More Deaths and Burials

One of my observant offspring noticed that, on my family site, I still have marked as "Living" some people who are actually "Deceased". Mea Culpa.

What excited me was that one of my offspring was actually looking at my website!

I explained that, while I note recent deaths in the main tree in Family Historian on my laptop, I only upload a gedcom file to the website every so often. I was horrified to find that my last upload/update to my TNG site was nearly a year ago. 

In addition to recent deaths I have been working through my database to identify people born before the 1930s for whom I don't have death records.  Using  a variety of tools I have been able to update many  records. I have also been able to find and add birth registration details for people born prior to 1924. 

Today, instead of searching for more records, I created new gedcom and uploaded it to my site. I hope my descendant will be proud of me!

Following are some statistics captured from my website, www.geniaus.net, after the upload

Description	Quantity
Total Individuals	11,884
Total Males	6,255 (52.63%)
Total Females	5,575 (46.91%)
Total Unknown Gender	54 (0.45%)
Total Living	6,302
Total Families	3,945
Total Unique Surnames	2,471
Total Photos	76
Total Documents	3
Total Headstones	0
Total Histories	0
Total Recordings	0
Total Videos	0
Total Sources	472
Average Lifespan1	61 years, 183 days
Earliest Birth (John Chatfyld)	Abt 1530

Longest Lived1	Age
Rita Mary Cecilia Nott	104 years
Lilian May Nelson	104 years
Kathleen Mary Large	101 years
Jean Mary Gowans	101 years
Josephine Emily Lynam	101 years
Margaretha Johanna Haver	100 years 318 days
Annie Joan Hogan	100 years 219 days
Irwin Morris Godden	100 years 78 days
Isabella Catherine Gowans	100 years 23 days
Martha Ann Auty	100 years

Almost a Year

I had committed to updating my online tree regularly from my main database in Family Historian,

Over the past year I have made my tree a priority.  I have been beavering away adding new cousins and finding BDM and Burial references for those already in my tree. FindaGrave has provided many clues that have assisted in finding these references. Each time I play around I promise that I will upload to my website - but that boring task isn't as much fun as the thrill of the hunt. 

Today's  discovery that the last upload was in December 2022 made me move.  I bit the bullet and can report that my website is up to date! It was so long since I had had carried out this task that I had forgotten the process and had to find my notes. It is a simple exercise that only took me 15 mins (including the finding instructions). 

If I want to connect with cousins I need to do this on a more regular basis. 

Latest Statistics - www.geniaus.net

Strengthening the Tree

Lately I have moved my focus from attending genealogy events to working on my tree. While I love learning from and connecting with fellow genies I realise that my research has suffered. I want to leave behind a full and well-sourced tree for future generations so I am concentrating on my research.

 
Since the advent of DNA I have recognised the value of building trees that not only go back in time but trees that go sideways and down to current generations. To assist in identifying matches one needs a robust DNA friendly tree. My hope is that I will eventually be able to solve many mysteries from my treeless DNA matches.

While I had a lot of distant cousins in my tree I had little information apart from their names. Recently I've been killing off and burying relatives and concentrating on finding sources for these events. In the past week I have found death and burial details from a range of sources for over 300 relatives. Of course there are some pesky people that just don't want to die. If I can't kill them off I make notes on their profiles indicating where I have searched. 

My main database is housed on an instance of Family Historian software on my laptop. From time to time, but not as often as I should, I export a gedcom to my website that uses TNG software and is hosted by Simply Hosting . I was shocked to find this evening that it is a year since I uploaded an update potentially missing out on being found by distant cousins.

Earlier today I tried to do the update and found that I was unable to log in to my web host. In a very short time Simply Hosting came to my rescue and I now my website is up to date. 

I realise that it needs a design overhaul but, as it is a workhorse not a show pony, I would rather concentrate on content. 

You can visit my website here: https://www.geniaus.net/

Housework time at Geniaus.net

I remember somewhere, sometime saying that I intended to update my website GeniAus Family Site every month or so. It seems that my good intentions flew out the window. I just checked to see when I had last updated the site and it was back in February.

GeniAus Family Site

Ever since we went into our latest Covid lockdown a website update has been on my gunna list but I keep saying I'll do it tomorrow. During the lockdown I have been hatching, matching, and dispatching many ancestors.  I hadn't looked at some of my research from last century since last century and, in that period, many new records have come online and several elderly cousins have left this mortal earth. 

