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Notes from the February 10, 2000 meeting of the Rochester Genealogical Society Computer Interest Group.
36 members and 2 visitors, Norb Harvey and Henry Metzler attended the meeting. Paul Blake, Rochester Genealogical Society Vice-President/CIG opened the meeting with a brief description of the agenda. He asked visitors to introduce themselves.
Rochester Genealogical Society; President Larry Blackman reported the presentations planned for the February 17th Rochester Genealogical Society meeting, as outlined in the Winter "Hear Ye". Also, the annual combined Rochester Genealogical Society and Kodak Genealogical Society meeting will be a month early, on March 16th, with a presentation by Hank Z. Jones, the noted Germanic specialist. A bonus meeting on Saturday, March 18th evening will feature a talk on Palatine research. The Saturday talk is limited to 40 attendees, with a $10 admission charge to all attendees. The Wednesday, March 16th talk includes a $2 fee for non-members.
A Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for February 26th at the Westfall Road Family History Center. He noted that the Ontario County Genealogical Society is planning a two-day bus trip to Albany on April 16 & 17th. The contact is Diane @ stigler.com, membership, $8 is required.
Rochester Genealogical Society membership was reported by Jim Hall, describing the features.
Liaison with the Rochester Computer Society was reported by Jim Hall, as a presentation on Quicken and TurboTax.
Kodak Genealogical Society: Fred Kolb noted that they are joining with Rochester Genealogical Society for the combined March 16th meeting.
Several attendees noted special web sites they had visited and the useful data obtained.
Paul noted that the March 9th CIG meeting will include a video presentations on Family Tree Maker 7.0, including a description of the details of the program, and some other interesting features such as preparing a book with Family Tree Maker. Jim Roome showed a sample of this output.
Paul presented a group of acronyms related to computers, as a guessing game. The attendees were sharp and got the answers quickly. He promised more difficult ones next time.
Dane Ellingham noted that he has a time problem with his computer that is apparently related to the CMOS battery. He was given several suggestions, including a visit to a technical support business. If the battery is soldered to the motherboard, it must be carefully replaced.
Charlie Naundorf won a computer program "Net Object Fusion" at an auction. The version was older than present ones (which sell for $300), at $35, but none of the attendees was familiar with the program. The program was reviewed in the January handouts.
Paul described the May meeting as expected to be building a web site using "Century City". This is a fairly basic program, but gives the process clearly.
There were discussions about security on the Internet. There is a personal responsibility to assure that the security Icon is in a closed position, or you are fair game for thieves. Some of the recent attacks were noted, with only a couple of attendees having problems. Hackers usually go after the large businesses, but there is always the possibility of damage from delayed action viruses.
Nick Francesco often discusses and recommends "Black Ice" as a firewall to prevent invasions. Turning off the active desktop will also give some protection.
Some local industries are giving frequent alerts on the latest incursions by hackers. McAfee send out alerts to upgrade their .DAT files.
Paul requested that attendees (and others) wishing to get an announcement for the CIG meetings on-line, to give him an E-mail request at PAUL.BLAKE@ prodigy.com. It was suggested that the E-mail addresses of all Rochester Genealogical Society officers be put in Hear Ye or on the Rochester Genealogical Society web site.
A question about saving an address book or bookmarks for use in a different program was responded as unlikely. Both lists can be saved and reinstalled after an upgrade, using START and FIND.
It was pointed out that clicking on the column headers, in the message listings, there will be an alphabetical sort on the send/receive names, or a most recent date in that column.
Jim Hall prepared a brief demonstration of the operation of several genealogical programs, with a common database. As usual, he selected his KLEM ancestor with 3 wives and 23 children and lots of notes.
Jim noted that the last two editions of the National Genealogical Society-Computer Interest Group Digest contained review for four of the programs being discussed. He noted that the articles contained much more detail than he planned to present. The programs were loaded onto the new CIG laptop and the new projector was used to display the laptop images.
Family Tree Maker, Version 7
The program opens with the Family Sheet, with the parents in the main locations, with their children at the lower area as a list, but also a set of tabs (like file folders) at the right edge for rapid access. The are special buttons for notes, and a scrapbook set of images. A spouse's button was active for this individual, with 3 spouses.
Jim continued along the upper tool bar, illustrating the various charts and graphs available, a family group sheet, the new map function (in ver. 7.0), and the Family Finder Center (FFC). The FFC had been described in the January Main Program, with a multitude of features. It was recommended that the attendees visit the Family Tree Maker website at www.FamilyTreeMaker.com for many more details.
