What Do You Use to Create Your Family Tree?

I was interested to know what most people use to create their family trees? I've started a poll (on the right hand side of this page) which you can vote on until the end of next week. I can't wait to hear your answers. :-)

New to Genealogy?

When I first started exploring my family history, I didn't really know where to begin. It seemed easy enough to just start with myself and work backward, but there were still so many questions. Where do I find more information? What information exists past family documents and stories? Realistically, how much money should I be spending to work on my family tree? Ancestry's Family History 101 page was a great help to me. If you are just starting out in genealogy, I hope you'll check it out too.

Software Switcheroo

It's hard to get back into the game after straying from my genealogy project. Though I still use free versions of genealogy software, I recently switched from My Heritage software to the free version of Roots Magic. I did this because for some reason, I couldn't get My Heritage to open after my external hard drive switched drive letters all of a sudden (that put a hiccup in iTunes as well...). After that, I tried reinstalling it on the drive, but it kept saving files to my C drive. I wasn't having any of that, so I made the switch. Roots Magic seems to work just as well for me, at least until I can afford to purchase Family Tree Maker 2010.

No significant work was lost in my transition, so I'm grateful for that! Let's hope the transition from free to paid software goes the same way.

Wild Branches

According to my genealogy software, I have 4363 names in my family tree. Only problem? Now I have to buckle down and find the documents, photographs, records, etc. for each one. And this includes info for the newest little branch on my tree, my nephew Parker.