When I did my early research I was grateful to find one source for each event but I have learnt that is not enough. Events need to be corroborated by multiple sources of quality. Lockdown has given me time to go back, update records and seek new sources.

Each day I think I'll update the website now but then I say "I'll just check a few more records and upload tomorrow."  I could have gone on like this until Christmas. When I wanted to share a link to the record of a family member who had recently passed away I realised that I needed to upload a gedcom containing the death date of that person to make the record appear on the GeniAus Family website.  (Records of living people are not in the public domain on my site.) All of a sudden I had a pressing need for an immediate upload.

So today, 7 months since my last update, I have spent a few minutes exporting a gedcom from my Family Historian software and uploading it to my website ( TNG software hosted by Simply Hosting). If I had remembered where I had saved my login details for the site this should only take around five minutes! Sadly it took me much longer to retrieve those details. Once I was at the host's site I also made a full backup of my website that I will store on an external hard drive. 

A few statistics from the GeniAus Family site today.

I am constantly making edits and additions to my Family Historian database so I will try to remember a monthly website upload (reminder now in calendar). I wonder if I will manage.

News from Darrin

Some of you will know that I use TNG (The Next Generation of Sitebuilding) which I highly recommend for my online tree. I have been using this platform for 9 years and have experienced no hiccups. When there is a problem the developer, Darrin Lythgoe, is just an email away.

GeniAus TNG site

Darrin sent me an announcement about a new upgrade to the package. I'll get on to upgrading real soon as it promises "significant upgrades to the DNA Testing Feature".


Press Release: TNG version 12
May 8, 2018
Contact: Darrin Lythgoe (darrin@lythgoes.net)

SANDY, UT: A major upgrade for The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding (or “TNG”), is now available from Next Generation Software. TNG 12 includes many enhancements and new
features, plus security and user access improvements. Existing users can purchase the upgrade
at a discount by returning to their previous download page.

This release also includes three new template designs, plus added functionality for several
others, and a new language is supported (Chinese). Several media handling functions have
been improved, and two privacy-related tools have been introduced. Significant upgrades have
also been made to the DNA testing feature and the Mod Manager, which allows users to easily
install or remove add-ons.

Several of the third-party libraries used in TNG (like jQuery and PHP Mailer) have also been
upgraded, and many updates have been made to keep TNG compatible with the latest versions
of PHP and MySQL.

A more detailed summary of the version 12 changes can be found on the TNG blog at
http://tngsitebuilding.com/blog/genealogywebsites/announcements/tng-12- feature-preview, and
a complete list is available at http://tngsitebuilding.com/recentchanges.php.

For those already running TNG, upgrading to the new version should be fairly easy and should
take less than 15 minutes. Helpful videos are also available to walk users through the process
and to highlight new features and other processes, but an option also exists to pay someone to
install the upgrade for them.

TNG makes it easy to put your genealogy on your web site in dynamic fashion. It uses a
database to store your information, so the pages are created at the time they';re requested.
When you want to make a change, you only need to upload your GEDCOM file again, or enter
the new facts directly online. TNG also allows you to link photos and other media to the people
in your tree. You're in total control, so you can update your information or customize the look
and feel any time you want.

TNG is commercial software ($32.99 USD one-time license fee). In order to run TNG, your web
site must support PHP (a programming language) and MySQL (the database). Existing users
may upgrade to the latest version online starting at $15.99. The first version of TNG was
published by Darrin Lythgoe in 2001.

440 New or Updated Entries

Sometimes I despair that I don't have enough time to devote to my own family's research.

After uploading the latest version of my database (which I store in Family Historian on my laptop) to my family site www.geniaus.net I did a quick calculation on the number of records I have updated since my last upload and it appears that 440 records have been updated. Some of these are completely new records while some existing records had dates and sources added and in a few cases some inaccuracies were corrected. I didn't realise that the half an hour here and there I devote to my database could realise such a good result.

My Family Site

I am keen on adding as many distant cousins as I can to my database as I find having this information available helps me when I am trying to work out where my new DNA matches fit into my tree. So often these matches will know the names of their grandparents or great-grandparents but haven't a clue about earlier generations. 

