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| Back To The Future |
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Reviews January 2006 • Vol.17 Issue 1 Page(s) 17 in print issue |
Back To The Future Document Your Family History For Future Generations | ||
Jump to first occurrence of: [ROOTSMAGIC] [3]
 Time Traveling RootsMagic has been one of my favorite genealogy programs because of its excellent features that help you maintain organized genealogical records. Version 3 provides even more features to help you record a family story that spans many generations. You can import GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data COMmunications) files, the standard file format for genealogy software, into RootsMagic. The new version also supports files from PAF (Personal Ancestral File) 2.x and later and Family Origins 4 and later. It also supports backup files from Family Origins 5 or later. RootsMagic 3’s most intriguing addition is shareable-CD creation. These CDs include a view-only copy of RootsMagic, as well as your family file so that you can easily share your genealogical research with others. RootsMagic 3 also has a new feature which can omit events and notes of your choosing from printed reports and exported files. You can use this feature to record your own thoughts, even if they have no place in a published family history. I also used this option to record facts about family skeletons while respecting relatives’ wishes that I not make these stories public. Get Personal RootsMagic provides a way for you to record your ancestral history. However, you may also wish to document your own personal story either for your own benefit or the good of future generations. Personal Historian can help you write your life story, even if you have no writing experience and don’t have large blocks of free time to pursue such an endeavor. Personal Historian is a very convenient writing aid because it prompts you to write about individual events so that you can use a few spare minutes to write just one anecdote at a time. The program organizes all of the events you write about in a timeline format. Some people know they have important stories to tell. However, some of us have writer’s block when it comes to our own lives. It is difficult to think of stories to write about our own experiences. Personal Historian includes LifeCapsules to help jog your memory. LifeCapsules is a library of historical events, cultural fads, and other events to help you remember events in your own life. By placing your experiences in a historical context, you can add considerable depth to your personal history. Although I’ve focused on using Personal Historian to write your own history, there is no reason you couldn’t use this software to guide your biography of a favorite relative. In fact, you can import a genealogy file into Personal Historian. The events in your genealogy file will automatically appear in Personal Historian’s Timeline. Preserve History There are other genealogy programs you can use to assemble your family history. I focused on RootsMagic because it’s one of the most advanced programs that is still easy to use. Also, RootsMagic recently acquired Personal Historian from Blue Scroll Software. At press time you could save $10 if you ordered both programs together. I’m not an especially organized person, and I find it difficult to set aside time for large projects, such as recording my family and personal history. Both RootsMagic and Personal Historian helped me start recording this information for myself and for future generations.  Send your comments to kylee@smartcomputing.com
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