Genealogy software
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Genealogy software is computer software used to record, organize, and publish genealogical data. At a minimum, genealogy software collects the date and place of an individual's birth, marriage, and death, and stores the relationships of individuals to their parents, spouses, and children. Additionally, most genealogy programs handle additional events in an individual's life, free-form notes, and photographs and other multimedia, and source citations. Genealogy software programs can produce a variety of graphical charts and text reports, such as pedigree charts, ahnentafel reports, or Register reports. Some desktop applications generate HTML pages for web publishing; there are stand-alone web applications, as well. Most genealogy programs can import and export using the GEDCOM standard.
[edit] Features
Certain programs are geared towards specific religions, and will include additional fields relevant to that religion. Other programs focus on certain geographical regions. For example, having a field for the family's coat of arms is only relevant if the family comes from a part of the world that uses them.
Some programs allow for the import of digital photographs. Others focus on the ability to generate kinship charts. Some programs are more flexible than others in allowing for the input of children born out of wedlock or for varying types of spousal relationships.
While most programs and applications are desktop-based, there are a number of web-based entries in the genealogy software market.
Many genealogy applications focus on data management in that they allow users to manage all the information they collect on individuals, families, and events. Other tools available to the genealogist include research management tools, mapping tools, charting programs, and web-publishing programs.
[edit] Sharing
Most genealogy software will allow for the export of data in the GEDCOM format, which can then be shared with people using different genealogy software. Some genealogy applications (for example GEDitCOM for Macintosh and Family Historian for Windows) use GEDCOM internally and therefore work directly on GEDCOM data. Certain programs allow the user to restrict what information is shared, usually by removing information about living people for privacy purposes.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
