GenealogyTools

Genealogy Software Tutorials for Mac & PC

Ben Sayer

Happy Thanksgiving!

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In the United States we celebrate Thanksgiving today. I hope you all had as great a day as I did. My wife Carrie and I prepared a wonderful vegetarian—almost vegan—meal. We shared it with our children, Logan, and Paige as well as Carrie’s mom and step-dad. We are so blessed! On this day it is customary to consider the things we are grateful for.

You are one of the reasons I feel so blessed this year. Naturally my family tops my list of blessings, but I am doubly blessed by having a fabulously supportive MacGenealogist family too. Thank you for reading my articles, viewing my videos, and leaving comments. I  love it when you learn new things as a result of following along and putting my lessons into practice then tell me about it. Your comments these first four months have been informative and incredibly helpful. Lastly, thank you for supporting this venture financially. You have made purchases through my affiliate links like Amazon.com and bought the first volume of my screencast video CDs. While it doesn’t yet cover the monthly expenses of operating MacGenealogist.com, it helps by giving me hope that I can get it to that point so that I can continue to make informative how-to videos for you.

May the next year be as great for you as this past one has been for me.

Starting with Another’s Data: A Descendant Report, part 1

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Sometimes when one starts with the genealogy obsession hobby, it is with information collected by someone else. Ironically, even given some starter material, it’s not always obvious where or how to begin. This article is a case study of such a start. It’s a specific one in that the starting material is real and limited. It should help you if you find yourself in a similar situation. I hope that it will also serve as a source of ideas for those of you well into the hobby. We begin the case study with a descendant report and several pages of additions and corrections.

The Setup

My wife’s aunt Judy was the family historian. From June of 1987 through July of 1998 she (with the help of others) published the “Puglisi Family Tree” and seven annual updates. All together, it is seventeen type-writted pages, one hand-drawn title page, and a cover letter. Unfortunately, Judy passed away in July of 2001. Her cousin Kay inherited the family history materials, but hasn’t had time to computerize them. Fortunately, I was able to obtain copies of all the pages in a set of three PDF files. The project could begin.

Developing Project Goals

I like to begin my research projects by developing clear, concise, unambiguous goals. In this case I started out thinking I needed to replicate what Judy had produced, but on the computer. Some deeper consideration and self-questioning led me to a different primary goal. You see, the Puglisi Family Tree documentation contained only one source citation and it was for the marriage of a couple that didn’t appear to be included in the documented line of descent. Since none of the content was proven fact, it didn’t make sense to duplicate it without verification. After a slight adjustment, the first goal to emerge was:

  1. Document the descendants of Antonio PUGLISI (1878-1942) and Providence MEDULLA (1887-1967), limiting the facts to names as well as birth, marriage, and death (BMD) dates and places.

You may think it goes without saying that the information should be computerized, but we’re after unambiguous goals here. I find that explicitly stating the goal can lead to discoveries of hidden assumptions and possibly issues or other goals.

For example, computerizing the records led me to reflect on how Judy and the Puglisi descendants would use the information. I thought about how they could share the information and update it. In doing so, I discovered that I had been assuming that I would enter the data into one of my Mac genealogy database applications then export a GEDCOM file to send to Judy. Bad assumption! Judy hasn’t entered the data into the computer yet. Why should I think she’d have genealogy software, know how to import a GEDCOM file, or know what to do with it once it was loaded? A refinement of the goal was called for. I revised the second goal and added it and others to the first so that we now have:

  1. Document the descendants of Antonio PUGLISI (1878-1942) and Providence MEDULLA (1887-1967), limiting the facts to names as well as birth, marriage, and death (BMD) dates and places.
  2. Computerize the storage and reporting of the information so that no special genealogy software or knowledge is required to peruse it.
  3. Make the information available to all the descendants to view and update at any time with no special genealogy software or knowledge required.
  4. Ensure that birth and marriage information for living descendants is not visible to the public.
  5. Make the information available to all the descendants in the GEDCOM format.

Fortunately, there are several online systems that support all the goals. I will explore the options and my selection in the next part of this article series.

See How Easily You Can Backup Your Files to CD or DVD

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One of the many great things about using a Mac is how many functions that just seem like they should be included in the operating system actually are! One of these is the ability to create (or “burn”) CDs and DVDs. This feature is great for anyone creating and or storing a lot of data as we do in genealogy.