I find that if I can put forward names of some potential ancestors in my communications with DNA matches I am more likely to get a response like "XX is my Mother" or "XX and XX were my parents. Good Luck." or "XX is my Father. XX was my Grandmother".  For this to happen I need lots of names in my database.

Once I get these responses I can write back and give the new DNA Cousins information on the earlier generations of their family and the ancestors we share thus adding to their family stories. These connections are usually over the moon when they receive this help.

Now that I have penned this post my despair has disappeared.

Which software to use?

Whenever I am asked a question about which software to use I refer my genimates to Louis Kessler's website GenSoftReviews. Following is his annual report on top rated genealogy software for 2017. I'm pleased to see that the packages I use, Family Historian and TNG (The next generation) are in the top 25 list.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GenSoftReviews.com is where users go to rate and review their genealogy software. The site lists almost 1,000 programs, and users have contributed over 4,800 program reviews and ratings since the site opened in 2008.

,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 1, 2018

The 9th annual Users Choice Awards have been tabulated and awarded at the GenSoftReviews website.

During 2017, 82 of the nearly 1,000 programs listed received 535 reviews. Along with the review, users rated the programs from 1 to 5 star, with 5 being best.  Programs that received at least one review in 2017 with 10 or more all-time reviews that achieved a user rating of at least 4.00 out of 5 receive a GenSoftReviews User Choice Award for 2017. The award reflects that the program is well-liked by its users.

The 25 programs awarded a GenSoftReview Users Choice Award as a Top Rated Genealogy Software for 2017 are:

• 13 Windows programs: Family Historian, Ahnenblatt, Personal Ancestral File, Family Book Creator, Ancestral Quest, Generations, Brother’s Keeper, RootsMagic, The Master Genealogist, Relatively Yours, Family Tree Builder, Family Tree Maker (up to Version 16), and Ages!  
• 3 Mac programs: iFamily for Mac, Heredis for Mac, and Reunion
• 4 programs built for Windows, Mac and Unix:  Evidentia, Ancestris, Familienbande, and GenealogyJ
• 5 Online programs: Famberry, The Next Generation, Genealogie Online, webtrees, and MyHeritage
• 0 Handheld programs.

The top program for 2017 was Evidentia, a program that helps you analyze evidence. Evidentia had an almost perfect user rating of 4.98 out of 5 based on 14 reviews. iFamily for Mac, a full-featured genealogy program for the Mac, was second at 4.95 out of 5 also on 14 ratings. And the online program Famberry was third with 4.94 out of 5 from 61 ratings.

New to the list of winners for 2017 was Ancestris, a free full-featured program from France. Ancestris received 8 reviews in 2017 bringing it to 12 reviews in total and making it eligible for the first time. Ancestris placed fourth overall with a 4.92 out of 5 rating.

Heredis for Mac rejoined the winners in 2017 after previously having won from 2012 to 2015. It dropped off the list in 2016 because it did not have any reviews in that year.

Winners in 2016 that dropped off the list this year include GenSmarts and Aldfaer which did not have any reviews in 2017, as well as Clooz and Heredis for PC whose overall rating dropped below 4.00 in 2017.

Several unsupported programs are still thought of highly enough by their users that they won an award in 2017. These include: Personal Ancestral File, Generations, The Master Genealogist, Relatively Yours, and Family Tree Maker up to Version 16.

Six programs have been GenSoftReviews User Choice Award winners every year since the awards began in 2009. They are: Personal Ancestral File, The Next Generation, Brother’s Keeper, RootsMagic, Family Tree Builder and Reunion.

GenSoftReviews uses a time-weighted average score. The weight of every user rating is reduced 50% every year, so newer opinions will be better reflected in the overall average score.

GenSoftReviews was created to be a site, somewhat like TripAdvisor for travelers, where genealogists can go to express their feelings about the genealogy software that they’ve used and tried. The reviews and ratings will likely help other genealogists who are looking for new software. It is hoped the developers of the programs also will see and use the reviews at GenSoftReviews to improve their programs.

For more information and a complete listing of current and past winners, see the Users Choice Award Winners page at GenSoftReviews.

###

About Louis Kessler

Louis Kessler has been a genealogist, lecturer and programmer for over 40 years. He developed and runs the GenSoftReviews site. He is also the author of the genealogy programs Behold and GEDCOM File Finder available at www.beholdgenealogy.com, as well as the DNA analysis program Double Match Triangulator available at www.doublematchtriangulator.com

It was a bumper day..

