My biggest concern with sites like these is that once you enter all the information into it, how do you get it out? Few of these sites will be around very long (decades) and it'd be a total waste to enter all the info and not be able to transfer it to some future application later down the road.

After looking through their FAQ, here's what I found:

itsourtree.com supports the GEDCOM-format for secure exchange of your family tree data!

What is GEDCOM?

GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data COMmunication) is the standard format for genealogical data (file ending .ged) for example the people in a family tree and their familial relationships. FAQ

Looks like a win!

umassdood

Definitely a fun tool to play around with. I spent a while playing around and adding family members. The only down-fall seems to be that my family wasn't too keen on having me input their data onto a website.

Great idea though!

PertinaxVir

Lifehacker probably covered Geni - but this interface is a direct copy of that site, which has been growing strong for quite some time. I covered them here, over a year ago, with, an article called: It's So Easy Even your Mom can Do It.

[www.dkworldwide.com]

David Kaufman

Another concern is saving all this personal data on a website. I would much rather do it locally.

Tush

familysearch.org ftw.
their new interface thats in closed beta right now is just absolutely beautiful and full of ajax goodness.

stevo

My family just got onto Geni and it seems like a winner. Haven't looked at this one but since we just got on Geni I don't want to bombard them with ANOTHER family tree site.

DahCheet

I'm all for either this site or the other Geni, but I don't think it would go well with other family members having their information online.

Jnetty

Yes, please respect the privacy of the living! Root the data entry in these kinds of things with a deceased grandparent, or someone like that. Once you expose the personal details about a living person, it's out there forever.

Most respectable genealogists never post information about the living.

Logical Extremes

Another Geni.com user here. It's been around for a while and is pretty nice - I have a lot of relatives using it and adding more and more people.

progoth

I second geni.com. I've been using it for a while and it's great. itsourtree.com seems like a ripoff of geni.com.

dinobuddy

I wanted to add that Geni apparently doesn't have different language versions. My family from spanish background so a spanish version could be a great thing.

I don't know which one to try?

Jnetty

What about something that connects multiple family trees together? With enough entries we can get a world map leading back to Eve and find out we're all related.

Maybe that'll stop wars. Or start new ones.

iain010100

Geni supports GEDCOM as well. My family has been using it for months now, and it's a great way to share information when we all live in separate parts of the country.

saffyre9

Funny this should come up. I just finished setting up an install of PhpGedView on my webhost. I had multiple family members who'd branched off using Family Tree Maker...I merged these together, exported as a GEDCOM file, and then imported it into my PGV install. I'm the administrator, and I can set up users, privacy levels (right now you have to log in to see anything), and who can change what, etc.

It really was minimal work to set up if you've installed php/mysql apps on a host before. Now I have a collaborative environment where I can give family members the address and they can go, sign up, and we can all update our family history! Suwheet!

edmicman

@iain010100: Agreed. Probably a huge privacy nightmare, but it would be really cool if you could link online trees, expanding across huge generations, suggest error fixes, etc.

stopNgoBeau

I'm still partial to MyHeritage.com since they have a free standalone app that integrates with their website. But maybe that is for more serious genealogists.

nmaj

I've been using the software over at myheritage.com to build my family tree. However, their interface isn't as fluid as Geni or itsourtree.com. However, it seems to have more features.

Has anyone else used both of these and what are your opinions on them?

bragot

I love Geni, and my grandmother is crazy about it. She uses it like facebook for our family. We've been using Geni well over a year and have about 400 people on our tree.

[i28.tinypic.com]

stuboo

Count me as another vote for Geni. The interface is very slick and it's been great connecting with my distant family around the world. With a bit of research, I've found nearly 750 relatives, some dating back hundreds of years. Very cool.

[i30.tinypic.com]

guy_davis

750? Wow. I thought I was doing good with 246 people in my tree.

freddiefenster, you can see a relationship line for someone in your tree if you bring up their profile. It shows at the top in a yellowish box.

pixelstuff

If you're serious about your family tree and want details and complicated relationships you need dedicated software. I use Family Tree Maker and it's great, BUT unfortunately it's not nearly as user-friendly as these websites. Plus these sites display trees much better.

Depth of Details, complicated relationships, statistics, extra tools, merging, privacy > go with Family Tree Maker

Ease of use, sharing & collaboration, and snappy tree display > go with one of these online sites.

gopanthers

Geni doesn't work great if you've got a super-complicated family tree to work with.

I've been reading about the Wars of the Roses again and trying to keep track of who is related to whom and figured I'd throw together a family tree. The problem is that you can't join your tree in circles (John of Gaunt's niece on one side marries his nephew on the other side, for example).

So while it's pretty cool, it's not an ideal product if you're European royalty.

BoofusMcGoofus

True that itsourtree is a direct rip off of geni (even down to the menu items under settings), but I've been playing round with both and have to say that itsourtree is much snappier and cleaner looking.*

One thing that is missing off all these sites is the ability to click on somebody and see how they relate to you e.g. Mary is your second cousin once removed. Am I missing something or is it too difficult to do this?

