Family Tree Maker 2010 For Mac is Available for Pre-Order

I thought I would mention that Family Tree Maker 2010 is now available for the Mac.  This is the first version they have tried for the Mac, at least in recent memory, so this is a big deal.  I bought a Mac about a month ago and installed Parallels and Windows.  I have therefore been able to use Family Tree Maker on my Mac, for the past month, without buying a Mac version.  The only hold-up I would have with FTM for Mac, would be the compatibility between the files it produces and those the windows version uses.  For example, I open my FTM file at home, on my Mac, and at work on my PC.  If I had the Mac-only version at home, I would probably not be able to easily open the file on my PC at work.  If you only use Mac, the new version would probably be perfect for you.

The best thing, is that if you order now, they will give my readers 20% off if you click the above photo/ad.  Let me know if you buy it and what you think of the program in general.  It looks a lot like the Windows version but my guess is that a Mac version of the program will put Ancestry a step closer to making an iPhone app where you can interact with your Mac, syncing data like Reunion does.

Enter the Ancestry.com giveaway but hurry because it ends on January 31st!

You could win $500 worth of Ancestry.com products/services.  In order to be eligible, you must be a fan of Ancestry on Facebook.  You can find their Facebook page by clicking here!

After you have become a fan of their Facebook page, you must email your Facebook user name to this address:

sweeps@ancestry.com

All valid entries will be eligible to win a prize pack that includes a one-year World Deluxe subscription at Ancestry.com, Family Tree Maker 2010 and a MyCanvas Photo Book.

Full details and eligibility requirements can be found by clicking here!

What I am genealogically thankful for this year.

I know this is a day late but I was thinking about it last night...what are the top ten things I am thankful for in genealogy this year?  It took me awhile to fill this list but here we go, in no particular order...

1. State budget cuts this year did not severely hamper the Library of Virginia.  In past years, they were forced to lay off employees or even close for extra days during the week.
2. Family Tree Maker 2010 finally seems to be getting stable.  I think I have finally made the long-term switch to that product.
3. Ancestry.com went public this year - it is now on the stock market.  This may turn out to be a terrible thing in the long run but for now it seems positive.  They have a huge rush of cash into the company so I would expect a lot of expansion in the near future.
4. Getting my new office set up.  I am sitting here typing in it right now!  I am not finished with it yet but I should be done by the end of the weekend.  I mostly have to do some trim work and painting.
5. I set out to create a free set of genealogy lessons by email, for the general public, and I actually did it.  I wrote 20 lessons, set up a website and an email delivery system.  You can check it out here:  USA Family Tree.  I have over 1,000 subscribers.
6. I was directed to the Library of Congress site Chronicling America - a free database of US newspapers from the late 1800s to the early 1900s - great site!
7. I bought an iPod Touch.  This, more than anything, changed my life this year.  For about $300, I have a very powerful computer in my pocket at all times.  I am even able to have a viewable copy of my GEDCOM with me whenever I need it.
8. My GPS unit, great for finding my way around old country roads.  It keeps me from pulling over constantly to read a map.  It also helps me to record the coordinates of places that I find, such as an old cemetery.
   
9. I finally got the picture of my great-great-great-grandmother that I knew existed but never took the time to track down.  I found a new cousin, told them how to find the photo, and they tracked it down for us...very exciting.
10. Finally found the middle name of my great-great-grandfather, Joseph Addison Vass, on his daughter's SS-5.  We always assumed his middle name was Andrew so this was a great find.

Well, that is my genealogical to-be-thankful-for list.  What is on yours this year?

Family Tree Maker 2010 - My thoughts over the past month.

I finally sat down and installed FTM 2010 on October 5th.  My first impressions were not great.  It slaps me in the face almost instantly with the lack of quality control that the product has.  The agreement that you "agree to" is from 2007 and the splash screen still has a 2008 copyright on it.  Please guys, take a few minutes and update this stuff!

The install was pretty slow and my computer is fairly new and has lots of free memory.  The biggest annoyances is that the program is not a true upgrade but is yet another full copy of the program.  I now have five full versions of FTM on my computer...FTM16, 2006, 2008, 2009 and now 2010.  This program is starting to fill up my hard drive.  (UPDATE - 11/5/09, I deleted all of the old versions finally and with no problems).

All of that said, 2010 uses a new file format so your old files do not work and should be backed up before you start the upgrade.  That means more space taken up on your computer and the backup was pretty slow.  It took almost five minutes to make the backup file.

I see a few new things, a "web dashboard" that is basically an RSS feed of the Ancestry blog.  You can provide more detail about a location, GPS data, even a shorter name for printing purposes.  This is nice but how many times am I going to go back and update information over and over again.  It took me long enough to switch to their last location formatting change.

Pretty much everything else looks about the same to me.  I might be missing something but nothing jumps out. I used to be a huge FTM fan but it seems like their "updates" are becomign less and less revolutionary.  I have not gotten excited about anything they have added in awhile.

(UPDATE - 11/5/09)  After playing with the program for awhile, I actually do like it better than 2009.  I see a few things that I like but there are a few new/old problems.  The spell check is broken again - you can spell check and correct errors but it does not save the changes.  I also noticed if you try to print someone's photo album, large files come out blurred. 

I have used the program for a month and thought that I could report to you that I have never had a crash.  However, it finally crashed once yesterday.  Nothing major, but it did crap out the one time.

Overall, I am much more impressed than I had been with previous versions.  Nothing revolutionary but at least the program is running smoother.