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Genealogy software is computer software
Computer software

Computer software, or just software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs, Algorithm and Software documentation that perform some tasks on a computer system....
 used to record, organize, and publish genealogical
Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigree of its members....
 data. At a minimum, genealogy software collects the date and place of an individual's birth, marriage, and death, and stores the relationships of individuals to their parents, spouses, and children.






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Genealogy software is computer software
Computer software

Computer software, or just software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs, Algorithm and Software documentation that perform some tasks on a computer system....
 used to record, organize, and publish genealogical
Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigree of its members....
 data. At a minimum, genealogy software collects the date and place of an individual's birth, marriage, and death, and stores the relationships of individuals to their parents, spouses, and children. Additionally, most genealogy programs handle additional events in an individual's life, free-form notes, and photographs and other multimedia, and source citations. Genealogy software programs can produce a variety of graphical charts and text reports, such as pedigree chart
Pedigree chart

A pedigree chart is a chart which tells someone all of the known phenotypes for an organism and its ancestors, most commonly humans, show dogs, and race horses....
s, ahnentafel
Ahnentafel

An Ahnentafel is a genealogical numbering system that allows one to list a person's ancestors in a particular order. It is also known as: the Eytzinger Method, for Michael Eytzinger, the German historian who first published the principles of the system in 1590; the Sosa Method, named for Jeronimo de Sosa, the Spanish genealogist...
 reports, or Register report
Genealogical numbering systems

Several genealogical numbering systems have been widely adopted for presenting family trees and pedigree charts in text format. Among the most popular numbering systems are: Ahnentafel , and the Register, NGSQ, Henry, d'Aboville, Meurgey de Tupigny, and de Villiers/Pama Systems....
s. Some desktop applications generate HTML
HTML

HTML, an Acronym and initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for Web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document?by denoting certain text as links, headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on?and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded '...
 pages for web publishing; there are stand-alone web applications, as well. Most genealogy programs can import and export using the GEDCOM
GEDCOM

GEDCOM, an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, is a Defacto#Standards specification for exchanging genealogy data between different genealogy software....
 standard.

Features


Certain programs are geared towards specific religions, and will include additional fields relevant to that religion. Other programs focus on certain geographical regions. For example, having a field for the family's coat of arms
Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of devising, granting, and blazoning Coat of arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms....
 is only relevant if the family comes from a part of the world that uses them.

Some programs allow for the import of digital photographs. Others focus on the ability to generate kinship charts. Some programs are more flexible than others in allowing for the input of children born out of wedlock or for varying types of spousal relationships.

While most programs and applications are desktop-based, there are a number of web-based entries in the genealogy software market.

Many genealogy applications focus on data management in that they allow users to manage all the information they collect on individuals, families, and events. Other tools available to the genealogist include research management tools, mapping tools, charting programs, and web-publishing programs.

Sharing

Most genealogy software will allow for the export of data in the GEDCOM
GEDCOM

GEDCOM, an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, is a Defacto#Standards specification for exchanging genealogy data between different genealogy software....
 format, which can then be shared with people using different genealogy software. Some genealogy applications (for example GEDitCOM for Macintosh and Family Historian
Family Historian

Family Historian is a genealogy software program designed and written by Calico Pie Limited, a United Kingdom software design and development company founded by Simon Orde in 1995....
 for Windows) use GEDCOM internally and therefore work directly on GEDCOM data. Certain programs allow the user to restrict what information is shared, usually by removing information about living people for privacy
Privacy

Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively....
 purposes.