Genealogy software to visualize extended family tree
Es selaam,
Since my wife joined a famous online social network few months ago she has re-connected with nearly 200 family members all around the globe.
Her family can be traced back 36 generations but far from all branches of the family tree have been mapped. Especially not the female side of the extended family. The later generations got scattered across borders, a process that has intensified the past decades as life under the post colonial regimes pushed people out of their ancestral regions to find refuge and better opportunities around the globe.
My own family goes back to the Huguenots; French Protestants that were betrayed by the Catholics and who became refugees after the Night of Bartholomew massacre. Some ended up in The Netherlands. Others maybe England or South-Africa. There are links to the USA, Hungary and most certainly: Germany and Austria. It would be nice to hook that information up to Muslim part of the family.
I am looking for genealogy software, this is software used to visualize a family tree and maybe add documents, like old pictures or scans of documents to the archive.
There are a number of packets available and I wonder if someone has experience with them.
Because all the software bundles I have come across is aimed at a Western clientele I dare to question if they are flexible enough to work with mapping an extended family as known in non-Western cultures. Will the software e.g. have to option to add 'titles' given to those family members that are in Western culture not even considered part of the core nucleus (paternal) family? It would also be nice if there were an online version available so people can cooperate online to build the family tree.
If anyone has any experience with family tree software or web sites I like to hear about it.
Wes selaam,
Ibrahim
Firefox 3.6
Just upgraded to the release candidate. and so far things are good.
Scrolling is a little faster, which is throwing me slightly - maybe it is too fast for me?
The layout etc is the same and one behavioural change by default is to open new tabs next to the tab from within which the link was clicked instead of at the end.
Clicking links on the bookmarks bar will still open the tab at the end, but links inside the page will open next to the current tab. This feature may take me some time to get used to as the grouping of tabs has no visual indications unlike in Internet Explorer 8 and I also have to fight my muscle memory.
Windows 7
I managed to get an offer for Windows 7 Professional for £30 (as a download only version - it is available to all people who are "students" or teachers or have access to an email address ending in .sch.uk or .ac.uk and a few others too) and since my Vista installation was both slow and the install of Vista Service Pack two was constantly failing, I thought it would be a good offer to waste the money. I did and this post is being written from Windows 7 Professional.
Microsoft Security Essentials
Salaams,
Has anyone used Microsoft Security Essentials?
It was only launched recently and since I have reinstalled Windows, I am not sure wether to stick the Avast!4 Home that I had before and never gave me problems, or move to this.
Essential software - and the rest of it
Now that the biggie is over, the rest is much simpler. Once again, free of cost software only.
If there are any requests, comments, corrections or additions, please go ahead and keep them coming.
Utilities
7-Zip is a file archiver that supports many formats, and is free.
ISO Recorder - This allows you to burn "iso" disc images from within windows without the need to resort to other programs such as Nero
Anti Spyware
There are two good options that I am aware of here, but I have not used either in a good while:
Essential software - Choose your antivirus carefully
Every Windows Based PC should have an up to date antivirus solution installed. A lot of the popular/advertised options have either a fixed or an annual cost. however, they may not always be the best and could even be resource hogs. There are a few free contenders out there that I am aware of here.
The rule of thumb is: Avoid Norton. It really is a system hog and replacing it with another alternative could give your PC a new lease of life.
Microsoft Security Essentials
Microsoft's Security Essentials is the new kid on the block and its free to all users who have a legitimate copy of windows, so its a good alternative to the others below where some have a "home use only" requirement.