysearch.org/ -- Additional reports not in PAF 5.2, including fan charts -- The free trial version only does 3 generations; full version is on CD bundled with PAF 5.2 CD from the LDS Church Dist Centers or can be purchased online
  3. Ancestral Quest -- http://www.ancquest.com/ -- 60-day free trial for everyone; full version is free in FHC's; can link your PAF file to New FamilySearch 
  4. RootsMagic Essentials -- http://www.rootsmagic.com/ -- Freeware to download data from New FamilySearch; full version of RootsMagic is free in FHC's
  5. Get My Ancestors -- http://www.ohanasoftware.com/ -- Freeware to download data from New FamilySearch; full version of Family Insight is free in FHC's; links your PAF database to New FamilySearch 
  6. Legacy -- http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/ -- Standard version is free; full version is free in FHC's
  7. Family Tree Builder -- http://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder -- Freeware genealogy program
  8. Smart Genealogy -- http://freewareapp.com/smartgenealogy_download/ -- Freeware; can import/export Excel and GEDCOM files
  9. PhpGedView -- http://www.phpgedview.net/ -- Freeware on- and offline genealogy program to generate web pages from your GEDCOM; requires PHP (which is also free)


    OTHER GENEALOGY PROGRAMS AND DATABASES

  10. PAF Pal -- freeware now from http://www.ohanasoftware.com/  -- helpful utility for PAF 5 databases to expand and contract US state names and other things.
  11. GENViewer Lite -- http://mudcreeksoftware.com/genviewer.htm -- very helpful utility to read and analyze GEDCOM's or databases from several other programs
  12. Addnote -- http://www.rootsweb.com/~gumby/ged.html -- utility to add a note to every record in a GEDCOM
  13. Addsour -- http://www.rootsweb.com/~gumby/ged.html -- utility to add a source to every record in a GEDCOM
  14. GEDCOM Viewer -- http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=90339 -- Open source program for GEDCOM files
  15. OurTimelines -- http://ourtimelines.com/ -- Makes timeline of world events and can personalize it with up to 10 events of your own ancestor's life - can then save the html file and link it into your PAF program like a photo
  16. WinTree -- http://www.decrock.net/m1a.html -- Shows large pedigree and descendant charts
  17. OnePageGenealogy -- http://roots.cs.byu.edu/pedigree/ -- Makes pdf pedigree and/or descendant files of large GEDCOM's
  18. Pedigree Viewer -- http://labs.familysearch.org/ -- Trial release of new FamilySearch program by LDS Church to view large pedigree and descendant charts
  19. TreeDraw -- http://3d2f.com/download/37-824-treedraw-free-download.shtml -- Free version - does dropline charts from GEDCOM's
  20. Parish Locater -- http://www.parloc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ -- Program and database of 15,000 parishes in the United Kingdom
  21. Parish Locater for Windows -- http://web.onetel.net.uk/~gdlawson/parfind.htm -- Program and database of 25,000 parishes in the United Kingdom 
  22. PRF Magnet -- on http://www.ohanasoftware.com -- Downloads data from Pedigree Resource File index, but no notes nor sources
  23. FamilySearcher -- http://myweb.cableone.net/kevinowen3/FamilySearcher.htm -- Searches IIGI and several other web sites for names in a GEDCOM


    GRAPHICS PROGRAMS

  24. Adobe Reader 9 -- http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/ -- Free reader for pdf files
  25. FastStone Capture -- http://www.aplusfreeware.com/categories/mmedia/FastStoneCapture.html -- Screen capture utility, including captures of entire scrolling screens; 5.3 is the last freeware version - later versions are shareware
  26. FastStone Image Viewer -- http://www.faststone.org/download.htm -- Good image viewer that also has screen capture features, but doesn't have capture for scrolling screens
  27. Namexif -- http://www.digicamsoft.com/ -- Extracts metadata (date and time the digital photo was taken) and puts it at the front of the file name, so sorting then puts photos in chronological order
  28. Irfanview -- http://www.irfanview.com/ -- Photo editor, converter, and slideshower; many features, including batch conversions
  29. Picasa 3 -- http://picasa.google.com/#utm_source=en-us-more&utm_campaign=en-pic&utm_medium=et -- Google's free photo editor and organizer
  30. GIMP -- http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html -- Freeware open source photo editor;  GIMPShop is an interface that makes GIMP menus look and act like PhotoShop
  31. Oscar's File Renamer -- http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=69 -- Good batch file renamer that allows you to see what the file name changes will look like before you actually change them