The CIG has purchased the video prepared by Family Tree Maker and will provide a presentation at the March 9th meeting. The video will be supplemented with slides to assist in viewing the not very clear images of a video.
Jim Roome, a long-time user of the program was a welcome critique of the presentation. He also displayed a book he published using Family Tree Maker.
Charts are now printed across page perforations in using a tractor feed printer, much more attractive in appearance.
A "Family Tree Maker for Dummies" book is now available. It is a well prepared presentation including details including Version 7.0. The price is about $20.
Ultimate Family Tree
The next program reviewed was Ultimate Family Tree, successor to the Roots programs. It is generally considered a very high quality and scholarship program. Jim continued using the BERNARD KLEM family as his "exhibit", noting the large amount of complete records available to use.
Besides the usual record keeping/retrieved features, it has a large worldwide photo gallery to embellish a family album; a records request to generate letters to offices holding records, an 1833-1853 U.S. Gazetteer, and a Social Security Death Index. It also has a "Family Tutor" to learn how to trace an immigrant ancestor and basic records research training. A website for members-only provides help information and tips.
Starting with a selected individual, the program home page allows further selection of a spouse, child or sibling from the data presented. Additional flags can be inserted to expand the data collected in a "MORE" section. Names, mailing addresses, Social Security number, Medical events and physical description are a few of the descriptors made available in templates. Multi-media links are available for completion.
Again, the toolbar of icons were briefly described, showing the ease of access to the program's features. A very impressive family tree is rapidly available. A family group sheet is also quickly presented from an icon. Notes are right justified. A web page can be prepared using the program and this is supported by Palladum, Inc., the developer, formerly Commsoft.
A demo of the program is available on www.uftree.com . The latest version is 3.0. A Kennedy genealogy is used, as it has since Roots 1.
Generations, by Sierra. (Reunionî for the MAC).
The opening frame is fairly austere, with limited information unless additional facts are added as fields. According to users, the new version gives more labels where needed.
The program was described, showing where notes are presented. The location for photos is similar to a Scrapbook in Family Tree Maker. A "no issue" example was shown, then the program was departed to give some time to other programs. There are Social Security Death records and historical records that can be tied into the "Easy Chart" reports for presentation.
Personal Ancestral File for Windows, Ver. 4.0
The program was briefly viewed. There is no demo, and the manual is on disk, readable with an Abode reader (not so convenient) or a 3rd party manual is available. A file is searched on the hard drive and can be selected from several, if presented. The main frame contains easy access to ancestors and descendents from the individual selected. A family record sheet gives the major details, including RINs (Record Identification Numbers) and birth data for children, and MRINs (Marriage Record Identification Numbers) as with all PAF versions.
Viewing the top tool bar, the various features were described. This base multimedia features, creating a web page, export and import of data through GEDCOM. Records and notes can be edited. A full Match-Merge function is available. An extensive HELP file is available with the most needed topics presented. A Global Search and Replace function has always been a favorite with PAF users.
A member noted that the program could not process 25,000 individuals with earlier versions, but it was stated that the limit is probably much higher. The search for sources noted that most were included with the data filed since the records were generated in PAF 2.0 then just transferred on the upgrades to 2.3.1, 3.0 and 4.0.
With a free download, there is no demo available. Jim selected various individuals in cruising though the file, giving some highlights in obtaining the data. It was noted that the import of notes resulted in a wide right margin, probably difficult to transfer to a report.
Family Origins (also BRODERBUND/MATTEL)
The program was briefly presented, describing the rather sparse opening frame and the tool bar components. This version displayed was 6.0, and 8.0 is now the current one available.
A GEDCOM file or a PAF file can be imported directly.
Reports have a wide variety of styles available. Match-Merge is quite simple. Multimedia programs are supported, and an address book is included. A TO-DO-LIST is available for research. Adding of individuals, spouses, parents or child is done directly. An immediate relatives report is also directly available.
A brief tour of the program proceeded, with occasional assistance from the audience.
A planned presentation on The Master Genealogist was foregone as time ran out. It is recommended that the readers of these notes go to the The Master Genealogist website at www.WHOLLYGENES.com and download a demo. As seen in a previous meeting, the demo is a very complete presentation of a very complete program. The Master Genealogist has the useful feature of import of data files directly from other programs.
Dick Halsey presented a compilation of descriptions and current costs for the more popular programs.
The Writer wishes to thank Gloria Church for keyboarding these notes and Ken Johnson for preparing the copies.
End of Meeting.
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