Dick Eastman's Review of Family Tree Legends 1.0
  A new Windows genealogy program was announced in the August 26, 2002 edition of this newsletter (available at http://www.eogn.com/archives/news0245.htm#FamilyTreeLegends). At that time, the program was nearing its release date. Family Tree Legends then became available on October 16, 2002. I had a chance to use the new program this week and would like to describe its operation.
Family Tree Legends is a very impressive new release. It is super easy to use and has quite a few features not seen in previous genealogy programs. The program also uses current software technologies. Best of all, it sells for a modest price. Interested? Read on...
25-year-old Cliff Shaw (currently of GenCircles, formerly of GenForum) and 38-year-old Chris Shearer Cooper (previously of JavaGED) have collaborated to create a sophisticated and powerful system that is aimed at experts and newcomers alike. I talked with Cliff Shaw this week, and he described how the two developers first surveyed the current marketplace to evaluate the weaknesses of current products.
Cliff and Chris felt that the charts available in today’s more popular genealogy programs are much less than what they could be. They also felt that the user interfaces of today’s programs vary widely: the ones that are easier to use don’t have much power "under the hood" and are not suitable for serious genealogists. At the same time, some of today’s more powerful programs are very intimidating to inexperienced genealogists. He also pointed out that most of today’s genealogy programs have evolved from older programs using the same underlying technology they had 5 or 10 years ago. Most of today’s programs are actually old programs that have had a long series of minor annual updates.
Chris and Cliff also heard many, many stories of data corruption. Many people have lost data because of hardware problems, software problems, or the occasional human error. Whatever the cause, thousands of people can describe how they lost many, many hours of data entry work. Chris and Cliff also looked at the method of matching data in today’s online systems and decided that the matching techniques were rather elementary.
The two software developers knew they could do a better job of creating a modern genealogy program. They saw a need for a brand-new program that is based upon today’s technologies. They decided to create a genealogy program as powerful as today’s best powerhouses. They also wanted the same program to be aimed at the beginner, a program that doesn’t overpower the newcomer. They talked about doing online backups of users’ databases. They also wanted to find online data to match that of the data within a user’s database, finding even more ancestors than what the researcher already knew. Cliff and Chris decided to create a Windows software application that is closely integrated with the power and resources of the Internet. They set to work, and a bit more than a year later, Family Tree Legends was born. The program is available today from their company, Pearl Street Software.
Family Tree Legends can be downloaded online or ordered via traditional mail. I downloaded it this week. The 10-megabyte file size was not a problem for my cable modem broadband connection, but those using dial-up modems might prefer to order the program on CD-ROM. Installation was as easy as any other Windows program I have used.
Upon launching the program, I found one of the nicest user interfaces I have seen in a genealogy program. The screens are uncluttered, and yet everything that I wanted to use was there. I won’t try to describe the screens as you can see screenshots yourself at http://www.familytreelegends.com/products/tour/main/1. You will notice that the icons are large and easy on the eyes. The icons down the right side of the screen are the most-frequently-used functions for data entry. You can record all the normal genealogy data, such as name and dates and places of birth, marriage, and death. In addition, the program encourages the user to enter many other facts and yet never forces the user through an unwanted process.
Optional data includes:
- physical description of the individual
- medical information
- essentially unlimited note space for biographical information and other items you may wish to record
- source citations to books, videos, Web sites, and other repositories where information was found
- mailing address, telephone, e-mail address, and Web site URL for living individuals
- nicknames, aliases, and married names
Family Tree Legends produces attractive on-screen ancestor charts (see http://www.familytreelegends.com/products/tour/main/2) and descendant charts. It also produces an "hourglass chart" that shows the ancestors as well as the descendants of any one individual. A wider repertoire of printed reports is available, including timelines, family group sheets, lists of birthdays, lists of repositories, and more. These reports may be customized in many different ways, see http://www.familytreelegends.com/products/tour/charts/1 for a partial list of selections. Examples of the final printouts are available at http://www.familytreelegends.com/products/tour/charts/2 and at http://www.familytreelegends.com/products/tour/reports/1.
A multimedia scrapbook is also available. Family Tree Legends can store pictures, full motion video, and sound files. The program will also create a slide show that should be useful at family reunions and elsewhere.
The user interface is nice and is what will interest most people. However, as a "techie," I am more interested in what goes on behind the scenes. This is where Family Tree Legends gets really interesting.
All users of genealogy software need to make frequent backups. Family Tree Legends takes this a step further: it creates automatic online backups. OK, this is not the first genealogy program to do that, but this one does it in a different manner than I have seen elsewhere.
Other programs frequently have some sort of built-in backup capabilities. Many of them have a default of writing each new backup on top of a previous backup. In effect, each new backup replaces the previous backup. These programs may have options to handle backups in a different manner, but we all know that most people use the defaults.
Unfortunately, real-world experience shows that many people suffer data loss or corruption and don’t realize it until the have used the program several more times, often after making several new backups. Corrupted data is often backed up, replacing good data backups. What is needed is a method of restoring back to a particular point in time, not just to the latest backup. Next, backing up to another file within the same computer has major weaknesses: if the entire computer malfunctions, is destroyed or is stolen, the backup is missing as well. Backups always need to be stored in a different computer and preferably in a different location. Further, having automatic backups solves the problems of a user who forgets to make backups or is unaware of their importance.
Cliff and Chris created a transactional file system of their own design. Their software optionally writes a backup file, record-by-record, to their company’s Web server. If the user is connected to the Internet while doing data entry, new records typically are written to the Web server within two minutes of being created. The user does not need to wait until the end of the session to make a backup copy. In fact, he or she does not need to even remember to do backups; the records are automatically copied as a background process while the program is in use. There is no need to do a GEDCOM export or a separate backup at the end of the session. The minute-by-minute backups of this transactional file system ensure that a scrambled database can be restored to its condition of just a few minutes before the crash, even if the crash occurred in the middle of a multi-hour session of recording new data.
