Download A Free Gedcom Program for your Family Tree

OK, so you are new at this genealogy thing! How do you get started?

You can pay a small fortune or you can download a free program to get you started. Then by saving your family file in .ged form (also known as a Gedcom) you can transfer it to another family tree program if you want to, or upload it to Latter Day Saints Family Search, or Rootsweb, My Family or another Genealogy web site.

Latter Day Saints has a free family tree program called a PAF (Personal Ancestral File) that you can use to create and publish your family tree. Latter Day Saints created the family tree industry and continues to improve it. At the homepage like below you will see a link on the right to download the PAF file, which leads you to the download registration page below. You may choose to publish your Gedcom at LDS or not, the choice is yours to make. I've been with them about ten years and am glad I joined. Now, at their new History search page you can find census and birth records in America and Europe, and some are downloaded for free and some take you to another site where they charge a fee for the record, it's all your choice. I personally use a Sierra program that was bought by another company and eliminated...........I also have Family Tree Maker and LDS PAF. I also have family trees on the sites below.

Homepage: http://www.familysearch.org/eng/

Free Download Registration page to begin the download of the PAF gedcom is on a link at the right side of their homepage.

Some other free web page sites where you can create a web page and post your Gedcom.

If you buy the brand name Family Tree Maker program, you can post automatically to Family Tree at Genealogy dot com from your file menu and enjoy a very nice web page where you can upload pictures, files and links to other sites. I recommend it. You can buy Family Tree Maker at Genealogy dot com: http://www.genealogy.com/soft_ftm.html

Or you can create a family tree website free at Genealogy dot com, but not the quality Family Tree Maker provides. Main page of Genealogy dot com

Also you can build a web page that includes a place for your family pictures as well as a family tree at My Heritage dot com

My Heritage free Family Tree Builder genealogy program is also an option. Download Family Tree Builder