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I would love to get your feedback about Behold - good or bad. What do you think of it? How does it fit your needs? Does it do what you want? How do you think it compares to other genealogy software? ... or anything else you might want to say to me.

Your opinions will help me to develop a program that is best for you and for everyone.

Click To See User Reviews and Ratings Behold wins a 2014 GenSoftReviews Users Choice Award - Jan 2, 2015
Check out all the user reviews here. Feel free to add a review of your own.

 

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If you have a question or discussion topic, you may want to use Behold's Discussion Forum

 


Behold Web Output that Users have Posted On Their Websites

Hendrik Acket - www.acket.be/acket_behold.html
Louis Kessler - www.lkessler.com/focsaner.shtml

 


User Feedback (I received their permission to post these)

"I enjoy having Behold in the toolkit because it gives me an easy way to look over my file and catch data-entry mistakes."

- Jan Murphy - November 30, 2014


"I've been playing around with Behold for a while now. The more I use it, the more excited I am about it. For me, Behold really gives me a bigger picture of my genealogy file. The difference is amazing compared to the tunnel vision created by conventional database programs. I am very much looking forward to the addition of editing, and I suspect as time goes, there will be lots of good ideas for other features too. I'm also confident that Behold will "catch on" and quickly become a major player in the genealogy software world. That will be great for us users, and great for you as you certainly deserve all good things to come from your hard work!"

- Deck Bargy - March 29, 2012


"I'm using Behold now for about 9 months and still very happy about it! Thanks to the possibility to create an HTML file, I have been able to insert the file into my website. Everybody in the family is happy with the Everything Report as it gives you plenty of ways to navigate through the entries. You can try it on my website go to: http://www.acket.be. The service offered by Louis Kessler is outstanding, I appreciate the human touch!"

- Hendrik Acket - December 31, 2010


"I also like Behold a lot because it allows me to see in a glance, which people have no sources, which sources are not complete and/or should be edited and lots of other errors and glitches. You do have a refreshing way of looking at handling of genealogical data. When Behold will have editing and saving capabilities, I think it will grow even more into an invaluable tool for every genealogist who takes his "hobby" seriously. For me it already is and it keeps getting better. You really should take pride in what you have accomplished already!"

- Frédérique Bazelmans - November 10, 2009


"I have found the software brilliant."

- Robert Whitehead - April 22, 2009


"I use Behold each day, sometimes just for checking Gedcom files, others for great reports."

- Brett - January 14, 2009


"I am very impressed with Behold. I have been working on a book version of the information I have gathered and find The Everything Report to be an answer to my prayers. I no longer have to keep going back & forth in my original program, clicking here, there, and everywhere to have the info at my fingertips."

- JoAnn - December 3, 2008


"I use Behold for three purposes. First, to generate reports for family members who say "Send me everything you've got." Second, to see inconsistencies and clean up my GEDCOM. Finally, to reorder families and see how everyone fits or is related to the other - I love that and I think it is unique and is probably the reason I purchased a license."

- Dave Williams - June 5, 2008


"Behold showed me a lot of inconsistencies in the way I entered data and in the way each program had interpreted that data using GEDCOM. I found Behold remained true to it's claim and showed everything in the everything report. It was flexible enough not to choke on improper structures and such - but I knew they were there."

- Dave Williams - June 5, 2008


"The program itself is a genealogist's dream come true. Louis has been able to extend GED file information into a more consistent and manageable manner than any other program on the market today."

- Stephen McCarthy - March 6, 2007


"I am sending our family history to my cousin in Australia and both PAF and GENViewer make it so hard to follow. Behold's presentation is ideal. Thanks for the years you have put into this important breakthrough in family history recording."

- Chris B. - August 2, 2006


"I think that the greatest use I've found so far is finding duplicate source listings, and/or people, in my Master GED file. I've been gradually eliminating or combining them as I found them while searching through my PAF5 Program. But, PAF5 makes it difficult (time consuming) to do this, beginning with finding them. With Behold, finding duplicate source listings and notes is simple. I love this program!"

- Max Haiflich, Jr. - May 31, 2006


"Louis, you really have accomplished something very impressive. I was aware that Brother's Keeper wasn't displaying any of the reams of data I was painstakingly entering. Behold does all of that, and is extremely user friendly and intuitive to boot. Now I have a report that looks like a professional product."