    SOUND PROGRAMS

  32. Audacity -- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ -- Good sound recorder and editor
  33. WavePad -- http://wavepad.en.softonic.com/ -- Sound recorder and editor 
  34. VLC -- http://www.videolan.org/ -- Good media player, has adjustments to make sound and video in sync 
  35. Skype -- http://www.skype.com/download/ -- Program to talk for free through your computer with other Skype users worldwide or for a small charge to any land or cell phone worldwide; requires broadband connection


    TEXT AND OFFICE PROGRAMS

  36. Jarte -- http://www.jarte.com/ -- Small, very fast, and free text editor that handles txt and rtf 
  37. IBM Lotus Symphony office suite -- http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home -- Free and compatible with MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; seems to work faster than OpenOffice 3 (see below)
  38. OpenOffice 3 -- http://www.openoffice.org/ -- Open source office programs compatible with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and others
  39. Gnumeric spreadsheet -- http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric/  -- Open source spreadsheet compatible with Excel and many others
  40. NotePad++ -- http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm -- Excellent open source text editor - very useful for many formats
  41. DoPDF -- http://www.dopdf.com/  -- Installs as a printer so you can "print" anything to pdf, e.g. genealogy reports
  42. PDFX-Change Viewer -- http://www.docu-track.com/home/prod_user/PDF-XChange_Tools/pdfx_viewer -- PDF utility, allows you to write on pdf files, e.g. to fill out a pdf form and save the results to print, email, etc. 
  43. PDF Split and Merge -- http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfsam/ -- Open source program to split or combine pdf files
  44. JOCR -- http://download.cnet.com/JOCR/3000-2192_4-10768898.html -- Freeware optical character recognition program for images of text on screen - small, fast, and works well, but requires that MS Word 2003 or later be installed
  45. Transcript -- http://www.jacobboerema.nl/en/Freeware.htm -- Helpful in transcribing from images of handwritten documents, keeps image and your typed text in sync as you move down the page
  46. TreePad Lite -- http://www.treepad.com/treepadfreeware/ -- Tree-format personal information manager (PIM) and organizer 
  47. Tinyspell -- http://tinyspell.m6.net/ -- Spell checker that works even in PAF notes
  48. Eudora Email -- http://www.eudora.com/ -- Freeware email reader with many features; working on an open source version
  49. Thunderbird Email -- http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/products/thunderbird/ -- Free email reader with many helpful features
  50. Essential PIM --  http://www.essentialpim.com/?r=download -- Free personal information manager; good for entering appointments, calendars, To Do lists, etc.


    COMPUTER UTILITIES

  51. BelArc Advisor -- http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html -- Utility to analyze and list your computer's hardware and software
  52. Dropbox -- http://www.getdropbox.com/ -- Automatically copies via the Internet whatever you put in the Dropbox folder on one computer to any other computer(s) you specify
  53. Everything search engine -- http://www.voidtools.com/ -- Fast desktop search engine for files on your computer 
  54. Q-Dir -- http://www.softwareok.com/ -- Helpful two or more panel Explorer-type program for file maintenance, e.g. checking, copying, moving, and deleting files
  55. DupKiller -- http://www.dupkiller.net/index_en.html -- Fast program to find all the duplicate files on your computer
  56. Power Defragmenter -- http://vistarewired.com/2007/02/15/defragment/ -- Good and fast defragger for your hard drives
  57. Glary Utilities --  http://www.glaryutilities.com/  -- Helpful computer utilities to keep your computer running smoothly; free for home use
  58. Advanced SystemCare Free -- http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html?Str=download  -- Helpful computer utilities
  59. JustZipIt -- http://free-backup.info/justzipit.html -- Simple zip/unzip file compression program
  60. WinHTTrack -- http://www.httrack.com/ -- Will download all or part of an entire website for offline browsing and backing up 
  61. PageNest Free -- http://dailyfreeware.net/2009/08/20/pagenest-free-edition-321/ -- Website copier for offline reading and backing up
  62. Clipboard Magic -- http://www.cybermatrix.com/clipboard_magic.html -- Allows saving multiple items on clipboard
  63. Karen's Replicator -- http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp -- Freeware to backup your data from one location to another
  64. ImgBurn -- http://ask-leo.com/imgburn_free_cddvd_burning_tool.html -- Freeware CD/DVD image burner with instructions
  65. LogMeIn Free -- http://www.logmein.com (listed under Products) -- Allows you to control one computer through another over the Internet 

          CONCLUSION
Return to the Utah Valley PAF Users Group Home Page , or Don's Class Listings Page .