Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Finding Genealogy Software History

When I wrote Dear Randy: Why Do You Use RootsMagic? yesterday, I needed to refresh my memory about the different versions of Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic.  

I went to Wikipedia and input "genealogy software" in the search field and easily found a summary of all genealogy software (known to Wikipedia users):



There was a neat chart on this page with links to different types of genealogy software and to specific Wikipedia pages for the listed programs:

At the bottom of that list is a link for "Comparison of genealogy software" (note that there is also a link for "Comparison of web-based genealogy software").  I clicked the link for "Comparison of genealogy software":


This is a relatively long list, with columns for Latest version, Latest release, Free to use, Free software, Software license, Windows, OS X, Linus, Android, and iOS.

I wanted the history of Family Tree Maker software for my blog post - so I clicked on Family Tree Maker on the list above and scrolled down to the version history (4 screens shown below):



The list above is an excellent history of the development of the two different programs named Family Tree Maker (up to Version 16, and then 2008 and later).

There is similar information for all of the genealogy software programs on the Wikipedia page for "Genealogy Software" and "Comparison of genealogy software."

I have not checked the veracity of the information about each program - my guess is that the different companies try to keep the information up-to-date and accurate.

This was very useful in refreshing my memory of when I started using Family Tree Maker 5 in about 1998.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/11/finding-genealogy-software-history.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.




No comments: