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1989-04-05
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6KB
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127 lines
*****************************
* *
* FAMILY ROOTS - FLOPPYSHOP *
* reviewed by Dave Mooney *
* *
*****************************
Ever since I can remember I have been interested in social history. The
way people lived, worked and played over the last couple of centuries has
always been able to hold my attention much to my wifes disbelief when she
finds me sitting watching Open University programs on the likes of Victo-
rians and there attitudes to death at 6.30 on a Saturday morning.
The history of people is impossible without the individual. It is in this
field that many amateur and professional historians spend many long hours
researching theirs and other peoples family trees.
I have started to research my own family tree many times, in fact every
new genealogy program fired my enthusiasm and every time I quickly gave up
as it was a mind numbing chore.
All of the programs I had seen were purely text based and originated in
America. As such the input was always of a slightly different format to
what we are used to, eg they want the date the wrong way around or asked
for zips.
The thing that put me off using them however was linking who was related
to whom. This involved keeping notes on each individual entries record
number and then when a father/wife/son/daughter/brother/sister was added
each had to have their links added manually. Enough to put anyone less
than dedicated off for life.
Around May, Steve Delaney sent me a copy of a new genealogy program to
review. It is called 'FAMILY ROOTS', was programed by Chris Skellern and
is being marketed by Floppyshop.
This program is based around the 'work screen', which is a massive area
(20448 by 6400 units) used to graphically represent a family tree. The
monitor screen will show a portion of this work area, how much depends on
the magnification being used at the time.
The user interface is very easy to use and I had all of my family entered
back to my grandparents in greater or less detail after one evening. This
consisted of some forty plus entries, and they only have the average 2.4
kids!
The main work screen 'only' has a dozen commands available. Six of these
scroll and zoom the screen, the others allow new entries and links to be
made, a grid to be switched on/off, searches, block moves and access to
the main menu. Selection is by either placing the mouse into the control
box and clicking or pressing the relevant keys.
To start a family tree an entry for each new member must be created. This
is done by selecting the 'new entry' function and positioning a box on the
screen. The individuals details may then be entered by clicking on the
box. This gives access to the database records where personal details can
be entered.
Next, relationships can be defined. This is easily done by clicking on one
box and pulling the line to another. The program will automatically ask
what kind of relationship is being defined and update all other entries
that are affected. ie If some entries have been linked as brother/sisters
then it is only necessary to define another as the parents of one to have
all of them tagged as its children.
The actual details for each entry are fairly comprehensive and cover such
things as name, sex, children, occupation, religion and dates of birth/
marriage/death. There is provision for six user defined flags and three
small notes. These can be used to store additional information such as
whether the person was a twin, imigrant, millionaire,...
What it doesn't do is allow masses of personal details to be entered. As
the programer says, these should be kept in a separate folder together
with things like photographs, birth certificates etc. This is no bad thing
as researching a family tree is likely to be a long term project and discs
can be corrupted or computers changed.
Details of the tree can be printed at any time showing parent children
relationships.
When a menu screen has been selected there are yet more functions that can
be called. The set up menu allows you to define how you want the program
to run. It is possible to set a specific tree as the default, the path,
whether it auto loads etc.
Others allow details to be displayed such as the parents of a child or the
siblings or the children. The search mode allows complex searches so that
it is possible, for example, to find all the unmarried women in the tree
named Anne.
Each menu has comprehensive on-line instructions that can either be read
or printed. While this is reasonable I did find the lack of manual
supplied to be a bit of a minus. After sitting looking at a VDU screen all
day at work the last thing I want to do is stare at a screen reading
more text (not everyone has a printer and some of us lean on ours
knackering it).
It is better to read instructions from the written page and operate the
program at the same time than read them on screen and try to remember what
was what as I went back to the program. To be fair the program is very
user friendly and the instructions are not needed after a while.
Overall the program is very good value for money and should be considered
if you want a painless way to research your family tree. I know some
people will shun it as it cannot do everything that they want, but these
people tend to be the computer equivalents of machine coders who shun
assemblers.
Family Tree is easy to use, worth the £24.95 asking price (even without a
printed manual) and should be given serious consideration if you are
interested in genealogy at all. You can buy it from Steve Delaney at
Floppyshop.
Floppyshop
PO Box 273
Aberdeen
AB9 8SJ
Dave Mooney
~~~ eof ~~~