Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Monday, January 29, 2018

Solutions

Well, January has been an interesting month. We planned a weekend trip to Sevierville (home of Dolly Parton) to attend the Knoxville RV show. We went looking for Class B campers - or as some people know them - camper vans. They had 3. None in our price range. I also caught a terrible cold there. Not the flu, just a cold.

That didn't really bode well since hubby and I had already planned a trip to Tampa, Florida for the Florida RV Supershow. Fortunately, by travel day 1, we both felt a lot better.

And the trip was successful. We found a model we really liked - the RoadTrek Zion. We've ordered one and now are counting down days to delivery. We are really hoping this will open our horizons again. I still have lots of genealogical research to do in places a bit further from home!

Copyright 2010-2018, ACK for Gene Notes

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

New Year, New Things

Many years ago when I started this blog, I didn't know how much genealogy research would have changed, which software we would discard or adopt, and more importantly which platforms and hardware we would go through.

I'm pretty sure I was using Windows Vista when I started blogging. I then progressed through Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and then the last straw for me was Windows 10. I never in a million years thought that I would switch to a Mac.

When I started, I used GOD (Genealogy on Display) an old basic program. I was very happy to switch to Brother's Keeper, a DOS program. It worked well and made the transition to Windows (my first version of Windows was 3.1.) I used that for several years, toyed with PAF - Personal Ancestral File, then found Family Origins. I quickly found the program that would stay with me through its evolution into RootsMagic.  I did a two to three year stint with Legacy Family Tree, which I like, but I kept trying to use RM keystrokes with Legacy. I finally switched back to RootsMagic a couple years ago.

This past year, I spent making sure my database integrity was good. Then I made a huge jump from Windows to Mac OS. That was a huge distraction from working on my family history. Also a huge distraction, even though it is family history oriented was getting the results from 23andMe that led to a huge breakthrough on DH's side. Totally unexpected results.

As the new year starts, hubby and I have some plans in the works that we hope will get us back out  traveling the US. One of the things that we planned to do on retirement was travel. It was easier the first few years, but with our health issues, it's gotten a little more difficult. So keep your fingers crossed that we find a solution.

All the above aside, I'm really hoping to focus more on genealogy and maybe not get so distracted by other things.

And of course, I hope you all have a great new year!

Copyright 2010-2017, ACK for Gene Notes