Thanks Guys for all the feedback thus far I have an old copy of Family Tree Maker I think boxed as 'who do you think you are?' but it's quite old I lost the tree I did previously though I didn't get very far.
A few people have recomended Gramps to me -
http://gramps-project.org/ is anyone using that?
I also found quite a useful site that I think most of you probably already know about but here is the link anyway
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/