Mac Genealogy

I'm a PC by day and Mac by night person.  I don't mind too much, as using the PC all day makes me feel a lot better about my Mac when I get home.

So onto the real subject and Mac Genealogy.  Mostly I'm using the internet for all the searches and data collection, so to be honest this doesn't make one bit of difference whether your working a PC or a Mac.  However where things get neat are in the Software I'm using and some of the filing and search capabilities built into the Mac.

For Software I'm using Mac Family Tree, which is a very comprehensive in terms of Genealogy with two and three dimensional family trees.  I do think that the database could have been done a lot better, but I also think that its working hard to conform to genealogy standards for GEDCOM files, so forces you to put data in certain places.

One thing is really lacks is a 'To Do' or an action list, so that when I come back to work I've been doing after a few days away, it would be easier to remember the key areas I am focused on instead of finding that I've redone some things.

I really like the ability to import all sorts of picture and image files for using as sources, it does this well and integrates nicely with the mac.

In terms of output, I haven't played with it a lot yet, but found it uploaded data pretty much straight away to Ancestry.co.uk in GEDCOM format.  However, I need to spend some more time on how descendant charts and family charts are presented.

Overall the software works well and has really helped me to collect my stuff together in a very organized fashion, instead of being in a mess in a series of folders.

I'm trying very hard to digitize all the information I receive, so that I can file it appropriately.  This has included scanning any paper documents that arrive including any certificates.  I've put all my stuff into relevant folders for census info, location info and people info, with subfolders for each of the topics ie 1851 census, individual family members and individual places.  One thing thats helped has been the quick look facility on the Mac enabling me to quickly work through files looking for exactly what I need.

More on the benefits of Mac Use later

Work over the weekend

Its been a week since the last post, so already I am breaking the rules of blogging, which state that you've got to add updates regularly.

For the first time, I've ordered some birth and death certificates from the UK GRO website.  This really wasn't difficult to do, all you need is to know the GRO Reference number (Volume and Page) as well as the name - all of which is available from Ancestry.co.uk and from FreeBMD.  My order of 3 certificates as a trial, should be printed and shipped by the 29th October and then a few more days to shipping to me.  I've read somewhere that the GRO Provides a facisimile of the original certificates rather than the rewritten version I've been getting from the Oldham Register Office.  So I'm keen to see the originals, possibly with the handwriting of whoever reported the event.

Lets see what happens.

In the Beginning

So, here we are for the first time, wondering what this is going to do for me. I hear that blogging can help in Genealogical research, so I'm prepared to give it a shot to see how it works out. I guess I'd like to reach out to others in the Genealogy world and pick up on any nuggets of research that are available, post my own findings and also create a space where I can share my work with family so they can easily view the latest and greatest.

As I'm a mac fan, I'm also going to share one or two of my ramblings in this area with commentary on the latest and greatest from the world of Apple. Don't be too upset you PC people, as I'm a PC by day and a Mac by night person, so I live in both worlds and the two can meet up pretty effectively.

Here we go!