Originally shared by Tamura Jones
NEHGS Genealogy Software Popularity
The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) publishes a newsletter called the The Weekly Genealogist.
The latest issue, published today (The Weekly Genealogist Vol. 15, No. 4, Whole #567, 2012 January 25), contains statistics on what genealogy applications their members use:
Last week’s survey asked which genealogical software program you use.
The results are:
50%, Family Tree Maker
33%, Ancestry.com’s online family tree program
13%, Legacy Family Tree
12%, PAF (Personal Ancestral File)
12%, RootsMagic
11%, Master Genealogist
11%, Reunion (Mac)
4%, Family Tree Maker (Mac)
2%, Ancestral Quest
2%, Clooz
<1%, Family Historian
<1%, MacFamilyTree (Mac)
<1%, Genealogy Pro (Mac)
<1%, Heredis (Mac)
We also received emails from readers who used other programs: Brother’s Keeper, Gene for the Mac, iFamily for the Mac, and Personal Ancestry Writer II for Mac OS X. Several readers wrote to say that they used genealogical programs they designed themselves, and a couple of others wrote that they did not use a genealogical software program at all.
I wonder about the sample size. That PAF is still about popular as RootsMagic is remarkable, but not hard to believe; other sources confirm the continued popularity of PAF.
It is hard to be believe that no one uses Geni or MyHeritage, or that Clooz, one of the lowest rated product on GenSoftReviews, is more popular than MacFamilyTree.
Most remarkable though, considering the many genealogy software packages available, is that several (!) readers use applications they created themselves.
