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Your Family Tree

"Your Family Tree" is a guide to creating your own genealogy report. It starts with listing your basic needs, a school list of supplies from pencils and binders, to computer specifications, and software.

Precise detail is given on where to start. A full list of sources are given and suggestions about asking and finding family members of today. You are given a list of suggested documents to find older relatives. I never considered wedding announcements, yearbooks or employment records, but they would be helpful with the other 20 source types listed. You are given national and government resources like the U.S. Census Bureau and immigration records. Addresses as well as online information is recorded.

You are walked through your online searches with pictorial displays for easy understanding. E-mail is the number one search. AOL has a Genealogy Forum featuring message boards, classes and Adoption Queries, for instance. CompuServe has a Genealogy Forum as well as a Genealogy Support Forum.

There are Usenet Newsgroups (mail message systems linked to computers throughout the world). Some are free and some charge a small fee, but again the information is there.

You get information on Mailing Lists, List Servers and Web Sites (a huge bookmark file). Thirty plus of the author’s favorites are discussed with pictorial screens and highlights.

You will be given tips on Photos, Maps, Sound and some suggested software with mini instructionals. Again, pictorial screen shots are used throughout. Other helpful programs are discussed like MS Word and Publisher.

Genealogy Programs are included on the CD-ROM for review. There are DOS based, Windows 3 and Windows 95 compatibles. You are even given instruction on building a web site. You’ll learn about Gedcom files (files for transferring your family history between programs). It stresses the need for GEDCOM compatible programs. They make it easy to exchange data among programs saving you hours. A program capable for saving data in Tiny Tafel (compact way of describing your database of family information so that it can be quickly scanned visually or by a computer) is mentioned and suggested. The file saved will contain a Soundex code and each unique last name in each of your family lines. (Soundex converts spelling and phonetic information into computer code that identifies names by punctuation, e.g.; the names Clay, Cley and Claie, sounding the same though spelled differently, would share the same soundex code.) This would be useful for tracking relatives who lived before the standardization of spelling or whose names were changed through clerical errors. The first ancestor’s birth date and place is contained in each line. It also contains the descendant’s birth date and place along with his last name. You can quickly compare to see if there are matches.

The included CD-ROM has previews of programs like:

          Family Photo Album - most popular for creating albums - millions of chapters, each chapter holding 250 images with captions

          Family Tree Maker - Demo version Broderbunds Windows 95 program

          Brothers Keeper - DOS version shareware

          Roots IV - DOS Based Slide Show

          Family Origins - Demo version (limited to 50 individuals - dealer purchase info)

CD-ROM also includes Family Web Sites for viewing (will install Navigator Road, off line html browser for viewing)

CD-ROM has Catalogs with access to 15 books and service catalogs

Other things included are:

          Family Calendar Demo with order online (about $25.00)

          Photoworks Demo 95

          Adobe Acrobat Reader

          Bookmarks and various shareware genealogy utilitie

          Forms, Data (.AVI-.WAV-.GED-.DOC-.TIF) files and Pix image directory

I found the glossary very helpful concerning genealogy terms. The resource Appendix unbelievable! If you are thinking of beginning your search for your heritage - this is your complete guide!

Your Family Tree by: Jim Oldfield, Jr.

Abacus -www.abacuspub.com

Computer Book Category-IBM/PC: Family History

ISBN 1-55755-310-6 $25.95