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Why All Genealogy Apps Should Support GEDCOM 5.5.1 (Updated 12 Dec 2021)

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7 Roman Standards
Standards, schmandards, who cares about standards? (Credit: 7 Roman Standards, Wenceslaus Hollar [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
Readers who have been following this series will know that I believe genealogy apps should support GEDCOM 5.5.1. There are two versions of GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data Communication) reported in GEDCOM files by most genealogy software today: versions 5.5 and 5.5.1. The last “official” version dated 1996 from the Family History Department (today known as FamilySearch) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was [Read more…] about Why All Genealogy Apps Should Support GEDCOM 5.5.1 (Updated 12 Dec 2021)

Family Tree Software Alternatives, Part 3: RootsMagic 7 (Updated 17 May 2018)

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RootsMagic 7Details about RootsMagic*

Application: RootsMagic
Current Version: 7.5.6.0
Supported OS: Windows, Mac (bundled with CrossOver)
Mobile Apps: iPhone/iPad/iPod touch, Android
Price: Free (Essentials), $29.95 (full), Free (mobile apps)
Publisher: RootsMagic
Website: http://www.rootsmagic.com
GenSoftReviews: 4.38 stars out of 5
[Read more…] about Family Tree Software Alternatives, Part 3: RootsMagic 7 (Updated 17 May 2018)

Family Tree Maker to GEDCOM to Other Apps Crosswalk (Updated 4 Apr 2022)

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The table below maps most of the fields in Family Tree Maker to their GEDCOM 5.5.1 tag (at least how FTM exports them). As I complete my testing of each app, I’ll update the table. You can use it as a quick reference and as a checklist of fields that might require corrective action before or after you export your family tree to a GEDCOM. If you click the image below, it will open in Dropbox, where you can download it to your device. Items highlighted in red are missing or handled incorrectly; if the field name is highlighted, then it’s imported incorrectly into the app, while if the GEDCOM tag is highlighted, then it’s exported incorrectly to GEDCOM. Items in yellow are custom fields, which may be problematic for some applications. Please let us know in the Comments if you find any errors.

[Read more…] about Family Tree Maker to GEDCOM to Other Apps Crosswalk (Updated 4 Apr 2022)

Family Tree Software Alternatives, Part 2: How to Get Your Tree out of FTM (Updated 13 May 2018)

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This is Part 2 of the series Family Tree Software Alternatives, which was originally motivated by the planned demise of Family Tree Maker (FTM) (FTM was subsequently bought by Software MacKiev and revived). If you haven’t already, please read Part 1 first on How to Scrub Your Data. In Part 1 I showed how FTM does not produce GEDCOM standard compliant files (have you contacted Software MacKiev yet?) and explained a few things you can do within FTM to fix your data. In this article I’ll go through the steps to export your family tree to a GEDCOM file and edit the file directly to fix things that can’t be changed in FTM. But you don’t want to edit your GEDCOM directly until you’re completely finished making changes in FTM. The steps for both the Mac and Windows versions are similar, but the figures shown are from a Mac. [Read more…] about Family Tree Software Alternatives, Part 2: How to Get Your Tree out of FTM (Updated 13 May 2018)

Family Tree Software Alternatives, Part 4: Reunion 11 (Updated 17 May 2018)

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Details about Reunion 11*

Application: Reunion
Current Version: 11
Supported OS: Mac
Mobile Apps: iPad/iPhone (ReunionTouch)
Price: $99 (limited demo or time-limited trial available), $7.99 (ReunionTouch)
Publisher: Leister Productions
Website: http://leisterpro.com
GenSoftReviews: 4.26 stars out of 5

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