...for deaths in my tree today.

A quick squizz at my site shows that these people took their last breath on December 2nd.

Died

Matches 1 to 6 of 6

#	Last Name, Given Name(s)	Died		Person ID
1	Kealy John	2 Dec 1933	,Ballyfoyle, Kilkenny, Ireland	I2168
2	Gowans Joanna Neilson	2 Dec 1959	3719 West 2nd Street,Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada	I226
3	Corbett Catherine Mary	2 Dec 1960	Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Camperdown, NSW, Australia	I79
4	Nelson Ronald David	2 Dec 1965	Prince Henry's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia	I1404
5	Winefield Louisa Clifford	2 Dec 1981	,,NSW, Australia	I786
6	O'Brien Bert Trelawney	2 Dec 1984	,,NSW, Australia	I555

I love this Dates and Anniversaries feature in my TNG software where one can select a date and see who was hatched, Matched or dispatched on that day.

Fresh Bait

I've been a little quiet on the blogging front this weekend. I've had a visits to the theatre, movies and the ballet in the past few days that I really enjoyed but I should space these out rather than have them all bunched together.

Today Mr Geniaus volunteered to help me do our Christmas cards and I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to have some assistance, we had done the overseas ones earlier in the week but I was dragging the chain with the local ones. His cousins, friends and former colleagues will get a surprise this year when they see his handwriting on the cards and envelopes.

After completing that task I rewarded myself with some research time. I wasn't doing anything too involved, I was just going though my Curry (my maiden name) cousins, looking for obituaries and newspaper articles on Trove, attaching some missing sources and seeing if I could find any new connections on Ancestry. I found a couple of potential cousins, some clues that helped solve some questions and also a host of inaccuracies.

After spending a few hours on this task I uploaded a gedcom to my family site, http://www.geniaus.net.

Import Completed 

 Hopefully the fresh bait extra names and details I have added will reel in some new cousins.

I got to meet Simon Orde at Rootstech

Last year I changed genealogy software packages. After using one program for a dozen years I moved over to the Family Historian package because there were so many things I liked about the program and people whom I respect were users of the product.   When I was perusing the list of vendors who were to be exhibiting at Rootstech I got very excited when I saw that Simon Orde, developer of the Family Historian package was crossing the Atlantic to have a booth in the Expo Hall at Rootstech. I think that any genealogy vendor who is serious about their product should make an effort to come to Rootstech and Simon did just that.

I really wanted to meet the man behind my software package so I emailed Simon and asked him for an interview. I am so pleased that he took some time away from his booth at Rootstech to have a chat. I'm sure that other users of Family Historian (including the people in my user group at Wyong, NSW) would love to have an opportunity to meet the man behind Family Historian  Being an Official Blogger at Rootstech gave me an opportunity to let you see via video my meeting with Simon.




You may also be interested in seeing the interview I recorded with Darrin Lythgoe in 2012. Darrin is the developer of TNG, The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding, that I use to publish my family tree on the web.

I backed some winners

A few years ago I decided to host my own family website, http://www.geniaus.net. After casting around for a while I settled on TNG (The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding) developed by Darrin Lythgoe from Utah. I have been delighted with the program and the support provided by Darrin and a dedicated band of users. Darrin told me last week at Rootstech that there are now 14,000 users of his program.

I was pleased to read this tonight on The TNG Facebook Page "Looks like it's official: TNG has won the 2013 Genealogy Readers' Choice Award for "Best Tool for Putting Your Family Tree Online"! Thanks everyone!"

Family Historian, the software program I use for maintaining my database on my computer, came in a close second to Roots Magic. I was pleased to meet and interview Simon Orde, the developer of Family Historian, at Rootstech. As soon as I get a hotel with a good internet connection I will post that interview on this blog.

Congratulations to both Darrin and Simon on your well-deserved accolades.

A full list of winners can be seen on the About.com site.

Three Today

I cannot stress enough the value of posting one's family tree on the internet. Because I like to maintain control I made the decision to host my own site rather than use a subscription site like Geni or MyHeritage.

