Abm0raz's Journal: another question about a completely different topic

(Background in the following paragraphs about my family that most will find mind-numbingly boring. To get to my technical question, skip to the end.)

My grandfather's are both getting old. One was put in a home this past week (he's 87) because of severe health issues and may have to have his foot amputated. The other is 86 and was given 3 weeks to live 3 years ago. Let's just say he never listened to doctor's orders and still doesn't. :) He's in rather good health for someone his age, but in the last few months, we can see ethe sparkle leaving his eyes. He always said the reason he didn't die when he was told to was cause he "wasn't ready to go yet." Well, from the look in his eyes, mannerisms, and speech, we can tell he is approaching that point.

      Both of my grandfathers are multi-decorated WWII veterns and are quite proud of their achievements. One stormed the beach in Normandy as part of a bazooka crew. The other was a radar/sonar/radio operator in the south pacific who's ship was hit by a kamikaze. I bought tickets for both to attend the memorial day dedication of the WWII monument in DC, but my paternal Pop can't make it due to health.

      Both are extremely family oriented and try to talk to all of their kids and grandkids at least twice a week. Mom's side has 13 siblings (7 left alive), 4 kids, 14 grandkids. Dad's side has 3 siblings (1 left alive), 8 kids, 27 grandkids, and 12 great-grandkids.

      Both of my grandfathers' birthdays are in December (20th and 23rd) and hoping that they live that long, I would like to present them with a framed and glass covered poster-sized print-out of their scions that will carry on their good name after they've gone. Preferably, I'd like to get the database on-line hosted on one of my computers so that we can keep it updated with new births, marriages, and deaths.

(and now for the question...)

Does anyone know of any good family tree software out there? I don't care about the platform as I can get a machine with whatever platform is necessary. I do prefer it to be able to spit out the output to a webpage (or even some sort of formatted text) so I can set-up a web-based interface for it. I'm asking now because one family reunion is on Jun 13th and the other is on July 25th. I want to have at least a working prototype (if not a completed product) by then so I can take my laptop and cellular modem to have people enter all their info into the tree.

-Ab

Personal Ancestral File

[m0smithslash]

The deFacto standard is Persronal Ancestral File (PAF) available for free from Family Search [familysearch.org]. Click on the Order/Download link. It is produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (mormons) but is availble freely to everyone. And no, the missionaries won't come pound your door down if you download it :)

It does most of the basic things that you would want. My mother-in-law has been using it for years and she is really into genealogy. You can enter names, print charts and reports and gene

No specific recommendations

[insanecarbonbasedlif]

But two thoughts:

1) Most geneology programs' HTML output is ugly and clunky

2) Sourceforge has a geneology section [sourceforge.net] with 72 projects listed. Many of the first few listed look like they do what you want, or could be modified a lot easier than rolling your own from the beginning.