Family Origins and Family Treemaker are the most popular of the genealogy programs. Both programs provide easy input of information, lets you view your output in book form, chart form or will create a web page output for you if you wish to place your information on the internet. You can include photos and video chips on any one in your family tree program.

FAMILY ORIGINS 7.0 by Parsons Technology ($29.95)

FAMILY TREEMAKER 4.4 ($29.95 or Family Treemaker 6.0 for $59.95 which is an 8 CD version)

GEDCOM

GEDCOM is a standard transfer file format for genealogy information. This format has been recognized by genealogy programs for many years and allows you to upgrade to a newer version of the same program or to change programs – but not loose any of the information that it took you hours to input into your existing program.

Look through your genealogy program for IMPORT/EXPORT GEDCOM. It will usually be found under the FILE menu. You use IMPORT when you wish to bring new information into the program (probably the information that you had been working on in another program – or possibly a gedcom file that someone else wishes to share with you) – and you use EXPORT when you wish to create a gedcom file for sharing with someone else.

BACKUP

It is very important to always backup your family tree information. This information is stored in a database – which is the most vital type of information to always backup. Databases are unique in fact that they consist of indexes to help locate the record that you wish to view. If the index becomes corrupted, then the information cannot be located.

WEB PAGE CREATING

It is very easy to create a web page dealing with your genealogy. These programs do it all for you. You can then upload this information to the publisher of your family tree program and they will place it on the internet for you.
 
 

Here are just a very few of the many web sites that are available to do genealogy research via the internet.

CyndisList is one of the first web sites a new genealogy researcher uses on the internet.

http://www.CyndisList.com

The USGenWeb Project provides a link to all counties in all states.

http://www.usgenweb.org/statelinkstable.html

Gendex provides you with a searchable database of many genealogy pages that are on the web.

http://www.gendex.com:8080

This site offers you general genealogy web sites and databases.

http://www.neonramp.com/basys/red/search.thml

Many genealogy sites allow you to post a query or read queries that have been posted. These type of sites can provide you with valuable information or email address of someone else who is researching a surname from the same area of the country that you are. Maybe you can then share information. Since I am familiar with the query process for Bay County, Michigan – here is the web address for it where you can view the query process.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~mibay/bayindex.html
 
 

Open MY COMPUTER – then CONTROL PANEL – then REGIONAL SETTINGS. Click on the DATE tab. Where it shows the SHORT DATE STYLE (mm/dd/yy) – change it to mm/dd/yyyy. This should help you with any programs that rely on the computer date for calculating information. Good idea with the turn of the century fast approaching.

Internet Explorer 5.0 has added a potentially dangerous new capability. It offers you the ability to save usernames and passwords so you can log in to password protected sites automatically. If you save the username and password for your bank or brokerage account, anyone who sits down at your computer can log on and access that information.

If you wish to disable this option, from any Internet Explorer 5.0 window, choose TOOLS, INTERNET OPTIONS, click the CONTENT tab, and click the AUTOCOMPLETE button. In the area labeled USE AUTOCOMPLETE FOR, deselect the checkmark next to USER NAMES AND PASSWORDS ON FORMS. If you have inadvertently saved some sensitive information already, click the CLEAR PASSWORDS button, too. Restart your system to ensure that the changes take effect.