Three years ago today my Geniaus Family Site went live. I still stand by what I wrote in Geniaus Website Reflections in November 2009:

"I realise that it is now nearly four months since I uploaded my first Gedcom to the site. I am pleased to report that I am still delighted with the software I chose for the site, TNG (The Next Generation of Genealogy Software) and the hosting company they recommended, Simply Hosting. I outlined the reasons for my choices in an earlier blog post. 


I wondered whether I should make the site private or should I open it up to the world and share the fruits of my labour. I opted for the sharing path and am pleased to have done so. By publishing my work I have had contact from a number of distant cousins who have happened across the site as they searched the internet for their ancestors. These people have been able to add details to my tree and act as editors for my site.

Sharing my data has made me realise that some of my referencing in the early days left a lot to be desired so the web presence has embarrassed me into going over my data and seeking and tidying up my sources. Although my database of around 7,000 has not grown substantially the amount of referencing and checking I have done in the past four months has hopefully improved the quality of my data.

The collaborative nature of the TNG platform has enabed me to give varying levels of access to those kin who have contacted me. I can allow downloads of gedcom files, editing of data and access to details of living relatives.

It takes less than five minutes to reload a new gedcom to the site so I am able to update it painlessly whenever I have made changes. Maintenance is a breeze. Uploading of photos and documents is easy, the face tagging feature for photos is fantastic.

A basic knowledge of html is useful to personalise the templates provided by TNG but patience and perseverance are the major traits needed to accomplish this task. Although I would like to make formatting changes to the whole site I am hastening slowly.

I am thrilled by my choice of software and would recommend it to any family historians who want a presence on the web where they can easily collaborate with cousins."

Since I penned those words in 2009 I have continued to hear from new cousins on a weekly basis; some seem to want me to do their family trees for them but most offer suggestions for additions and edits to my site for which I am most grateful. Some have been most generous in sharing family photos and documents.

I continue to add new sources to the people in my tree as I come across them; I usually publish an update to my site every two or three weeks.

I have learnt not to allow downloading of gedcom files as this makes it easy for others to publish my data on sites like Ancestry or in their own trees. My family site is dynamic - it changes constantly as  I add new data - sadly the people who have copied my info directly into their Ancestry trees do not share my habit of continual updates. But this is only a little annoyance that is overweighed by the marvellous connections I have made. 

If you've got ancestors - flaunt them

Genealogy Apps - 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy

Week 26: Genealogy Apps: Which genealogy app has made your family history experience easier? Who makes the app and what does it do? Share with others the details so they can learn about the app, too.


I started of the year with good intentions joining this challenge and making contributions in the first few weeks of the year then I set off for the US and Rootstech and travelled around for a while. Back home in Australia we took a couple more trips. This morning I said to my husband "Guess what? We are going to be home for three weeks when I get back from Brisbane" (where I'm headed tomorrow). Hopefully I'll be able to find time to contribute more posts duirng that time.


The application I have chosen hasn't made my experience easier YET because I am a novice user but I can see that, as I become more proficient, it will do so. I was given a copy of The Family Historian about 6 weeks ago for Mother's Day and have been playing with it since then.  Family Historian v5 is a genealogy database management program from the UK; it has quite a new nifty features that appealed to me:


* It's bias is towards the UK - the land of my ancestors
* Flexible and can cater for beginners to professionals
* Great multimedia features including facial recognition
—* User interface very natural in its style of dialog boxes
* Files are in native gedcom - export without errors
* Wizards to create family tree websites (no need to purchase a third party product)

* Lots of support from provided manual and User Group
* Display a tree diagram, and access individual records by clicking on a diagram. With one click view ancestors, or descendants, or both
* Great for getting an overall view of your tree
* —Fantastic charts

* Spreadsheet view can be customised and sorted by column 

* 31 included standard report formats plus facility to create custom reports

* —Outstanding queries feature - get the most from your data

* Very easy export to TNG the program I use to publish my data on the web

* Simple synching of data on two devices using Dropbox

* Free plugins extend usability of product

* Family Historian appears to be in active development with regular updates.  
— 

Some people think I am crazy to have ditched a perfectly good program in favour of another but after 15 years it felt like time for a change;  I believe it is a good idea to check the market occasionally to see what alternatives are around  - otherwise I'd still be using Internet Explorer for web browsing! 

If you are feeling adventurous download a free 30 Day trial of Family Historian. I can't guarantee that it will make your genealogy experience easier in just a month but it will give you an opportunity to look at your data with fresh eyes.