Since our family history data changes frequently, it is important to make regular backups. The setup method I present here need only be done once, then you’ve got a “click to burn” solution that will produce a backup without any fuss.

There are a couple mechanisms for burning CDs and DVDs within Mac OS X: “burn folders” and the “disk utility.” In this video, Backup Your Mac Genealogy Files to CD or DVD, I show you step-by-step how to create and use the burn folder feature to create a backup system for your genealogy files. I also show you how to determine what types of CDs and DVDs your Mac can write to.

Follow along with the screencast to set up a genealogy burn folder for yourself. Make a backup to see just how easy it is. Then consider making a second backup and mailing it to a geographically distant relative or genealogy buddy so that you have an off-site backup.

The disc that is created is what they call a hybrid format, so it can be read on a Windows PC should that need arise. I should warn you though, if you use the MacGenealogist.com recommended folder structure with its aliases (see the Genealogy Toolbox page for the series), Windows doesn’t support this feature. All the files will be in the original places, but aliases to files and folders will look like empty files to our PCGenealogist brethren.

Parallels Desktop Updated to 4.0.3540

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The computer virtualization software, Parallels Desktop, that many Mac genealogists use to run Windows genealogy applications has been updated. The new release is described as containing bugfixes and improvements. The information provided during the upgrade describes the following changes:

Bugfixes and improvements in Parallels Desktop 4.0 Update (build 4.0.3540)

Improvements in the upgrade procedure:
  • BSOD in Boot Camp with the “Autocheck not found” message followed by the session manager crash – fixed.
    Note: If you see this BSOD in the release version of Parallels Desktop 4.0, open the virtual machine configuration and click OK. This will prevent this BSOD in the virutal machine and the Boot Camp partition.
  • BSOD with the “0xA5” message during the virtual machine upgrade – fixed.
    Note: If you get this BSOD in the release version of Parallels Desktop 4.0, convert the backup copy of your virtual machine. Before convering the copy create one more backup copy of it.
  • Windows stops on boot during the upgrade without any crashes – fixed.
    Note: If this error occurs in the release version of Parallels Desktop 4.0, convert the backup copy of your virtual machine. Before convering the copy, create one more backup copy of it. Alternatively, you may add the “vm.compat_level=2” string to Virtual Machine Configuration > CPU > System Flags (make sure that the “show advanced settings” option is selected).
  • Virtual machine crashes on start after the conversion – fixed.
  • Possible causes of BSOD in intelppm.sys and agp440.sys – fixed.
  • Mouse is not available when upgrading a virtual machine that was originally created with Microsoft Virtual PC – fixed.
  • The sound is disabled in Windows XP virtual machines after the upgrade – fixed.
  • Hard disk cannot use the Boot Camp partition after the upgrade – fixed.
    Note: If this error occurs in the release version of Parallels Desktop 4.0, open the virtual machine configuration and click OK.
  • The message “Failed to configure the Boot Camp partition” appears after the upgrade – fixed.
    Note: If this error occurs in the release version of Parallels Desktop 4.0, open the virtual machine configuration and click OK.
Other improvements:
  • At times Parallels networking drivers don’t start after the restart of Mac OS X – fixed.
  • Copy-paste operations may fail in some cases when the virtual machine is in Coherence – fixed.
  • Copy-paste operations may fail in some cases when non-text data is being copied to Windows – fixed.
  • Inability to switch to a Windows application using Application Switcher when the virtual machine is in Coherence – fixed.
  • Redundant network icons appear in the Mac OS menubar after switching between the view modes – fixed.
  • Mac applications stay on top of Windows applications in Coherence – fixed.
  • USB performance improved, including the ability to sync iPhone with iTunes installed in Windows.
  • Dispatcher service binding to all network addresses on port TCP 64000 – fixed.
  • The ability to suspend a Boot Camp virtual machine was removed, because this operation may damage the Boot Camp partition.
  • .NET applications menus drawing in Coherence – improved.
  • Crashes in virtual machine monitor and the application based on the statistics received through the problem reports – fixed.

To get the update, launch Parallels Desktop while connected to the Internet. You will be asked whether you want the update or not.