- John Richmond - March 24, 2006


"This is exactly what I have been looking for! I have never found a way of printing it in this way in any other program (and I've tried most of them). I love it and am happy to be a license owner. I think I'll do a Snoopy happy dance."

- Linda B. - March 12, 2006


"I have been looking for a report generation software that actually allows me to know what is going on in my tree. I downloaded your program at 10:30pm one night, loaded in my gedcom and was instantly amazed at how it organized families and other data. I used your program and was able to understand the family relationships clearer. It is quick and easy to see the families and individuals and that is key to understanding how families relate. Plus I love the simplicity of the one page HTML report - excellent. Most other programs generate multiple pages - fine, but not for printing off a web page.

It took me 20 minutes to evaluate and decide I needed this program, so I purchased it. Very nice, it is different from the competitors. It has a nice interface, good luck with it."

- Shawn Gearin - October 27, 2005


"I have seen that Legacy puts a lot of tags into the Gedcom. Some have to do with sentence definitions of events. The sentences are defined to print out the narrative reports. That is of course a lot of effort and never quite gives back what you really want to write. So here is where Behold will make the difference."

- Dirk W. - September 14, 2005


"Behold is a paradigm shift in genealogy programs!"

- Rich Crooks - March 26, 2005


"All I can say is WOW! When I first loaded my GEDCOM, I thought, "Great, another GEDCOM viewer." But now that I've taken some time to fully explore what's there, I am beginning to fully appreciate the extent to which you've gone. This is far and above anything I've ever seen."

- Rich Crooks - March 22, 2005

 


Published Reviews in Printed Magazines

"... This is a great way of analyzing your family information and helps you to pinpoint where problems and more research is needed."

Internet Genealogy magazine "Genealogy Software 2014 Update" by Tony Bandy - Volume 9, Number 2, June/July 2014, pages 14 to 15


"Standing out in a crowded field of ‘me-too’ software, Behold is a new approach to viewing and using your family genealogy. Having had a chance to use the program with my own research, I have to say it’s worth investigating!"

Internet Genealogy magazine "Genealogy Software Update" by Tony Bandy - Volume 7, Number 5, December/January 2013, pages 31 to 37


"This is a unique program that's well worth a closer look."

Your Family Tree magazine "Behold 0.99 - Turn your GEDCOM research file into an easy-to-read report" - Issue 93, August 2010, page 89


 


Opinions about Behold found on the Web

"It's text oriented so if you're looking to produce pretty charts Behold isn't the program. If you're looking for a way to work intensively with your data it could be. "

- John D Reid - Behold ... OGS 2016 - June 9, 2016


"Behold is a Windows program that shows all your data, according to your selections, in the aptly named Everything Report. Behold will import your GEDCOM files and find any errors."

- Alexa at Free People Search - 122 Tools to Plan and Build Your Family Tree - Oct 20, 2013


Honorable Mention for Best New Genealogy Product of 2012
"... Behold's GEDCOM support is nothing short of outstanding. ... If Behold does not read your file, it probably does not even resemble a GEDCOM file. Behold even produces such a detailed import log with errors and warnings that it isn't without merit as a GEDCOM validation tool."

- Tamura Jones - GeneAwards 2012 - Jan 1, 2013


"Behold keeps getting better."

- Alex - Genealogy Software Reviews - May 16, 2012


"Which is why I am waiting on this software to bring out a version which allows an EXPORT function. ... As yet, it only does IMPORT, but amazingly well. If, as stated, the next version will give the EXPORT function, then it may well be a great Gedcom clean-up tool."

- Lindsay Parry - Family Tree Maker Message Boards - Feb 16, 2012


"Behold 1.0 is a fast, memory-efficient, Unicode-based genealogy viewer with more than excellent GEDCOM support. ... Behold 1.5 ... promises to offer a killer feature. Behold 1.5 will include GEDCOM export, and if the quality of the exported GEDCOM is as high as promised, its flexible GEDCOM import and quality GEDCOM export will combine to make Behold a must-have “GEDCOM” to GEDCOM conversion utility."

- Tamura Jones - Behold 1.0 - Seventeen years in the making - Feb 3, 2012


"Great GEDCOM reading tool, every genealogist should have in their tool kit. Opens GEDCOMs really fast and displays as a single easy to read single page report."

- Sam - Genealogy Software Reviews - Jul 13, 2011


"Is very extensive and will be great when the editing feature is included."

