[Genealogy-SIG] GENEALOGY NEWS 20070920 & TOP TEN SOFTWARE PACKAGES

[jotaito]

   DMA Genealogy SIG Minutes 
6 September 2007

Members:  Jay Finley, Ken Luneke, Dan Tasch, Rufus Walker, Tom Thorpe, Gary Turner, Art Hudson

Visitors:  Bob Edwards, Sandra Gustin, Nancy See (all from MCC-OGS)

Next Meeting:  Thursday, 4 October 2007, 7 PM, DMA HQ, 119 Valley St.

The meeting opened with some discussions between members and our visitors who have just returned from a big genealogy conference at the Allen County Public Library (ACPL).  This was held in the new genealogy facilities that just opened in January, 2007.  They were quite impressed with the new facilities.  This was very encouraging to members to make a trip to visit the library.  One of the new features Mrs. Gustin mentioned is that you can now go online and watch some videos on various genealogy topics from the conference:  www.rootstelevision.com.  Please take note; this is updated information to what was provided at the meeting (which was incorrect).  

The main theme of this meeting was to look at several software packages.  For this purpose, the Chair provided a review off the Internet of the Top 10 Genealogy Software packages (in order):  (1) Legacy, (2) Family Tree Maker, (3) Ancestral Quest, (4) Personal Ancestral File, (5) RootsMagic, (6) Family Historian, (7) DoroTree, (Eight)(slight system problem with the emoticons here) The Master Genealogist, (9) Cumberland Family Tree, and (10) WinFamily (see websites listed at the bottom of these Minutes).  The top six were considered all to be very close in capabilities, ease-of-use was the chief discriminator between them.  Beyond the top six, the reviewers were concerned with tougher-to-use, lack of adequate guidance and technical support, too specialized for the general public.  The Master Genealogist was definitely felt to be NOT for beginners: it has a steep learning curve but can do almost anything a genealogist might ever want to do (though not very user friendly).  

Family Tree Maker 2008 was the first package to be demonstrated.  Mr. Art Hudson surprised everyone:  he had just received a new package of the 2008 version, complete with a demonstration CD.  Data handling by all the packages is just getting better and better and FTM is no exception.  They continue to develop newer and better tools for dealing with family history and family relationships.  There is a heavy emphasis on how much more can be done using the facilities of the Mormon Church through Ancestry.com.  In addition, considerable attention is being paid to internet websites, family web-blogs, and other information enhancement capabilities (including photos, video and audio files), some of which can be easily down-loaded to your computer or directly into FTM.  They also make a big pitch at the end about producing books from the information and giving them as treasured gifts to family members (these can either be printed off on your printer or sent to a commercial for an even more professional "look".  

Chairman's Comment:  One FTM feature mentioned taking the dates of events and plotting them as points on geographical maps in order to watch such things as family migration movements with time is exactly what I suggested as an interesting potential application to the reinvigorated Software Development SIG at their inaugural meeting in August. 

Family Ties (1998 copyright) was demonstrated by Mr. Rufus Walker.  It is sort of a "bare bones" program, nothing fancy.  It allows you to build the fundamental data into "trees", store data and to print the data out.  Mr. Walker was not sure the company was still in business.  It would be a nice beginners program if someone found it available in a garage sale or second-hand bookstore.  

RootsMagic was demonstrated by Mrs. Sandra Gustin (from the Montgomery County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogy Society, MCC-OGS).  This was version 3.3; version 4 is reportedly due out soon with even more features.  Features were demonstrated with her own data.  Like FTM, RootsMagic has an extensive capability that just boggles the imagination on your first exposure to it.  RootsMagic has a large number of different kinds of reports that can be generated.  It has extensive features for recording source data and annotating data entered.  They make use of color for easier identification of major family member lines.  Photos, audio and video information can included although they cannot be included in GEDCOM files (on any of the programs).  And they, too, provide the where-with-all to produce a copy of the information in book or report form.

Family Origins, v.10 was demonstrated by Mr. Jay Finley.  This is a predecessor to RootsMagic and no longer being produced, ending with v.10.  It is easy to see in RootsMagic where things came from.  Family Origins looks a lot like RootsMagic, but just not as advanced; not as many bells and whistles.  You can do most anything you want to do with the fundamentals and generate lots of different kinds of reports or final drafts for books.  Data entry is easy and reasonably straight-forward.  It is a great program if you can find it, perhaps in a garage sale or second-hand bookstore (like Family Ties).  

Family Tree, v.1997 is a Canadian product that is apparently no longer being produced and the company, itself (Global Star; www.globalstar.on.ca) is apparently defunct.  Mr. Finley has been studying the program; it was purchased in a second-hand book store in Houston, TX for $5.00 about three years ago.  It is a very simplistic program, probably more or less equivalent to Family Ties.  It would be good for collecting a lot of very fundamental data on people and even printing it out in "trees" or reports (with goodly supply of borders for certificates, pictures, and such).  It's approach is a little different from the other programs; data is entered on each individual and then the relationships to other individuals is connected afterwards.  You could enter information on 100 individuals and then, afterwards, call up the list of names and start connecting them into a "tree". 

If anyone, member or non-member has software other than the ones mentioned and demonstrated at this meeting, please contact the Chair by telephone (937-825-0691) or email (jotaito at aol.com).  We would be particularly interested in looking at the rest of the "Top 10" software packages, especially the #1 pick, Legacy.  

Meeting adjourned at 9:10 PM

Jay Finley
Chairman 
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 GENEALOGY SOFTWARE REVIEW -- TOP TEN REVIEWS 
http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

1.  LEGACY v6.0 ($ 29.99):
http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

2.  FAMILY TREE MAKER v16 SITE ($ 29.95):
 http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/family-tree-maker-r eview.html

3.  ANCESTRAL QUEST v12 SITE ($ 29.95):
 http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ancestral-quest-rev iew.html

4.  PERSONAL ANCESTRAL FILE SITE (FREE! ): 
 http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/personal-ancestral- file-review.html

5.  ROOTS MAGIC SITE v3 ($ 29.95):
 http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/rootsmagic-review.h tml

6.  FAMILY HISTORIAN v3.1($  76.00 ):
 http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/family-historian-re view.html

7.  DOROTREE v2.1 ($ 59.00 ) (for Jewish ancestry):
 http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/dorotree-review.htm l

8.  THE MASTER GENEALOGIST v6 ($ 59.00) (known as TMG in the trade): 
 http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/dorotree-review.htm l

9.  CUMBERLAND FAMILY TREE v3.1 ($ 25.00):
 http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/cumberland-family-t ree-review.html

10. WIN-FAMILY v6.02 ($ 50.00):
 http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/win-family-review.h tml


  
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jotaito