New sprig on the family tree and back home again

We're back from seeing our newest grandchild - Vivian Eva Atchley, born 21 August 2009 in Missouri. Quick trip, but I'll be back there for a week in about a week.

Back to normal here, trying to catch up on email. After adding Vivian to my family tree data, I updated my software this morning:

Updated Legacy Family Tree (Update said to V7.0.0.103, but it was V7.0.0.107 when it finished):
New update adds blank census forms for England, Wales and Ireland and some additions to SourceWriter and some bug fixes. Other info for this update can be found here: http://legacynews.typepad.com/legacy_news/2009/08/legacy-family-tree-update-available-700103.html

Updated Ancestral Quest to V12.1:
Looks like this update only added more features for those using Family Tree in the FamilySearch.org pilot (that would NOT be me). You can read more on that pilot here: http://www.ancquest.com/FamSrchFeats.htm

Updated RootsMagic to V4.0.5.0.
Looks like they fixed quite a few things and added some things. The update list is rather long, so here's a link to the things updated with this release: http://blog.rootsmagic.com/?p=532

I'm NOT going to update:
GenSmarts [my current version V2.1.1.71][so many of my sources have been typed into "NOTES" in the years past, so this program returns far too many "suggestions" for me to research. For instance, it might suggest I look in the 1860 census for an individual. I already have the 1860 census documented in the notes, but GenSmarts is looking for a particular TAG for that census and would have no way to "see" my information in NOTES. The information from this program would be VERY useful for a person starting out now (I started in 1977), who is using a modern software program (I had started out using PAF). I highly recommend it to new researchers, or those who have been documenting their sources religiously from the beginning.] As an aside, I just opened up the software and it gave me 40,820 suggestions. You can sort those by suggested priority, surname, date, geography and record type, but my goodness.....

I'm also NOT going to update:
The Master Genealogist:
my current version is V7.04
This program has terrific capabilities, but it always seemed confusing to me. I have an Information Technology background, and I STILL couldn't get into it. Those who use it, love it. I suggest everyone at least look at it when looking for a software program. It might be the one for you.

I WILL continue to update:
AniMap: This is the program I use to figure out changing county boundaries over time without have to pull my Red Book off the shelf.
I currently have V3.0 Release 3
http://www.goldbug.com/store/animap3.html

Have a great weekend all...

New Fun Software

I've been playing with a couple of pieces of free software. One is all new and the other is just a new version. The all new software is the new browser, Google Chrome. I've been using it a couple of weeks now and I think I'm going to continue with it as my default browser. Years ago I used Netscape, then changed to Internet Explorer and the last couple of years had been using Mozilla Firefox. In Firefox and Internet Explorer, my home page had been the Google Search site for years, then Google brought out iGoogle, where I was able to customize my home page with any RSS feed, giving me instant news and genealogy information. I can still do this in Chrome, but it offers a few more interesting things. The default home page (and this can be changed to look like something more familiar to you) is a page of thumbnails of your most often visited web pages. You just recognize the page and can instantly click on it. No need to type in the web address, or even go to a menu and click on "favorites". Another big difference is that there are not separate bars for typing in addresses and for searching for topics. It just "knows" which you want. That took some getting used to. It is a tabbed browser just like Firefox and IE, so nothing is lost there. There are other new features, but I'll let you discover those for yourself. You can find Google Chrome here: GOOGLE CHROME

The software that is a new version is Picasa 3.0. Picasa is the software created by Google to organize, edit and publish your photos. Now it will handle your videos as well. This version has added new spot editing capabilities that compete with many photo editing software packages, for which you pay $$. Picasa is really an amazing piece of software. I suggest you give it a try. You can find it here: GOOGLE PICASA