* or at least it was till the site ground to a crawl today...the lifehacker effect!

freddiefenster

@Logical Extremes:

Quite so. Whenever I've seen data about living people in a GEDCOM file out on the internets, the person's name and data is usually marked as "living," with no birthdates or anything like that. Just a place marker to show that there is a person there.

Cheers!

SinisterMatt

I'm a Geni user too. I started my tree about a year and half ago and we have 956 people on it now!

Also, as a dork aside, my friend uses Geni to track the family tree of Henry VIII. Going backward, forward, and outwards in all directions they have something like 5000 people on the tree.

thewildboo

I've been using this site for a few months or so, mainly because it's also in Polish so I can have family in Poland add to my tree as well. It's a bit graphics heavy, but overall it's great and I highly recommend.

sirgrunwald

Bought Legacy Family Tree but haven't used it. I need something that lets me invite family members to keep me on track and enable me to divide the workload between family members. It takes lots of time to research family history. The web based approach tied in with some family networking features seems like it would be the best fit.

ToMuse.com

VizionQuest

Quick follow up, to some of the comments here...one thing that Geni did think of was you working by yourself is not nearly as productive as a "group or family" project.

Getting that aunt or uncle with all the family knowledge to enter in things so you don't have to take an oral history is really the key to growing the tree.

Distributed work.

Also lately Geni's automated Family and Friend newsletter is pretty cool. A cousin of mine went to China and I found out and saw the photos on Geni.

Dave Kaufman

Yeah, they definitely jacked the Geni user interface and idea. Can they sue for that??? The problem most genealogists, including myself, have with Geni is that you can't upload existing GEDCOM files. Who wants to type the names in all over again?

BTW, Ancestry.com lets you upload your tree free and is beta testing their own Flash version of trees that's pretty nice. They also let you invite people to the tree to help you build it. They have to join Ancestry (free). And, you can upload your GEDCOM to Ancestry.

I use Legacy too. I hear that the upgrade is coming this year and should be pretty snazzy.

ChoqlitHack

That looks exactly like the Flash frontend of verwandt.de a german genealogy service.

Snyke

As other people have mentioned, the privacy issues are be a major deterrent from using this and similar sites. Even if you personally are willing to forgo your privacy there are bound to be people in your family who are most definitely not! The only advantage to hosting your family tree online (as opposed to on your own computer) is so that other people may participate in its growth and development as well as gaining easy access to it. This all falls apart when people demand to be removed from the tree (or only want limited info posted).

The only relatively safe solution, it seems to me, is to use the open source software PhpGedView (that edmicman mentioned) and host your own family-tree site. This takes a bit more effort but at least it is semi-secure and everyone can freely participate (assuming your family trusts you with their info.

Liffey

Strongly agree with edmicman. I also have my family tree on PhpGedView, not difficult to set up and leaves me in control of the sensitive family data. Sites like ItsOurTree, Geni, MyHeritage, etc are social networking sites, rather than serious genealogy tools.

I would recommend to think twice before entering your family members data in places like this.

Clareman

I second the comments above about privacy concerns. *You* will be held responsible by your family once their names, dates of birth, mother's maiden name and email address will be leave in the open for anyone to see/spam.

I have been working on my family tree for the last 15 years. I publish my tree on the net just for dead people, No information whatoever about the living. I have full control over the privacy policy, not a third party.

In short: The likes of Geni, Myheritage and Itsourtree are Social Networking sites, not genealogy websites. I would stay away from them.

Clareman

Geni is a social networking site, not suitable for serious genealogists.

There's been a healthy discussion in genealogy forums about their predatory marketing practices, bordering with spam. Their genealogy tools are poor - to say the least... GEDCOM import? No way. A Soundex search? Never heard of it.

I have a family tree with 2,200 names on it, and putting their *private* information (e.g. dates of birth, mother maidenames, email addresses) on the hands of third parties is out of the question.

Clareman

Looked interesting, but after adding a few family members got this:

"504 Gateway Time-out"

Too many people reading lifehacker & then hitting itsourtree?

tt

tonyt

funnily enough, the site keeps giving a 504 Gateway Time-out error...

I guess Geni still holds its own...

whoisvaibhav

Well hmm, both Geni and ItsOurTree.com are extremely slow right now. Are they both killed by the popularity of lifehacker.com or is something else going on?

image provided by [www.egghedz.com]

kajurria

@umassdood: Thank you for finding this info!!! I totally appreciate it.

I tried exporting it to PDF (Mac > File > Print > Save as PDF), but it only prints (on PDF) the viewable area. =(

nikkirosety

Another one for Geni... I'm pretty sure they've made changes to their privacy policy / visibility of the living and dead over the last few months... I don't know what the big deal about the privacy is? Geni is a social network for your family... The only people who can see meaningful information by default is your family...

encosion