Bard, Pluntke, Roth, Tolzien - Family Page

Software

Software for collecting genealocigal data

• "Ahnenblatt" is a german freeware solution which works great for "starting in genealogie". Unfortunately version 1.25 uses an unusual date fomat, leading to incompatibility with some ancillary software (mentioned below). Import/Export by other genealogy software may solve those problems (e.g. Ages corrects the file format!)
• "Ages", commercial software without html-export but with useful charts and list-outputs. Most important the GEDCOM-files are compatible to most ancillary software!

That's the main issue on many genealogie-software: Some programs show great charts and list-output, but the structure of the GEDOCM file is not universal. This is due to the GEDCOM specification which allows individual modification/creation of additional tags which leads to incompatibility while still "in specs". IMHO you definitely someday are willing to exchange GEDCOM-files with other people or prefer ancillary software for special visualisations. That's why I think you should look for compatibility in time, when chosing YOUR favourite software. That's why I did NOT use "Genprofi-Stammbaum" which is incompatible to my favourite anc. software.

Ancillary software for creating websites

• PHPGedView a bundle of php-scripts which meets nearly every requirement. No need for generating hundreds of html-files. Simply upload new GEDCOM-file, change will be recognised, new indices created immediately and all new data is online at once! (Ask your host-provider if they accept php-scripts.)
• Dynamic Familiy Tree Compiler creates an java-applet which provides good research capabilities in many languages.
  
• GED Browser creates plane HTML-sites with individual-, surname- and yeargroup-indices, version 1.1 in english only.

Most commerial software for collecting data offers it's own set of visualisations but I didn't find my favourites there. That's why I prefer the ancillary software to create different web-sites based on my GEDCOM-file.

Links

• Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet A very complete link collection about software and nearly any other question concerning genealogy (english!).
• Ahnen und Wappen gives a well structured overview of many topics like heraldry, genealogical software, newsgroups etc. (german!)

© 2004 Peter Pluntke