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....and use a Windows based program to keep a Family Tree?

Yes.

Next question?

I use Simple Family Tree. It's freeware and very good.

Ah, is that what Ian meant .

I used to use a program by Parsons Technology. I liked the program and when they moved on I switched to RootsMagic which was virtually identical. I have been through many versions and it has many useful features and more. It is presently on version 7 and 8 is in preparation.

One feature lost from Parsons was a longevity calculator. I didn't have enough ancestors logged to really assess its accuracy or know how it worked.

I have a subscription to Ancestry.com and as I'm a member of the National Library of Scotland (equivalent of the British Library) a free perq is access to FindMyPast.com.

The pursuit of research is totally addictive and one finds all sorts of things that one never expected.

Frinstance, I discovered that my two grandfathers passed within about 40 yards of eachother, almost certainly waving to eachother as they did so.

My British grandfather, who was of Scandiwegian extraction lived in a street called Ferries Street. It points straight at the dockside where the weekly ferry from Gothenburg arrived. It was the same ship on which his Danish mother and his Norwegian/Swedish father had arrived a few months before he was born some nine years earlier.

I'm sure that for him, the Sunday afternoon arrival would have been an interesting event, and with it being a Sunday afternoon he would not have been at school. I'm sure he would have rushed to the end of the street and pressed his face between the railings. To him, those people streaming down the gangway were practically kith and kin. He'd have waved cheerily to welcome them to Britain and I have no doubt that they would have waved back. Therefore, I conclude that my two grandfathers momentarily made eye contact.

The Swedish grandfather traveled across the UK by rail to join a White Star Liner to New York to start a new life.

Her name was Britannic. She was built in the same graving dock, concurrently, with her more famous sistership Titanic.

If he'd traveled just one week later than he did, he'd have been in Third Class on the bottom deck of that ship, instead of Britannic, when she went down. Forget about that stupid movie. Third Class passengers had no access to the promenade or boat decks. The death rate down there was almost 100%. He'd have drowned, so he never would have met his future wife and never would have had his son, my father. Ergo, I would not be here typing this. Funny old world, innit!

We discovered that my wife descended from a bastard line with no trace of the father, apart from the name of her son Arthur Ely W. We knew her address in London. Then on a hunch we found an Arthur Ely. We found his address.

Then we found they've although they lived in different streets they were actually on the same road either side of Tottenham Court Road and only 400 yards apart. He died just two months before AEW was born and at the height of a cholera epidemic.

All circumstantial but but before 1837 the obvious sources did not exist.

Thanks for the replies.

Many years ago I built up a family tree using a DOS program, that I have forgotten the name of. I've also lost the old files.
At some time I seem to have imported those old files into the on-line MyHeritage scheme.
A cousin recently passed away, and another cousin, whom I last spoke to in 1952, has appeared on the scene and asked some questions. As a result I have used MyHeritage again. As anyone who has used it knows, it is a money making scheme, and every transaction causes interruptions to buy the feature needed to complete the transaction.
I have exported a purported GEDCOM file from MyHeritage, but I get error messages when I attempt to import said file into Simple Family Tree.

I will persevere and report back.

That was quick. RootsMagic imports the file OK.
Tomorrow I will export it from RootsMagic, and see if Simple Family Tree will import it. If so I will play around and see which one suits me and my newfound cousin.

Should I mention it on here? She is married to a 'Merican!

ian16th wrote: ↑

Mon May 18, 2020 8:17 pm

I have exported a purported GEDCOM file from MyHeritage, but I get error messages when I attempt to import said file into Simple Family Tree.

I will persevere and report back.

Simple family Tree is very fussy about which folder .ged files are placed in. I've found that it's best to keep them all in what the software regards as a root folder with regard to the s'ware itself. Then it recognises them.

I can't compare RM with SFT, but if many features I like and use most is the ability to set a root or home person. Useful to get back to a known point. A colour feature where ancestors and descendants may be given a different colour. A real calculator. It also has a few error checkers particularly on dates.

It has links with Ancestry, My Heritage and Family Search (Mormons but they don't recruit you!)

We now have a connected family tree to a common ancestor born in 1797. We had a mass reunion a few years ago when a shocking fact emerged, the brothers and sisters of the South African familiar met their half brothers and sisters of the English ones. There father was a bigamist, and either a business man or a ship's officer in the South African run.

Ian, is there a good source of South African records?

Sometimes you make good discoveries and other times bad.

My wife's paternal side had some amazing family stories, rumours really, which in researching I found to be true and even larger than life, with works in the National Portrait Gallery, owning many properties, about 21, between Camden and Tottenham Court Road, a noted inventor, and the cause of a young man being transported to Australia.

The other was a family married in, one side is owed a keg of wine or beer every year thanks to service at Waterloo (not as a soldier but a servant) the other turned out to be a bastard line bearing the mother's deceased husband's name and not that of their father with whom they lived. It is thought this was for property reasons.

..........with her more famous sistership Titanic........... instead of Britannic,

Titanic, Britannic ? Interesting that White Star liner names ended in IC .... whereas Cunard liner names ended in IA, Scythia, Ascania etc. and apparently the Chairman of Cunard visited King George V and advised that they were considering naming their next vessel in honour of Englands greatest Queen, and sought Royal approval ? Her Majesty will be delighted, I'll go and tell her, said George V. Hence the Queen Mary, not the Queen Victoria. ( so the story goes )

Pontius Navigator wrote: ↑

Tue May 19, 2020 6:44 am

Ian, is there a good source of South African records?

I don't know, and it doesn't matter to me, as as the only members of my family born here, are my grand children, and they are now in Australia.