Miserable Outside, Marvellous Indoors

My Facebook status update at lunchtime today was "Miserable day in Sydney. Guess I'll just have to stay indoors and work on my genealogy." I have made progress on two fronts this afternoon. 


Firstly I installed a new plugin, Map Life Facts, to my Family Historian database.  "This Plugin uses Google Mapping Services and Google Geocoding Services to plot markers on web page maps. The Latitude & Longitude are plotted from Fact locations held in Place or Address fields within your GEDCOMdatabase." 

As I was unsure of what I was doing I backed up my database, chose a few preferences in the plugin and launched it. After around twenty minutes the plugin had finished doing its job and I was able to go through  the people in my database for whom it had created life event maps. It was able to produce maps for  6030 of the 8696 people in my database; those who missed out did not have places recorded or the tools were unable to locate the places named in my database. This process attached place co-ordinates  that could be exported in a gedcom file.

Having done this I saved a gedcom of my database and imported it into my TNG Family Website. Now many of the people, like Ernest Gillespie, in my database have a map that shows the location of events that happened during their life. The good news is that I didn't have to add the GPS co-ordinates for each place one at a time but that this snappy tool did it all for me. 

After accomplishing that new task and finding another reason to like Family Historian software I continued with some research. 

My focus at the moment is adding information and sources to the records I have rather than  adding new people to my database (but I can't help it if I find some). I noticed that several Ancestry trees have a wrong death date for Mr Geniaus' grandmother; I wrote to those people asking them to correct their data, I wonder if they will! I was pleased to see that these trees also had a death date and place (unsourced) for a person whose death I had not been able to find.  The place of death in Western Australia was the clue I needed to locate both a death and a funeral notice for this chap, George Benabo. From the information in the funeral notice I found that George was laid to rest in Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth. I also contacted the other people who have George in their tree to let them know that he died four years earlier than they had recorded.

My meandering created another mystery when I found a Zachariah Ball on the 1881 English Census living with Mr Geniaus' 2x Great-Uncle, Charles Ball. Zac was listed as Charles' Uncle which means that he would be Mr Geniaus' 3x Great-Uncle. My preliminary investigations could find no further evidence of Zac's existence. 

I'll have to wait for another miserable Sunday to track down Zac.

Fresh Eyes

Seeing my family data presented in a new format  this week has made some glaring omissions jump out at me.

My kids always claim they have trouble buying gifts for me but I think that my genealogy obsession makes me easy to buy for. There are so many genea geegaws, apps, magazines and books that I would love to have but baulk at purchasing. On the eve of Mother's Day I was visiting one of the kids who said "I still don't have a Mother's Day gift for you". My response was "You can buy me a piece of software if it's not too expensive". She agreed and passed over her Amex card so I could make the purchase then and there.

As a result I now have a copy of "The Family Historian", version 5. When I first looked at it I was flummoxed as the interface is so different from The Master Genealogist that I have used for over ten years. Last night I imported my gedcom into The Family Historian and started playing. That I did not need to refer to any help to accomplish this was a good sign. The data transfer appeared to be clean except for some of my notes. After a couple of hours playing around with the excellent (included at no extra cost) guide I began to feel quite comfortable negotiating the package. I added a couple of people, added some events, modified some records and added some sources referring to the free guide "Getting the most from Family Historian 5" beside me. 

I like that when in the Project Window that lists everyone in my database I can sort by each column eg Name, Dates, Birth Place, Relationship to Root Person (me but can be changed - nifty) and Date Modified. Down the track I will be able to customise this to see other than the fields that are presently displayed. Looking at my data from this summary view a few things jumped out at me: it was easy to see where I had no birth details (and I was able to fill in some straight away) and to identify my closest relations to whom I will give priority attention. 

 I like the ease with which one can negotiate from the Project Window to individual people's records. I have yet to explore the customisable Ancestor and Descendant Diagrams but they appear stunning. I viewed a couple of reports that can be shared and printed,; this was a simple process.

When I mentioned to people at Congress in Adelaide that I was exploring new software options I got a range of responses most of which fitted into the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" category. I will not throw my present program away without careful consideration.

Why did I decide to seek out new software?

* Having used TNG (The Next Generation) for publishing my tree online I realised that by comparison The Master Genealogist is rather clunky. I was seeking something with a more user friendly interface that was easier to navigate.