- Peter Gutenstein - Genealogy Software Reviews - Jan 16, 2011


"Once out of Beta and editing introduced, this will be great. In the interim, the everything report is the most comprehensive available. Great for output reports."

- Brett - Genealogy Software Reviews - Jan 16, 2011


"Behold FTW TEXT - Lone developer embarrases billion-dollar corporation"

- Tamura Jones - Modern Software Experience - Jan 3, 2011


"Why "The Everything Report" by Behold? Looking for an opportunity to present you with an interactive family tree on the website, I discovered the "Behold" software. This program is still under development, but the functions that I need to bring my family tree online are operational. Behold possesses the advantage that it is built to show you the data efficiently in a simple and clear way. Behold also offers several options for bringing the data forward, which is usually not possible in other existing genealogy programs. I opted for the Behold software for its capability to produce an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) version of the data and because it allows you to easily navigate through the various entries."

- Hendrik Acket - ACKET and family - Jan 1, 2011


"I use Legacy because it fits with how I think. I’ve recently discovered Behold and plan to create Behold ancestor reports. It’s exactly what I wanted for my web site."

- Teresa Williams - Comment on Geneabloggers blog - Oct 14, 2010


"I have been using this little-big program since the Alpha release. Even then, it was the program I had long wished for and it was a dream come true."

- Claude Callender - Genealogy Software Reviews - May 28, 2010


"I’m completely drawn in by Louis’ passion for his product and his innovative thinking about what genealogy software can and should do."

- Dean Richardson (Genlighten) - Behold Genealogy and Louis Kessler's Behold Blog - Jan 22, 2010


Honorable Mention for Most Improved Genealogy Product of 2009
"Behold is still in Beta and definitely not release quality yet, but has improved considerably; it has been upgraded to Unicode, and is now about six times as fast and considerably less memory-hungry than earlier versions."

- Tamura Jones - GeneAwards 2009 - Dec 31, 2009


"I think I like it -- especially for going through and looking for stuff that needs to be cleaned up, like instances of surnames in all caps, or screwy place names. It's a neat little program"

- jmurphy - Family Historian User Group Forums - Dec 6, 2009


"Kessler made users wait for Behold 0.99.2, but it is definitely a serious improvement. Behold 0.99.2 is Unicode-based. It is also about six times as fast and four times as memory efficient as the previous version of Behold."

- Tamura Jones - Modern Software Experience - Dec 1, 2009


"I just emailed Louis and he confirmed that the load time is just part of the total import time, but even if the total import time is three times as much, these are still pretty darn respectable import speeds.."

- Tamura Jones - Modern Software Experience - Jan 6, 2009


"This is a terrific programme. If only it could read The Master Genealogist files directly. But then I suppose everyone would want it to read their own favourite programme. Biggest Pro: Ease of use and flexibility. Biggest Con: Still under development but promises great things."

- Mick Reed - Genealogy Software Reviews - Oct 5, 2008


"I have downloaded this program and have enjoyed playing with it. It has some great features that make keeping track of all your ancestors streamlined. I love the table of contents feature and the ability you have to navigate so easily through your database."

- Jennifer Jackson - Jacksbox4you Genealogy Blog - July 17, 2007


 


Tweets heard in the wild on Twitter

I tried it and liked it! Behold! is a wonderful #genealogy tool and extremely fast. Give it a look yourself.

@HappyDae - HappyDae - Feb 2, 2012


Just bought @louiskessler's BeholdGenealogy. Waited until today to pay full price. Software devs don't get enough for their hard work!

@familytreescott - Scott Jangro - Nov 24, 2011


Last 2 tweets weren't paid tweets. I just love what Louis Kessler's doing 4 #genealogy researchers & I highly recommend his Behold program.

@aspendew - AspenDew - Nov 9, 2011


Been trial user of "Behold" for years. It's long been best gedcom viewer; editing capabilities in future & Mac version someday #genealogy

@aspendew - AspenDew - Nov 9, 2011


 


Opinions about GEDCOM File Finder on the Web

GeneAwards 2014: Best New Genealogy Utility of 2014 - Jan 1, 2015

GEDCOM files, sorted
"If you work with GEDCOM files, GEDCOM File Finder is a must-have utility. You don't need to be a GEDCOM expert to use it, and the accurate information it provides on your GEDCOM files can very helpful in solving problems"

- Tamura Jones - GEDCOM File Finder - Nov 6, 2014