While I was putting the genealogical parts of this site
together the genealogical database program I use insisted on adding a link to
the supplier's home page onto everything it produced - well as it happened, what
with cutting and pasting and using graphics packages these got lost but you may
be interested in the information and a few other links.
The software
used to maintain my genealogical data is
The Master Genealogist for
Windows. However this is a heavy weight program more suited to the
experienced genealogist who wants to track his ancestors in a wide range of
documents - census returns, military records etc. While it is good package it is
expensive (c.£100) and I would not recommend it to the beginner. There are
cheaper (even freeware packages) available. Virtually all genealogical software
will import and export data in GEDCOM format so it is relatively easy to begin
your research with a simple package and migrate to a more sophisticated one as
your requirements change.
A large proportion of the data I use is from
the IGI (International
Genealogical Index) - a major secondary source of genealogical
data. In the UK it covers data on births and marriages extracted from parish
records mostly from the period up to 1837 (before the civil registration of
births, deaths and marriages began). The IGI can be accessed at the Family
History Centres run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (see your
phone book under churches to find the address of your local FHC.
In 1999 the Latter-day Saints put the IGI onto the
Internet. Personally I consider the
version of the IGI available at FHCs is better since it is possible to use more
refined searches, but this may change with time.
The data from the IGI
is in GEDCOM format and difficult to sort by hand, particularly if you are
working with all 1300+ records of Beeden from the UK. The are a number of
packages designed to sort and manipulate GEDCOM data. Personally I use
BIRDIE - (British Isles
Regional
Display of IGI Extracts) which has the advantage of
being able to examine the distribution of data graphically. For more details of
this and a number of other genealogical software packages visit the
Drake Software Associates website.