Genealogy Chat

Is there anyone out there who doesn't use a PC but works on an iMac? I'm new to genealogy and know there is tons and tons of software for the hobby but is any of it Mac compatable? Same q for the cd roms for census too are they Mac compatable too? Thanks in advance for any tips ( other than go and buy a PC lol ) Much Happiness Debi

debi, i do all of my research at work where I have a mac. the few cds I have bought use pdf files, which is downloadable free (or usually they have it on the cd itself) and is totally compatible with mac. The cds you get free with Your family Tree magazine do feature mac compatible software, but I am always disappointed that the ones that look most useful or are free are only available for PC. the other things I can't do on a mac are use 1837 online (tho I think this may be that my firewall won't let me download the viewer) and the census decoder. I've also yet to find a worthwhile programme to build my family tree offsite from genes connectd that you don't first need to build on a pc before you can view and make alterations on the Mac. Zoe

Hi Debi I use a MAC (hubby doesn't believe in PC's!!) I seem to be compatible with most things, 1901 Census, ancestry, 1831online, LDS. It's just a case of trying it, if if doesn't work first time, try again and I generally find it'll work. Although I was disappointed a few months ago when I bought one of the Family History Mags, because there was a free disk with it, which the front stated it contained a copy of Family Treasures 4.1 and trade director for 1830 amongst other stuff and also said at the top "for PC & MAC". I was so annoyed when I sat down that evening to load things up on the computer to find that only some things on the disk were compatible with MAC, cleverly hidden on that back of the disk, which was stuck to the front of the magazine - they should have stated this clearly on the front. With regard to Family History programmes, there is only one available for the MAC - Reunion 8, which is more expensive than other PC based packages, but in one of the magazines recently it did come out as the top scorer in a test, so hubby is buying for me for Christmas.

I can second the Reunion programme as being excellant, in fact I consider it the best. Ray

You can't go wrong with the Reunion programme, as Linda and Raymond have said. I agree with your husband that MAC's are better than PC's. I've yet to get a virus on mine and I've had it for years. Jan Karnovski

does anyone know roughly how much reunion is??

If you use an emulator(Virtual PC) you can persade your Mac into thinking it's a PC and use PC software on it. Now I can hear all you Mac disciples screaming in agony (I know because I've got one at home). I persuaded my husband to let me install one on his iMac basically because I couldn't find a free genealogy programme that would let me generate gedcom. Then I downloaded Paf onto Virtual PC and that did the trick. Once I had the gedcom, then I could upload my tree onto genesconnected etc. However, I would be interested to know if those of you who have Reunion think it's worth laying out the extra cash to replace Paf (here in France, Reunion costs about 100 euros - think a euro is about 69p)) Apart from the difficulty with certain genealogy software (another one is guesstimator which only seems to exist for PC) Apple make wonderful machines and I wouldn't use anything but and we've never had a single virus in 11 years.

thank god i'm not out here on my own LOL! I'd be interested in the cost of re union too.At present I have a programme called Mac Family Tree, it was supposed to be able to save documents and piccies on to it along with all the data but when these were added the darn thing kept quitting on me. My hubby is anti PC's too since he works in the IT industry and I too have never had a virus as of yet. I'm constantly told that it will 99% never happen *yawn* Still very annoying that most of the software is for PC for this wonderful hobby we all have!

Reunion 8 is available from www.genealogysupplies.com at the cost of £74.95 + pp You actually get the version that works on OS9 and OSX Although it is very rare, we lost our last MAC to a virus, it came thru an e-mail from a friend in Canada who had a PC, it completely wreked the computer, and we discovered from Apple that there was no way to repair, as the computer didn't know it had a hard driver anymore so didn't khow to boot itself up. When we bought our new MAC, bought Norton Anti-Virus as extra protection!!!!

linda Thank you for that info. At least now I have one thing to put on my ikkle list for Santa. Tempted to buy so much only been doing this genealogy lark for a couple of months and now find muself addicted and poorer lol!! Merry Crimbo ppl and thank you again for your input. Much Happines Debi