If the computer is not connected to the Internet during data entry, the new records are written to a disk file and can then be transferred to the servers during a future online session. Keep in mind that all of this is optional; the user may elect to not make online backups at all. If so, no data is ever transferred to any Web site without the user specifically telling the program to do so. Data access is always under the control of the user.
Family Tree Legends uses state-of-the-art encryption technology to keep all data private. All data is encrypted with a 128-bit encryption key before being sent across the Internet. This is the same technology that is used in online credit card transactions to ensure that no one else can see your personal data.
At this point, Pearl Street Software has the user’s data on their servers; so, other features are easily implemented on the server with no effort by the user or additional software installed on the PC. Data transferred to Pearl Street Software’s servers may be displayed as Web pages, if desired. In other words, you can publish your data on the Web automatically. You don’t even need to upload a separate copy since the data was already transferred during that data entry process. Pearl Street Software’s can use your backup data to create Web pages for you. Here again, the publishing of data on the Web is optional. The user can specify to never publish the data Should he or she decide to publish. the user also can specify several different levels of privatization: show data about living individuals or not, show names but not places or dates, etc.
Another feature of Family Tree Legends is WebFacts – data pieces that can be searched online. For instance, if you find a new record that specifies a town that you have never heard of, you can right-click on the town’s name, and a pop-up menu will appear. This menu allows the user to search for information on the Web about that place. The information obtained typically includes the geographical coordination, elevation, aerial photos, road maps, and more. It will also find surrounding locations, such as courthouses in adjacent towns or counties. It will even find cemeteries or other locations if you specify them correctly. The cemetery searches presently are very dependent upon exact spelling. A near-future addition to Family Tree Legends will add a layer of intelligence to refine cemetery searches online.
The best part of family Tree Legends, however, may be its SmartMatching technology. This software seems to do a better job of finding people online than most other online databases. It really shines when searching for common surnames. Other online databases search for names, and most of them will also try to identify the years. However, it is common to search online for John Smith in Arkansas in 1840 and then find men of the same name 40 or 50 years later in Oregon, Alaska, or Massachusetts. Sure, they might be the same person, but how do you pick out the right one from the hundreds of records displayed on the screen?
SmartMatching does not display hundreds of hits for one person. Instead, it shows one occurrence of the name and then has links to sources of the information. These links are sorted in a manner defined by supporting evidence in other records. The software in Pearl Street Software’s servers "votes" on matching records. First, it finds matching bits of information in other records. It may find a name and birth date in your database and then look for matching records. Some of those records may have the same name and birth date as well as a death date that you do not know. It is assumed that these new records match. Then these newly-found records are compared against the entire database. Now, perhaps a person with the same name and the same death date is found in still more records that also show the names of parents. Again, this data is a match even though it contains still more data not found in your database. This is a form of intelligent linking. The search algorithms also handle conflicting data by two methods: (1.) by voting to see if there are additional records that corroborate the data, and (2.) by showing both to the user for his or her decision.
I used SmartMatching this week to look for online records for about 3,000 people in my genealogy database. When I clicked on an icon, Family Tree Legends automatically sent my data to the Web server and then advised me to check back in a few hours. When I did so, I found that the software had returned several hundred matches. In many cases, the newly-delivered information included data about parents, spouses, and siblings. I scanned through the list and could not find one single entry that was NOT an ancestor of mine! In my case, it was 100% accurate. Every single person listed is, indeed, an ancestor of mine. I have never seen that degree of accuracy on any other online data matching service. Each listing gave details and, in some cases, might have contained new information that I did not have previously. Cliff Shaw assures me that this is a typical experience. He says he has seen a handful of mismatches, but they are rare. I have never seen any other online name-matching database with this degree of accuracy.
Under the user’s control, new data may be automatically imported into the Family Tree Legends database. In the case of conflicting data, the user may choose to ignore the new data, replace the old data with the new data, or else add the new data as a secondary record that is subservient to the older data. That last option is a good method of recording "possibilities" that need further investigation.
I have described the major features of Family Tree Legends. However, it has even more capabilities, such as multiple calendars (Gregorian, Julian, Jewish, etc.), GEDCOM import and export, and more. You can see a long list of the features available at http://www.familytreelegends.com/products. This Web page has links to many screen shots so that you can see the program in operation.
Family Tree Legends version 1.0 still has room for improvements. For instance, I noticed that its list of printed reports includes all the standard reports found in all programs but few of the "extras." For instance, it does not have printed Register Reports or "dropline reports" (showing the relationship between two individuals). I am not surprised at this; version 1.0 of any genealogy program typically does not include these reports. Most programs have added them in later releases. Cliff Shaw assured me that these items and much more are already on the drawing boards and will be implemented in future releases. Cliff and Chris plan to issue minor "incremental releases" every week or two, and each new release may be easily downloaded online.
This new program requires Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP operating system. It also requires a 166 MHz or faster processor, 10 megabytes of disk space and 32 megabytes of RAM memory. In short, it will run on most Windows computers built in the past five years. Internet access is needed only for the optional backup and Web publishing features.
Family Tree Legends has a list price of $49.95 (U.S. funds). However, Pearl Street Software currently is selling it at an introductory price of $39.95. You can safely order it online via Pearl Street Software’s secure online order system. You can also order it via mail, using a credit card, check, or money order.
For more information about Family Tree Legends or to safely order it online, go to: http://www.familytreelegends.com
Copyright 2002, Dick Eastman. Reprinted with permission. This article originally appeared here: http://www.eogn.com/archives/news0245.htm#FamilyTreeLegends
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