Ben

About Ben+

Father and husband. Family historian. Founder, Things to Teach, Inc. Creator, GenealogyTools.com, FreeObituariesFound.org, and Lineascope.com.

Posts by Ben

Using Reunion 10 to Search the Web

7 May 2012 by Ben 12 Comments

Reunion 10 will help you search common web repositories for information about people in your family file. It makes this easier on you by doing two things for you:

Automatically fill in some fields using information from your person record and starts the search
Optionally checks multiple sites at once

The results are displayed in your default web browser, either in tabs or windows.

Here’s how to perform a web search in Reunion 10:

Click the Person menu button for anyone in the family view
Choose Search the Web -> All Sites -> [name of web resource] or Search Favorites (checkmarks indicate favorites)

[Read more...]

Trouble-Free FTM TreeSync Secrets Revealed

5 May 2012 by Ben Leave a Comment

Have you been on the Family Tree Maker software message board on Ancestry recently? If so, you’ve see all the posts about sync problems like I have. You’ll also have seen long-time FTM user, FTM guru Russ Worthington on there helping people with great advice and clear answers. Well, I’ve been wanting to help out on this matter too so I asked Russ if I could record an interview with him about TreeSync and share it with you, and he enthusiastically agreed. So we talked in preparation and he told me something the blew my mind!
[Read more...]

On the Future of Custom Reunion Source Types

28 Apr 2012 by Ben 18 Comments

Have you wondered what happened with the Reunion source types I had been creating? Let me tell you what happened.

As you’ll recall, I created custom source types based on guidance from “Evidence Explained” (EE) (see “source types” in the Reunion Tutorial Index). I also shared the process I devised for customizing Reunion source types. You may also recall that I revisited a couple of those customized source types to improve them.

That was the first sign of trouble, yet I pushed on because there was interest. Then two things happened: [Read more...]

Memberships No Longer Expire

22 Apr 2012 by Ben 7 Comments

I’ve changed GenealogyTools memberships from expiring annually to non-expiring. All current memberships have been changed to non-expiring. Now GenealogyTools membership helps you accomplish more family history research and be confident in your tools regardless of when you join.

The membership price has been chosen by members long enough for me to determine the price most people consider fair: $25.00. With the extra value of non-expiring membership this might be too low–let me know if it is . For now, I’ve set the membership price at $24.97.

Video Guide to Using PC Genealogy Software on Mac

22 Apr 2012 by Ben 8 Comments

You can run PC genealogy applications (like Family Tree Maker 2012 and RootsMagic) on your Mac, even if it’s just as a supplement to your primary Mac genealogy software.

There are features in the best Windows genealogy software that aren’t in Mac offerings. Family Tree Maker 2012’s ability to synchronize with Ancestry.com and RootsMagic’s full-featured narrative reports spring to mind.

There are essentially three approaches to running PC software:

Run Windows on your Mac in a “virtual PC”
Make your Mac boot into either OS X or Windows using BootCamp
Use a piece of software to do for your genealogy software what Windows would (Windows emulation)

[Read more...]

Splitting a Tree with Family Tree Maker for Mac 2

12 Mar 2012 by Ben 7 Comments

I just sent the following in an email to a GenealogyTools reader who asked me how to split a Family Tree Maker for Mac 2 (FTMM2) tree. This person had purchased the genealogy software, downloaded a 13,000 person tree from Ancestry.com, and found it too cumbersome to manage. [Read more...]

Ancestry iOS App 3.1 Update: New Feature Review

7 Mar 2012 by Ben 3 Comments

The new update to Ancestry’s app for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch is now available in the app store.

The app can now notify you when Ancestry.com finds information it thinks relevant to your ancestors. Enabling this optional feature will cause the little red number badge to appear on the Ancestry app icon when Ancestry.com finds new information. If you’d like to use this feature, be sure to allow push notifications when prompted after launching the updated app for the first time. [Read more...]

New Index of Reunion 9 for Mac Tutorials

29 Feb 2012 by Ben 15 Comments

The new page containing an index of Reunion 9 for Mac tutorials is now complete. You can easily reach it through this site’s menu: Mac -> Reunion.

I got a lot of feedback on the experimental index page. I carefully considered all the comments and chose to create the index for Reunion the same way I did for Family Tree Maker (PC). I’ll be doing the same for RootsMagic and Family Tree Maker for Mac 2.

New Index Page

25 Feb 2012 by Ben 19 Comments

I changed the family tree maker tutorial index page. Will you look at it for me and give me your feedback? Even if you’re not using that software, I want to know what you think so that I know whether to invest the time it will take to change the index pages for Reunion, RootsMagic, and Family Tree Maker for Mac.

I modeled the index pages after the index in a book. Does this make it easier to find what you’re looking for? Can you think of anything I could do to make it even easier? What else might you want to know on that page?

Please leave me your feedback in a comment on this post or in a quick email.

FamilySearch Index Comes to iPhone and iPad

17 Feb 2012 by Ben 5 Comments

FamilySearch International released their indexing application for iPhone and iPad. It had formerly been PC only software. It’s called FamilySearch Index and is a free download from the App Store.
[Read more...]