Unfinished Work…
In a fit of madness more than 10 years ago I was tasked with putting together a family tree for a college English class. Having never dug into the past and not really wanting to do so nor having the ability to do so I failed the assignment in what could only be described as a blaze of glory.
In a fit of madness more than 7 years ago I began digging and sorting and compiling everything that I could and putting together a family tree. Driven by boredom and a desire to pass on something more than myself to my children I have continued to add branches and tried to find relatives who may not even realize that they have relatives.
I've even gone to the extent of publishing it on the web for all to see and maybe even benefit from. So what's the point you ask? None really. Other than the adventure of going back in time and realizing that life is never simple and sometimes even your ancestors can't be perfect.
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I never knew you were into genealogy! You use Reunion? I've just had to switch to it since getting the Mac last month and am really liking it, other than having to fumble around in the dark again. (I used Legacy before and knew all of the ins and outs of it.) I also got GenScribe a couple of days ago, hoping it would keep me a bit better organized.
I've bookmarked the other site and will look at it tomorrow since I'm already cross-eyed tonight. Mind if I put a link to it on my blog? I just added some genealogy links to my blogroll earlier today so good timing!
You have a Mac? Wow. I'm jealous.
My main machines are windows and linux powered so no mac genealogy software for me. Up until about this time last year, I had always used my own custom stuff. Then I broke down and bought the Legacy software. I've got some scripts written that take a gedcom and parse it into sql statements (commands that put the data into the database for the web).
I have roughly 300 pages of information that contain history about my surname in general. Some of it was damaged when we moved so I'm gonna have to go thru it all and see what I can salvage.
Link away. You already link here and it wouldn't take a genius to get from point A (your blog) to point B (my blog) to point C (the genealogy stuff).
I thought you used a Mac at home? Guess I must have gotten that wrong long ago cuz that's what I've been thinking all of this time. Yep, got a Mac Mini just last month, with an AirPort Extreme and a fancy pants flat screen monitor dealiebob. It's sort of my self-gift for my one-year anniversary of quitting smoking last June. Oh, did you know that I also now have high speed internet?? WildBlue finally came out with unlimited usage so I signed up and had that put in this past month, too. Other than me being a complete dummy about both the Mac and satellite stuff, it's pretty cool.
Anyway, I thought you would be using Reunion since I had it burned in my brain that you were on a Mac at home. Legacy, huh? I LOVED Legacy! Have you seen GenSmarts? It's a great little program that goes nicely with it. I won't bother to explain it because I'd not describe it right but go look it up if you're bored some day.
Doing genealogy on the new computer and with high-speed internet kicks some major booty! I don't know how I stood it all those years on dial up, waiting for census images to load.... Sheesh.
Some day, when we both have more free time and/or enough sleep to be motivated, we'll have to compare trees and genealogy libraries in case we can do some info swapping.
(Yeah, I know anyone could do the A-to-C link thing but, being Miss Manners, figured I'd ask. ;-) )
I use a Mac [G4] at work (and I have a Macbook Pro from work) but I can't afford a Mac at home. I'm considering it though. It'll go great right beside the 2 linux boxes and the windows beast.
And I recall you mentioning the high-speed before. I couldn't live without it. [The genealogy web-site is running on a box sitting right here beside me.]
Feel free to send me your gedcom if you want and I'll put up on my other site for all the world to see. I'm in the process of trying to glue all the branches of mine together including birth / marriage / death / census records and putting it all out there.
[And thanks for asking before linking. I would expect nothing less from you although it wasn't something I was too worried about.]
Doh. Just realized that I said I had bought Legacy when it wasn't Legacy that I bought. I tried Legacy and wasn't too impressed with it. I ended up buying Family Tree Maker from Ancestry.com when they offered it for a steal in one of the spams that I got for being a member. And it integrates with Ancestry so well that I kinda got hooked on it.
FTM is a very popular one. I tried demos of a few different ones and Legacy was the one that happened to jive well with my particular brainwaves. And that's what it's all about, right? I'm still getting used to Reunion...
I'll send ya a gedcom later on, after I get it pretty and shiney again. I've been tinkering...
Hey! Did I tell ya we have running water now? :-D I'll be doing an update on my blog about it as soon as I get over my current laziness.