Any suggestions for the best software I can use to record my family history? I’m not too keen to be locked into one of the commercial websites, but if that’s the best way then I suppose I’ll need to do it.

thanks

MrsJulianA used to use Family Tree Maker which led to an Ancestry.com membership as FTM ties in with it but it’s not obligatory to join Ancestry.com to use FTM.

use gramps here, but it’s not the easiest tool in the world, and don’t even use 99% of the features. might be linux only?

I also use such a tool as my “master copy” and then have the option to export to ancestry and/or genesreunited etc., rather than lock in to one commercial site.

but the issue there is, with ancestry if you export to the site it creates it as a new tree every time so screws up ability to share a tree on that site (and I have more relatives that use that), however genesreunited replaces the tree with the one you export from whatever software, which makes sharing better (but I have fewer relatives using that site).

but then most of the “good” online commercial sites (if you’re happy with sharing such information) allow both import and export in standard formats (although media etc. will probably get lost). and realistically you’ll end up needing a commercial sub if you’re serious about getting actual records.