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Dear Polly: I have been
using "Roots", a program of the Broderbund Company in California from
the start of my documentation on family history. Roots has grown more
powerful and more useful, but also somewhat demanding of your production of
data, and I have stuck with it through all of the upgrades, now working with
RootsV. They have also produced Visual Roots, for people who want to print
out their tree with pictures of the people who are represented on the
grid. I purchased a less expensive program called Family Gathering, but
hated the work of entering all the data from a printout of my Roots V, and
finally decided I would stick with my tried and familiar Roots and not bother
whatl's left of my mind with learning new tricks. Roots has a great
capacity for data of all kinds, and if you push the right buttons,
you can add pictures, write
biographies, make several differant kinds of charts, lists, and reports,
etc. I have talked to friends who have worked well with Family Tree and
other more simple programs, and they are generally satisfied, but we all have to
ask ourself how much time and work are we willing to invest in the written
results of our family history endeavors. Certainly if you want to write a
book, it will pay you to look into the more sophisticated programs such as
RootsV, but if you only basically want some four-generation charts with
Birth-marriage-children and - Death data, there are a number of inexpensive
programs available, including some from the LDS office in Salt Lake City.
Best of luck to you, Ray Lower
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