* I discovered that there is an addon from Family Historian that makes publishing to TNG ever easier than what it is.

* I thought a product from the UK would be more in sync with my needs as the ancestors all came from the Old Country.

* My genealblogging mate Shelley, from Twigs of Yore, has blogged about her positive experiences with Family Historian software; I value Shelley's opinions highly. Unlike me she thinks carefully before making decisions.

* A prominent Australian genie person has indicated that, in his opinion, The Family Historian  is one of the two top programs available.

* There are positive reviews on GenSoftReviews for The Family Historian.

* As with The Master Genealogist there is is online support from an active group of forum members.

* I believe it is a good idea to check the market occasionally to see what alternatives are around  -otherwise I'd still be using Internet Exploer for web browsing.

TNG - Great News

TNG is the software I use for my family website.  I love this program and the ease with which I am able to post  regular updates to my site in a simple five minute process,

I was excited to receive this Press Release from Darrin Lythgoe (whom I hope to interview at Rootstech) and am looking forward to upgrading my site.

TNG Press Release, 1 February 2012

Contact: Darrin Lythgoe (darrin@lythgoes.net)

TNG version 9, a major upgrade for The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding, is now available from Next Generation Software (http://www.tngsitebuilding.com). The new release will be on sale exclusively at the RootsTech Family History and Technology Conference in Salt Lake City until Feb. 6, after which it will be available to the general public as well.

This new version includes many style upgrades for a more elegant and modern appearance, plus three new template designs. The Template Settings page has also been improved, allowing users to more easily customize the images and messages used on their sites.

Other new features include social media sharing icons, an improved timeline page, better media sorting, enhanced user rights, and the incorporation of the latest Google Maps API. Along with the new maps also comes the ability to geocode place records in bulk, and to have all new places automatically gecoded at the time of entry.

Sites running the new version should also notice a decrease in download times for most pages, due to the introduction of image sprites and the elimination of deprecated functions. For example, where before each public page was loading about 30 images for the icons used there, that number has now been reduced to only three.

About a hundred other new features, improvements and fixes are documented on the TNG web site. A 20-minute demonstration on the changes will be given at RootsTech on Thursday, Feb. 2 at 2pm in the Exhibit Hall.

TNG makes it easy to put your genealogy on your web site in dynamic fashion. Instead of forcing you to create and upload thousands of pages each time you publish your family tree, TNG uses a database to store your information and create the pages only as they’re needed. When you want to make a change, you only need to upload your GEDCOM file again, or enter the new facts directly online. TNG also allows you to link photos and other media to the people in your tree.

TNG is commercial software ($32.99 USD one-time license fee). In order to run TNG, your web site must support PHP (a programming language) and MySQL (the database). Existing users may upgrade to the latest version online for $14.99 or $16.99, depending on their currently installed version.

If you are planning to attend the RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah on Feb. 2-4, 2012, you may stop by the Next Generation Software booth (#130) to learn more, or to purchase the new version for the special price of $28.

TNG was created in 2001 and can now be seen on more than 12,000 genealogy web sites world wide. For more information, please see http://www.tngsitebuilding.com, or contact the author directly at darrin@lythgoes.net.

Will I or won't I?

There has been much discussion on the TMGSydney Yahoo Group about the recent release of Version 8.0 of The Master Genealogist (TMG) software.

I am in a quandary. Should I upgrade? I have been a loyal TMG user for many years. About ten years ago I moved over to TMG after trying a couple of other software packages and have been a reasonably happy user. I do not, however, use many of its advanced features and have not made many personal  modifications to the package out of the box.

I love Darrin Lythgoe's The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding that I use to publish my family tree on the web and wish I had the skills to use this as my primary database.

As I read more and more from genealogists both in Australia and abroad I have become aware that there are a number of reasonable alternatives to TMG. Shelley from Twigs of Yore has moved to Family Historian, an award winning product from the UK, and appears to be very happy with that product, while Kerry Farmer who co-wrote "Which Genealogy Program?" is the chairperson of The Sydney TMG Group.

The three most popular programs in the US appear to be Family Tree Maker, Legacy and Rootsmagic with Family Historian ahead of TMG in the Top 10 list. Among my geneablogging contacts there are evangelists for each of these programs.

What should I do?