Family History and Genealogy Open Source Software

By Lorelle VanFossen
Categories: Genealogy Resources

Looking for some free, open source software for genealogy and family history research? Check out the list of Genealogy Projects on Sourceforge.net.

Sourceforge.net is home to software developers from all over the world working on many projects for all types of needs. There are quite a few programs available for genealogists including the popular PhpGedView. Here is a list of the most downloaded genealogy software projects on Sourceforge.net.

There are also about 50 software program packages in the Sourceforge.net History Category, some of which overlap with genealogy, which might be of interest. A few examples of history programs include MLA Auto-Generator which generates correctly formatted (MLA, APA, Chicago, CPE, Turabian) entries for works cited or bibliography pages, CDAY Calendar Almanac for “what happened on this day in history”, Timeline for creating graphic historic timelines in different formats (requires Ruby), and information on the Mormon Documentation Project to gather, document, index, archive, and make accessible LDS publications.

All programs are free. Be aware that some are still in alpha or beta testing stages. Some require additional programs or files such as Java. And many are operating system dependent, so choose wisely. Read the documentation and information carefully to determine if the program is fully developed and will work for your specific needs.

Article Information

Family History and Genealogy Open Source Software is Issue Number 197 published October 9, 2006, by Lorelle VanFossen. This is just one of many articles found in the Genealogy Resources categories. Lorelle VanFossen writes for a variety of blogs, websites, ezines, and print publications. She also teaches and does a lot of public speaking internationally on photography, writing, blogging, web page design and development, and more. She and her husband and cat(s) travel full-time across North American and the rest of the world by RV, planes, trains, automobiles, and foot, writing and photographing their travels and nature, when they can find it. Lorelle VanFossen has written 231 articles for our our family history blog.

Using feeds, you can monitor this entire blog through our RSS Feed, or the categories associated with this post: Genealogy Resources. If you would like to monitor the comments on this post, subscribe with the RSS comments feed.

This site is for educational and research purposes only. We permit the use of the material for not-for-profit purposes. When citing any of the material published on this site, you must provide proper credit to the site and a link back to http://www.cameraontheroad.com/family. All other use must be approved in writing. For more information on our policies, permissions, and copyrights, see our About page. All Rights Reserved and Copyrighted.

5 Responses to “Family History and Genealogy Open Source Software”

  1. joseph charbonier Says:
    August 6th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    I’M trying to investigate MY families roots but I just don’t
    know wheere to begin

  2. Steven Says:
    September 7th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

    I currently use geni.com, but we recently had a family falling out and one of the members started deleting all the entries. Sad, I know. I am now looking into getting it off of geni and moving it to my own server.

  3. L R Says:
    March 9th, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    seeking to tie family tree to photos from family archives. What software makes this doable?

  4. Tools to create online family tree website? | Super Open Source Says:
    March 17th, 2009 at 6:17 pm

    [...] Oh, you want a script. Sorry, here you go. This is a nice list of them: http://www.cameraontheroad.com/family/family-history-and-genealogy-open-source-software/ [...]

  5. Scott Campbell Says:
    August 9th, 2009 at 5:41 am

    I have a question about Isaac hindrick b. 1774. Was the lineage of the Hendricks related to King hendrick also known as Peter Hendrick. Peter Hendrick was a native american who was one of the four indian kings.

Leave a Reply

Your comments are welcome. Please note, I am not a professional genealogist or family history researcher. I cannot help you research your family. I'm too busy researching my own. For help researching your own family history, we've provided plenty of Genealogy Resources and Genealogy Techniques to help you find your own way.

Please, do not put any personal or private information in the comment box. Please put your email in the email comment form, but do not put it in the comment box. Do not post your phone number, mailing address or any other personal or private information. If you do, it will be deleted. This is for your own safety.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

 
 
Family Images - Do you know these people

Do You Know These People?

Do you know these people? Do you recognize them? These are some lost family and friends we are trying to identify, so check out our Do You Know These People lost and found section to help us identify these people.