The Portable Freeware Collection Forums

[Moderator note: this thread was formerly titled "Portable Family Tree Freeware???" but made more sense as the "home" thread for one particular program.]

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Can anyone point me to good family tree freeware?

Portable would be icing on the cake, but I can live with a non-portable app.

Thanks in advance

It depends how you define good but a while back somebody suggested an app from JDM Cox and his website contains "Simple Family Tree" which appears to be a small yet capable family tree creation tool. It does actually appear to be portable, saving settings to "Simple Family Tree.ini", but I haven't checked very closely. It supports the GED format, which as far as I can make out is a standard text-based format for storing family tree information (a bit like PGN is for storing Chess moves)

Hi I use PAF 5.2 available from http://www.familysearch.org/

I use it as a portable application.

I installed the app on my PC and copied the installation folder onto my usb drive. I've tried it several PC's and it seems to work fine.

It does however write to the registry but otherwise I thnk it's portable

Hope this helps

Not exactly a portable app, but there's a portable OS with family tree software on it, called the Linux Genealogy Desktop CD.

It's an Ubuntu Linux live CD distributed by the Gramps Project, which makes GRAMPS (Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System).

The CD contains GRAMPS, which is an easy-to-use program with its own graphical user interface. It also contains GeneWeb, which runs through a Web browser, as well as a text-based program called LifeLines.

Some more information about the CD is here.

If you already run Linux, you can just download GRAMPs and run it natively. I don't believe there's a Windows version of it, but GeneWeb works in Windows, Linux/Unix and Mac OSX. You may even be able to set up a portable version of GeneWeb to go along with Firefox Portable, but I'm not sure if that would work.

Thank you everyone for your input. After trying out all of these, except for GeneWeb...whose installation was way over my head, I have made a decision.

I was looking for something better than the "Family Tree Maker v5.0b for Windows 95" software I received as a gift years ago. Interesting note: it runs portable, even on XP! FTM is WAY better than the free stuff. So, I'm sticking with that...for now. For CD distribution to my family, I will export the file to GEDCOM format and include "Simple Family Tree" portable freeware available here: http://www.jdmcox.com/

Thanks again for responding

NewKreation wrote:I was looking for something better than the "Family Tree Maker v5.0b for Windows 95" software I received as a gift years ago. Interesting note: it runs portable, even on XP! FTM is WAY better than the free stuff.

My wife is using PAF 5.2, which is freeware, based on the recommendation above. Could you give me a few highlights of what the freeware is missing that she could have with the commercial Family Tree Maker? Perhaps we should shell out the cash and buy a commercial program, but we've been satisfied with PAF 5.2 so far. Perhaps we just don't know enough to know what we're missing!

Thanks.

Yucca

I have posted "Simple Family Tree" to the database.

I am using an old version of Family Tree Maker (5 vs 16), so I can't speak for shelling out money for the new version. It is quite expensive. Having said that, you can always get an older version off ebay for WAY less money.

The viewing and printing of the family tree is the biggest benefit I see. I can use the descendant chart to view the entire tree or I can set up a report to see only the info I want to see. The icons in the following image show a preview of the different charts available.



There are more screenshots from Google's Image search: http://images.google.com/images?num=100 ... a=N&tab=wi

If you have any more questions, let me know.

For lack of alternatives, this was made the forum topic for Simple Family Tree.

http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=922

I am Baas wrote:For lack of alternatives, this was made the forum topic for Simple Family Tree.

http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=922

• It would be advisable to ask webfork to amend OP, too...

@Midas
Okey b^.^d

@Moderator
See post ^... please modify OP. Thank you.

I am Baas wrote:@Moderator
See post ^... please modify OP. Thank you.

• It didn't work, apparently. Shame...

Midas wrote:

I am Baas wrote:@Moderator
See post ^... please modify OP. Thank you.

• It didn't work, apparently. Shame...

A charming message Baas 1.0 style was sent to webfork... let's see if that will have an impact

Midas wrote:It didn't work, apparently

It was on the list, just hadn't gotten to it yet.