—-Ben
>@<

As for MFT, I think it’s great. I used to run a windows based machine and am now on a MAC. I’ve tried the Master Genealogist and Reunion, PAF and Family Tree Maker. I like MFT because it’s simple and I can add as much or as little info as I please.

Most genealogy software is build for “serious” genealogists. The folks who think they’ve traced their ancestors to days or yore before there were records to prove their claims. Such “serious” genealogy lack the “fun” aspect which is what I want when sharing what amounts to family stories best told by the fireside.

I like proof and sources to complement my research but too much of what is genealogy seems to get bogged down in census records and hard to parse ged com files. When I show my sister or family a kekule number or family group sheet they yawn. When I show them that 3D chart of our family and they grasp the sheer size of our family in just a few generations they look in awe and start to take an interest. I see the virtual globe as another part of this sharing experience.

Now, there are a log of problems with MFT yet every time I’ve emailed them a suggestion they email back and get on the issue. I can’t even get ancestry.com or family tree maker people to respond to an email. That makes a world of difference in my book. I think MFT offers an awesome alternative in the way that google offers an alternative to your library’s card catalog. Some search functions and imput devices just work better for some people. That and back on point — some features are just cool and fun to play from time to time.

Reunion lags behind some of the Windows softwares as noted above, but I think has all the features you’re used to with PAF at least, and probably a few more, and it’s a great, well made Macintosh programme.

And perhaps one of its greatest features is the community at http://ReunionTalk.com/ where users and the Leister Productions start will answer your questions – sometimes within minutes of posting them.

There is a trial of Reunion you can get if you haven’t found that already.

http://www.leisterpro.com/doc/demo/demo.php

Cheers

Roger

I quickly purchased MFT, but that was surely a disappointment. It was all graphics without the functionality. I tried very hard to like it and took all the upgrades including the globe mapping tool which I find utterly useless. Meanwhile simple navigation is a nightmare and I just don’t trust it to keep all my data.

I was considering getting a new Windows computer for just the genealogy because bootcamp would cost more and be a pain. But I decided to try to find a better software. I am really leaning to purchase Reunion as I don’t require all the fancy GUI bells and whistles like floating fake family bodies.

Please tell me this is the right path!

Blackerstone, Longformacus, Berwickshire, Scotland
Renton Cottage, Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scotland
Greenwood, Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scotland
Dovecot Hall, Cockburnspath, Berwickshire, Scotland

I’m clueless about where they are (even though I’ve been to these places personally), and so have absolutely no concept of how far apart they are, how far did this person travel between places of his life events (let alone that his life starts and ends on completely opposite sides of the globe).

If you look at William’s father’s page

http://roger.lisaandroger.com/getperson.php?personID=I32&tree=Roger

you can see the wanderings of this man in the early 1800s as he was born (although I don’t know exactly where hence the green pin, married, and had 8 children, appeared in a Census and then died. The orange and red pins are exact locations – farms usually – while the green and yellow indicate a County and a Parish.

This is information that you’d never get from a list, unless you had the map of the entire world memorised.

As I said I can’t wait until Reunion allows me to do this – as well as being able to keep notes and media items linked up to the place, rather than having to put this information into the record of each person who was at that place.

Roger

I appreciate your opinion on the matter and thanks for sharing it.

It reminded me to clarify a position: I think there’s great value in MacFamilyTree. Competition makes the whole field better. The folks at Synium innovate which also improves the state of genealogy software on the Mac. That’s one of the purposes I set for myself when I started this blog. My article was intended to point out what, in my opinion, is wasted effort so that the software can be improved.

—Ben

Thanks for adding your thoughts. I’m curious about how the map is useful to you.

—Ben

Roger