I started building up my family tree using GenPro (GenPro.com) which is a really good tool. I interviewed some people from my family to add breadth and depth to the tree. I also included my inlaws and siblings inlaws as part of my aim is to have something to leave behind for my kids and their cousins. Currently I have over 450 people and over 120 families. Recently due to interest from some relatives I have been looking a this again and discovered that GenPro has imporved the Report or publish feature – it generates a fully interactive website using all the info in the genpro/gedcom file. It looks really good – I’ve published the website and I’m waiting for feedback from my cousins. Unfortunately it does not allow others to update info online – so they have to downlad the program and the source file and maniplate the file – I can see many problems with this including – people being put off by having to learn a new software, also people may update files generating may versions that will take forever to syncronise. Does anyone know of a web based system that can incapsulate all the complexity of Genpro but allow on line data entry etc? ie. an online web 2.0 version of GenPro.
People doing this are also doing these things:
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i was helping my grandmother sort through old papers in her desk and we found a family tree that dates back to her first ancestor in the USA. :o)
luckily, we can fill in the blanks from where it left off! yey!!
I’ve completed my next action for this goal, which was to investigate software for the Mac. I found a program that looks good:
http://www.synium.de/sites/synium/macstammbaum/index.html
It also looks like it’s about to get even better, and when the new version comes out, I won’t have to pay to upgrade; it’ll be FREE! :)
So, of course my next next action would be to get some data into the program, and thanks to GEDCOM, and the hard work of some distant relation, I was able to import more than 8,000 records of family members, going all the way back to my ancestors from Scotland who came here in the 1600s. W00t!!!!! (I literally squealed out loud when I realized that the import was going to work, and I wouldn’t have to input all that data by hand myself)! :D Actually, the work for me now will be to remove some of those names; I think I need to do some pruning to my family tree, as some of those people are very distantly related, and probably not really necessary in my database.
So, I think my new next action is to play around with the new program, and decide how/who to cull. That sounds like the next logical thing to do.
I started doing this a while ago, using a Windows program. If I decide to stick with that program, I can’t do this on my own machine (but, since I already own the program, and do have access to Windows machines here, it might still be the best option). First though, I think I’ll investigate the various options for doing a family tree on a Mac.
Mike is not liking the cold weather!
My sister gave me a great picture of my father’s family which I scanned in. It’s a picture of my dad and his 5 brothers and 1 sister and their mother. I’m not sure when it was taken but it has to be quite a while ago. Sadly my dad and his older brother are the only 2 still alive today. Click on the picture for a better view.
I bought a really nice family tree chart that I’m supposed to fill in, but I just haven’t got around to doing it yet. The plan is to do some research among my relatives, fill it in, then get the damn thing framed and on the wall, where it’ll look great. I enjoy hearing about family history, so it should be fun doing the research bit too :-)
Butterscotch is exploring the world.
This is really an ongoing project. My mom and I are the family researchers. We have found several relatives and discovered so much about our heritage. It’s so important and wonderful to do this!
I’ve done this pretty much as much as I can right now without spending a lot of money that I don’t have. I’ll keep doing it as a side-line without needing this goal open.
Since coming home from Jena I have got a little further with this goal. With a little help from my friends. Some very kind people I know on a genealogy forum do look-ups for me on census returns because I am too poor to afford subscriptions for these things.
